150 TROUT FISHING 



suppose the line is so arranged that the minnow 

 wavers to and fro in the stream, but it may be that 

 trout in some circumstances will take a bait which 

 is frankly dead and without movement at all. I 

 have heard of their being caught on a quite dead 

 minnow suspended below a float. But I must 

 own to a prejudice in favour of some attempt to 

 simulate life in one's bait in whatever way it is 

 employed. 



I have touched on the worm in relation to trout 

 before in this book, but I hope that my readers will 

 not impute to me too great a fondness for the subject 

 because I return to it. As a matter of fact, I am not 

 over and above fond of worm fishing for trout. 

 And yet memories stir in me which forbid my 

 saying that I do not like it at all. One of my 

 earliest experiences of trout of any magnitude was 

 gained on some extremely pretty ponds which run 

 in a kind of chain down a Worcestershire hill, the 

 two or three at the bottom forming a feature of a 

 delightful garden. I forgot how I came to be fishing 

 them, but I think I must have asked for permission 

 in an extremely brazen manner. It was, I am sorry 

 to say, a custom of mine as a small boy to apply 

 for fishing leave without any respect for persons or 

 places. Nor do I remember ever getting " No " for 

 an answer. The long-suffering displayed by grown- 

 ups to small fishing boys is marvellous. 



