IDE FISHING. 161 



small. The largest I myself ever took did not weigh above 

 seventeen pounds, but my people captured two or three of 

 twenty-five pounds. 



We also killed some Ide an odd one occasionally when 

 spinning for trout or pike, but chiefly with the fly. 



This fish does not rise to the fly in the same free manner 

 as the trout or the grayling, but sucks it, as it were, into 

 his mouth. This being the case, when angling expressly for 

 the ide, we moved the fly always a rather large one very 

 slowly ; and the better to conceal the hook, as well as to 

 tempt the fish, we usually affixed to the point of the hook 

 a maggot, or what was preferable, a large grasshopper, or 

 black beetle, divested of its wings. The fly, however, could 

 not be used to advantage excepting when the weather 

 was fine, warm, and calm, as at such times the ide is to 

 be seen in shoals near to the surface ; for if, on the 

 contrary, the weather is cold and boisterous, these fish 

 always remain in deep water, and, as a consequence, it 

 is next to an impossibility to induce them to take the 



fly. 



When fishing from a boat for the ide, as was our custom, 

 the boat's head was always kept up stream ; and whilst the 

 fisherman who stood in the stern sheets, cast the fly to 

 the right and left, the boat was allowed to drop slowly and 

 quietly with the current, so as not in any manner to disturb 

 the water below. 



Considering this kind of fishing rather tame, I rarely 

 engaged in it, but occasionally allowed my man to amuse 

 himself, and who thus did considerable execution. At 

 times, indeed, he would take twelve or fifteen ide in the 

 course of a few hours, 



VOL. i. M 





