132 FISHERMAN'S LURES 



ing it almost instantaneously; were it not so, a live 

 minnow would escape. Rarely indeed do I find in 

 the stomach a cut minnow or even one which has 

 been torn by the teeth; yet teeth of brown trout are 

 large and many. It is not often that I have brown 

 trout get off, for in closing the mouth the hook 

 takes hold and the barb is fastened to the flesh 

 before they perceive the fraud (for base fraud it 

 rightly is). The case is different with a fly, which 

 they take more delicately; just a nip, very often 

 a miss, because the hook is small, and quite often, 

 after dashing above the surface, they flick off 

 the fly with their tongue. 



Personally I prefer the small minnows, even for 

 large fish. The inch and two-inch minnows very 

 well suffice for good-size trout, say sixteen inches. 

 If you know where a big fellow lies, his capture 

 is more safe when once hooked on a three or four 

 inch hook. I hope to induce anglers to see this 

 view, so that I can reduce the size and variety of 

 minnows. The big four-inch and five-inch hook 

 gold chub and silver shiner are both alike in con- 

 struction and size; the only difference is one is 

 gold and red, and the other is silver and blue. I 

 cannot as yet judge whether they are most ef- 

 fective in spring or fall. If numbers in demand 

 were conclusive, the fall would win. But it is quite 



