30 THE TROUT. 



recommended to me by persons accustomed to fish the river, my 

 success was very indifferent, the fish I caught being remarkably 

 small and very few in number ; nor could I by any contrivance 

 coax even a moderate sized fish to the surface. Fly after fly was 

 tried but with no better result, nor had some persons I met by the 

 river side any better fortune, though they seemed to know pretty 

 well how to go about the business, and had been long in the habit 

 of fishing the river which I myself had not. This induced me to 

 alter my plans, and after managing to kick up a few worms from 

 under the clods, I soon pulled out trout enough to save my credit, 

 though I lost much time in searching for my baits. A few days 

 afterwards having a good supply of worms I again fished the 

 same stream, when I really did meet with good sport, though 

 amongst all the other anglers I that day encountered by the water 

 side, and I met many, scarcely one had more than two or three fish, 

 and not one of a size that ought fairly to have been destroyed. I 

 have frequently also done great execution with a minnow, where fly 

 fishing from being much practised on the waters has rendered the 

 fish so shy that it is almost vain to try for them by that mode of 

 angling : and I have found it to be an almost invariable rule, that 

 where one particular mode of angling for trout has been carried on 

 to any great extent, a different one will generally be attended with 

 successful results, if the angler is sufficient master of the science to 

 know how to put it in practice. This no angler whose knowledge 

 and skill is confined merely to one branch of the art can of course 

 accomplish. Many, indeed, of my best day's sport have been when 

 I have been thus thrown upon my own resources : and many a 

 weighty load of trout have I had to bear away, when disappointed 

 of my fly fishing on account of the turbid state of the waters, I 

 have resorted almost as a forlorn hope to a bait, and by that means 

 have done wonders, when had I persevered with a fly, though I 

 toiled throughout the day, I must still have returned empty home. 

 And amongst anglers there appears to be an almost endless va- 

 riety, from the indefatigable enthusiast in the art who has extended 

 his labours to some of the principal rivers both at home and abroad, 

 to the gentle cockney whose angling excursions have been limited 

 to a Sunday expedition to Putney bridge, or an occasional excursion 

 to the New river. To distinguish every variety with its respective 

 properties and differences, would be a task of too great difficulty 

 even for me to attempt; a few of the common and leading must 



