CLEAR WATER WORM-FISHING 63 



for the full exercise of piscatory intelligence will 

 not only offer a most pleasing variety to the 

 fisherman, but put good trout into his pannier, 

 which is the main thing when all is said. 



With these prefatory remarks, I take up my 

 theme, and as a preliminary to the art of fishing 

 the worm in clear water I must first say some- 

 thing about the worms themselves. 



From the days of Charles Cotton, who descants 

 so learnedly upon the virtues of brandlings, these 

 particular worms have been lauded to the angling 

 public by innumerable writers on trout-fishing 

 and by salesmen in such wares as the most 

 satisfactory of their kind for filling the basket. 

 From this view I must entirely dissent. The 

 brandling is, after all, nothing more than an 

 evolution of certain earth-worms induced by 

 residence in and sustenance from material in a 

 state of decomposition. I have watched the 

 process in its various stages. You will find them 

 fully developed in heaps of decayed leaves as well 

 as in dunghills and old tan refuse. My objections 

 to their use may be briefly summed up. Apart 

 from their abominable smell and the impossibility 

 of toughening them by scouring, brandlings are 

 not natural trout food. They are not washed out 

 of the banks as are ordinary earth-worms, and 



