MINNOW-FISHING 105 



lures, the rod originally recommended will, to 

 judge from my own experience, do all that is 

 required. 



Preserved minnows are retailed by every tackle- 

 dealer, but I would put in a word of caution about 

 those kept in solutions of formalin. Although 

 this preparation keeps the bait most temptingly 

 brilliant, the temptation is rather to the buyer 

 than to the trout, which, for some reason, appear 

 to detest the smell of this preservative, and in 

 most cases refuse to run at formalined minnows. 

 Steeping them in strong brine for two or three 

 days, or even in coarse salt, does a good deal to 

 obviate this distaste, but for myself, I prefer to 

 have nothing to do with them. Formalin also 

 has the effect of stiffening baits too much. It is a 

 simple matter to catch your own supply. Get a 

 fine-meshed bag-net some 2\ ft. long by i| ft. in 

 width, lightly leaded at bottom, and when a shoal 

 of minnows are noticed in any little shallow creek 

 (not necessarily in a brook), get between them 

 and the main current, and, with extended hands, 

 drag the net towards the shoal and make your 

 haul. Or you may catch plenty with the rod and 

 a tiny hook baited with morsels of worm. Minnows 

 kept, chiefly the smaller ones, should be laid 

 separately out and dried ; then placed, also 



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