WORM AND MINNOW FISHING 77 



Fishing the fly, you can, if need be, cast a long 

 line without harming your feathered lures ; 

 but a worm, even if it has been toughened, 

 is but a fragile bait, and, therefore, you must 

 depend more on length of rod than line. 

 The worm is thrown by a forward underhand 

 swing, or by a side swing from left to right 

 and vice versa. Thrown overhead like a fly, 

 it would soon be flipped off the hook. Some 

 anglers use a double-handed rod for this 

 style of fishing, but a single-handed one will 

 be found much more convenient and less 

 tiring on a hot summer's day. A rod from 

 11 feet to 12 feet, composed of whole cane 

 and greenheart, makes an ideal weapon, 

 being very light in weight. It should be 

 pretty stiff, in order to allow of quick striking, 

 and most of the weight should be in the butt. 

 The great thing in clear- water worm fishing, 

 as in fly-fishing, is to have absolute control 

 over your line, and here again the old maxim 

 " Fine and far off " is much better changed 

 to "Fine and as near as you can." Never 

 have more line out than you need ; for, using 

 an 11 -foot or 12-foot rod, you can approach 

 trout quite closely, even when they are lying 

 with half their backs out of water, on the 

 shallows. 



In low, clear water, your gut cast must be 



