WOEMING IN CLEAR WATER. 69 



well to liave no great length of worm hanging beneath the 

 lower hook or above the upper one. I have seen Stewart tackles 

 made with very small hooks. In some ways they are good, 

 but, unfortunately, they fail to hook the trout. No. 4 hook 

 (Kendal scale) is about the right size for this kind of fishing. 



The worms may be carried in an open-mouthed bag, hung 

 by a loop to the buttonhole, or in a tin box strapped to the 

 waist. Brandlings, redworms, very small lobworms — in fact, 

 any small worms — may be used. They should be scoured, and 

 toughened by being kept in damp moss for several days. A 

 little cream or milk poured on the moss is supposed to assist 

 the process. "When baiting, the angler will find a little bag or 

 box of fine sand, or even dry earth, of much use. The worm, 

 having been dipped into the sand or earth, is no longer slippery 

 to handle. 



The most deadly and most usual method of working the 

 worm in clear water is to wade, and cast the worm up stream. 

 The cast must be made with a bold sweep of the rod, anything 

 in the nature of a jerk causing the worm to fly off the hooks. 

 Immediately the worm touches the water, the rod-point should 

 be slowly raised (very slowly if the stream is slow, but faster 

 if the stream is fast) until the worm is carried by the stream 

 within a yard or so of the angler, when it should be brought 

 out of the water with a back sweep of the rod, which should 

 then, as I have already indicated, be brought round in a bold 

 curve, and the worm cast forward. Half the secret of success in 

 this method lies in raising the point of the rod while the worm 

 is in the water, neither too slowly nor too fast. If too fast, 

 the worm is dragged down stream; if too slowly, there will 

 be so much slack line that the bites will not be noticed until 

 too late. Keep as little line as possible in the water. The 

 beginner will, in any case, miss many bites, for usually the 

 only evidence of a bite is a stoppage of the line. Therefore, 

 watch the line most carefully. Of course, we cannot wade up 

 the centre of all streams ; some we must fish across, but rather 

 in an upward than downward direction. If the water is a little 

 heavy or deep, a shot, or even two, may be necessary to bring 

 the worm before the fish; but, generally speaking, the most 



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