THAMES TROUT FISHING. 131 



not see Trout dashing about after bleak all round his bait, and even 

 over his line, without the least notice of his lure being taken. A 

 Trout, be it known, having once fixed his eye upon a particular 

 fish, follows that particular fish until he obtains it, or it escapes. 

 It will follow its intended victim right through a shoal of its fellows 

 without deviating to the right or to the left. Consequently, it 

 must be the angler's constant hope that the Trout will see his 

 particular bait first. 



A Trout does not seize its prey and bear it off in the stealthy 

 way adopted by the pike. There is a plunge, a dash and a tug, 

 and either you are fast or you are not. If you attempt to strike 

 in the way that would be proper in the case of the pike, the betting 

 would be overwhelmingly against your being fast. 



In spinning for Trout, either the natural bait or the artificial 

 may be used. Professional fishermen will tell you that nothing 

 can compare with the natural bait a bleak fixed on a spinning 

 flight. In the calmer, heavy waters in which many Trout lie this 

 may be true, as more opportunity for investigation is there pre- 

 sented to them ; but in the whirl of weirs I do not think it matters 

 a button. Anything that spins, provided it be not too large, will do 

 there ; the thing is to find the Trout in the humour. I have caught 

 very wary Trout on a little golden spoon, on the Bell's Life spinner 

 (an imitation of a minnow with a bend in its tail to do the 

 spinning), and on the spiral spinning bait ; and I believe that the 

 reason I have not caught them on other kinds of artificial spinning 

 bait is because I have not tried them. You will not find it 

 necessary to strike when a Trout seizes the spinning bait ; but 

 keep a very taut line on him, and look out for stray eddies which 

 will seize the line, and bulge it in a manner that will possibly 



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