118 HINTS ON ANGLING. 



it fit the bending of the great hook, to make it twirl round 

 when it is drawn in the water. When all is in order, I 

 take the line in my left hand, a little above the bait, and 

 throw it under-hand, lifting up my right and the rod, that 

 the bait may fall gently on the water. I stand at the 

 very top of the stream, as far off as my tackle will permit, 

 and let the bait drop in a yard from the middle of it : I 

 draw the minnow by gentle pulls, of about a yard at a 

 time across the stream, turning my rod up the water, 

 within half a yard of its surface, keeping my eye fixed on 

 the minnow. 



" When a fish takes it, he generally hooks himself: 

 however, I give a smart strike, and if he does not get off 

 then, I am pretty sure of him. In this manner I throw 

 in three or four lines, at the upper part of a stream, but 

 never twice in the same place, but a yard lower every 

 cast. I always throw quite over the stream, but let the 

 bait cross it in a round, like a semicircle, about a foot 

 below the surface, which the two shot of No. 3 or 4, 

 which I always have upon my line, nine or ten inches 

 from the hooks, will sink it to. When I am draw- 

 ing the bait across the stream, I keep the top of the rod 

 within less than a yard from the water, and draw it down- 

 wards, that the bait may be the greater distance from me; 

 and the first thing that the fish will see. Sometimes I 

 can see the fish before he takes the bait ; and then I give 

 in the rod a little, that the minnow may as it were meet 

 him half way ; but, if I think he is shy, I pull it away, 

 and do not throw it in again till he has got to his feeding 

 place. 



" The twisting of the minnow is the beauty of this 

 kind of angling, the fish seeing it at a great distance, 

 and fancying it is making all the haste it can to 



