88 LONDON ANGLER'S BOOK, 



three hooks in the bait, and two out : it was with 

 this tackle I took my first Trout, and I have killed 

 many others in the same way. If you wish to use a 

 Bleak, which is very successful in the Tumbling Bays 

 up the Thames, your hooks must be a little larger, 

 and further apart, to suit the fish cast in your bait, to 

 deep swift water weirs, bays, mill tails, sluices, &c., 

 and if fortunate, be as cool and collected, as he is 

 strong and impetuous. Trout are caught in great 

 numbers, when the water is a little coloured, by dip- 

 ping with the natural May and other flies ; but this 

 is such a skulking, lazy, unsportsmanlike way of 

 fishing, that I never practice it without being ashamed 

 of myself, and heartily wish every body else was of 

 the same opinion. I have seen, under the above 

 circumstance, in a free water, and where the 

 true sportsman would often kill a brace or two of 

 good fish, about a dozen yokels with a pole and a 

 bit of rope, a great coarse hook, with a hat full of 

 May flies, kill ten or twelve fish each in no time, and 

 afterwards kick them about in mere wantonness. In 

 the May fly time the Trout rise boldly; and as they 

 lie for days in the same hole, they easily fall a prey 

 to poachers, who, by grouping or tickling, take them 

 with their hands. I was obliged to witness a per- 

 formance of this description at Leatherhead : Two 

 persons had been whipping unsuccessful, and meeting 

 an acknowledged otter of the place, sent to the vil- 

 lage for a can of ale, and requested him to go into 

 the water, and procure them some fish. I am sorry 



