64 BROOK AND RIVER TROUTING 



its hiding place, or that has been torn from beneath 

 the stones by a questing trout. Creepers are very 

 plentiful in those North Country rivers which have 

 the typical stony bed, but the season of the Creeper 

 being April and May, the writers do not often fish 

 it, nor is Creeper fishing generally much followed, as 

 during that time of the year fly fishing is at its very 

 best. Still, if on occasion the reader has found his 

 most carefully dressed flies fail to rise a fish — as they 

 will sometimes even in Spring — ^he might do worse 

 than collect a few Creepers, as this method of fishing 

 forms a pleasant variant of the fisherman's craft and 

 throws a further light upon the habits and life and 

 whereabouts of the trout. 



The line should be well greased, and the cast (as in 

 fly fishing), three yards tapered down to finest drawn 

 gut with a form of Pennell tackle at the end, having 

 the lower hook a size larger than the upper one (this 

 latter being size No. 3 in the scale before mentioned 

 on page 8). The bend of one hook should be five- 

 eighths of an inch from the bend of the other, the 

 hooks to be whipped on with olive green silk for 

 preference. The fly rod and line complete the outfit. 



The end hook of the tackle should be put through 

 the Creeper almost at the extremity of its tail, where 

 it is toughest, and the other hook in the unhappy 

 beast's shoulder, not the head, as the head is liable 

 to tear off. 



