BAIT FOR TROUT. 103 



where there is a broad bed of gravel or slopes, is, in all 

 salmon rivers, a favourite spot with the fly-fisher. 



i3aft for 



Trout-fishing is the very principle of life to the prac- 

 tised and enthusiastic angler. It is that which gives 

 vitality and animation to all his movements, and consti- 

 tutes him what he really is. Without the trout and 

 the salmon he would be, in many respects, a truly pitiable 

 object ; nearly reduced to that degraded state which 

 would fully justify Dr. Johnson's snarling definition of 

 the angler's profession. 



Bait for trout may be comprehended under three lead- 

 ing classes; flies, trolling with fish, and worms. All 

 other modes we consider fanciful or unfair, and shall 

 therefore leave them unnoticed, and confine our remarks 

 to these three leading departments. In so doing, we 

 shall ground our observations, almost exclusively, on our 

 experience of five-and-thirty years' standing, and a range 

 of waters surpassed by few brethren of the craft. 



Fly-fishing is the most successful, and, by immeasurable 

 degrees, the most delightful mode of angling for trout. 

 It is graceful and gentlemanly, and can be enjoyed by all 

 who exhibit any anxiety to acquire the art. It is also 

 the most independent mode. You take your rod, fishing- 

 creel, and fly-book, and roam away over half a kingdom, 

 without any further care about bait, or incumbrance from 

 nets or fish-kettles, or other trumpery. In point of 

 exciting the mind, it is infinitely preferable to all other 

 modes of exercising the " gentle art." The constant 

 attention which the angler must pay to his flies as they 

 glide on the water the repeated changes of locality 

 the calm and placid pleasure infused into the soul by 



