160 MERITS OF SPINNING. 



because the weeds will be more wasted and rotten ; 

 but if a flood comes in October or the beginning 

 of November, you may lay aside your tackling for 

 that season : for great rivers, like great vessels, 

 being long in filling and slowly mounting to their 

 full height, are again long in falling and settling, 

 so that the water will be thick and out of order, 

 unless frost or fair weather comes to clear it. In 

 small brooks and rivulets it is not so ; you may 

 fish in them again within a week or less after the 

 flood.' 



SPINNING. 



Next to fly-fishing, spinning is the most amus- 

 ing mode of angling. It is a dashing, killing 

 method, and the practice of it requires consider- 

 able muscular exertion. The arms in casting, and 

 the legs in moving on and changing ground, are 

 continually and strongly called into requisition. 

 Trout, pike, and perch of all sizes, but generally 

 speaking the largest, are caught by spinning. 

 Salmon, in my opinion and in that of a few 

 others, may be frequently taken by spinning with 

 a real bait or an artificial one. English travellers, 

 carrying with them into foreign lands their sport- 

 ing propensities, have been very successful, in the 

 lakes of Northern Italy and in those of Germany, 

 in taking immense trout by means of the spinning- 

 tackle. This I know from authentic private cor- 



