92 BROOK AND RIVER TROUTING 



should therefore be restricted to times of flood, as 

 hereafter described, and to the latter part of the 

 season, excepting September. 



When fish begin to come somewhat shyly at the 

 worm during July and August — fished in the method 

 previously described — they are frequently in the right 

 mood for a minnow. At such times the waters are 

 usually low and clear ; it therefore requires considerable 

 dexterity to achieve success, and there is no doubt 

 that the minnow, fished under such conditions, is a 

 sporting method of angling ; although it is a greater 

 pleasure to land a pound trout on a 00 hook than to 

 kill a two pounder on the heavier tackle required for 

 minnow fishing. 



With the evolution of the casting reel — its yearly 

 improvements and new inventions, all in aid of long 

 distance casting — there is reason to think that minnow 

 fishing has been popularized at the expense of the 

 skill shown by the old-fashioned school, which, using 

 a short line and possessed of a good knowledge of the 

 habits of its quarry, lured many an old cannibal from 

 under the tree roots, from behind some boulder, or 

 from the depths of an eddy, old villains that had 

 battened for years upon the young stock of the river. 



One sees now, not without regrets, little of the old 

 manner of fishing the minnow, but far more of the 

 method in which the minnow is thrown as far as possible 

 across stream, and then worked back to the angler 



