106 . MODERN PRACTICAL ANGLER. 



worm is not when rivers are swollen or swelling, but 

 when they are low and bright, — June and July in Scot- 

 land, and July and August in England, being the two best 

 months — at the time, in short, when fly-fishing is, from 

 the nature of the case, least attractive and most unre- 

 munerative. Instead of short rods and coarse tackle, 

 long, light weapons, and the very finest gut, are in 

 requisition, with which the worm-fisher enters the river, 

 and wading as nearly up the middle as he can, fishes 

 before him the swift runs and shallows, and the broad 

 bed of the stream itself; often going far towards filling 

 his creel without ever setting foot on the bank. Worm- 

 fishing, as above described, is certainly a very deadly — 

 probably the most deadly — mode of Trout fishing 

 generally sanctioned by the canons of the art ; and it is 

 not at all to be wondered at that on some much-fre- 

 quented waters its use is prohibited. 



But there are thousands of miles of river and stream 

 in the wilds of Ireland and Scotland, and some few 

 still in England, where from year's end to year's end 

 the fly of the angler rarely falls, and on which the 

 breed of Trout is only improved by a little thinning out 

 now and then. Here is the legitimate domain of the 

 worm-fisher, and thus pursued worm-fishing is a sport 

 which need fear comparison with none. 



As regards the tackle to be used in worm-fishing, I 

 cannot better explain the views which I would com- 

 mend to the reader's consideration than by quoting a 



