414 SALMON AND TROUT. 



having on such occasions to be wound in for examination after 

 every touch. Moreover, in many cases, especially when the 

 rod is not held in the hand, the touch of a fish or a stone is 

 unperceived, the result being that the angler may be trailing 

 on for half-an-hour with a bait which, without his knowing it, 

 has become fouled and useless for either hooking or spinning 

 purposes. In my perfected minnow none of these disadvantages 

 can arise, the minnow, after a touch by fish or rock, inevitably 

 and automatically returning to its normal position. The trace 

 also is at its finest, and unencumbered with swivels, at the most 

 critical point, namely, close to the bait, and the flight is much 

 simpler and less liable to suffer from wear and tear than the 

 ordinary Devon rig. The minnows (manufactured and regis- 

 tered by Messrs. Hardy, Brothers, of Alnwick) are made gold 

 and silver plated, blue and silver, and brown and gold. The 

 silver-plated one is that which I have had most opportunities of 

 thoroughly testing myself in practice. Sizes: J inch, i inch, 

 ij inch, i^ inch, if inch, 2 inches, 2^ inches, 2\ inches, 3 

 inches. 



A good medium length for sea trout or brown trout in 

 lakes is the 'i^' or f ij' inches, according to water and 

 weather. For stream fishing the numbers vary, it will be seen, 

 from | inch upwards ; whilst those who affect lake spinning 

 for salmon or ferox with the metal minnow will find an 

 ample range of selection in the larger sizes. 



The minnow, both natural and artificial, can be used at all 

 times of the season, and in all rivers where its employment is 

 not interdicted. It is especially successful in some of the 

 Devonshire and Cornwall streams for taking what is locally 

 known as ' salmon peel ' a variety of migratory Salmonida, 

 to which ichthyologists have not yet agreed in assigning a 

 specific place. Some writers consider it as a sort of small- sized 

 grilse, or the young of the true salmon on its first return from 

 the sea, and others merely as a variety of the salmon trout. 

 Unfortunately many of the streams of Devonshire and Cornwall 

 have been, so frightfully polluted of late years by mine water 



