284 AMERICAN FISHES. 



" On a dark day, and when the water is not very clear, I should 

 prefer a clean, bright, small Roach, Dace or Bleak, particularly when 

 fishing at the snap. When your fish are not kept alive in a bait-can, 

 they should be carried in a tin box, and laid in a little fine bran, or 

 pollard j and carefully washed before you bait with them. 



." The rod should be of strong bamboo cane, and from ten to twelve 

 feet long, with a tolerably stiff top of whalebone or hickory ; the 

 rings should be five in number and not less than three-eighths of an 

 inch diameter in the opening, that the line may run freely. 



" A strong winch will be required, which must hold at least forty 

 yards of line, that is not subject to kink. Mr. Jesse recommends a 

 trolling-line sold by Mr. Barth, of Cockspur-street, and I have seen 

 a very good sort of line for this purpose, manufactured by Mr. Bazin, 

 Duncan-place, Hackney. Some trollers prefer a rod twenty feet long, 

 in which case your cast on the water is made in the same manner as 

 in spinning the minnow for Trout, but with a longer line ; and the 

 lighter your bait falls upon the water the greater your success. Mr. 

 Jesse strongly recommends the use of a wooden reel, one of about 

 four inches and a half across, having the rim grooved for the recep- 

 tion of the line. 



"'These reels turn round with great rapidity when the cast is 

 made, letting out a sufficient length of line, and are wound up again 

 by turning them with the fore-finger. They are much to be preferred 

 to the common brass reel, especially in fishing from a boat ; they 

 avoid the noise and much of the trouble of winding up, and the line 

 never kinks.' 



" A reel similar to this is used by salmon-fishers in Scotland, and 

 is there called a pirn. It will require much practice to enable the 

 novice to cast a long line when the river is wide, but in small streams 

 he will find little difficulty. Some anglers prefer fishing with the 

 gorge-hooks, others with snap-hooks ; but my own experience induces 

 me to prefer the former as the best general mode of trolling ; and this 

 kind of fishing I shall first describe. 



