THE 



PRACTICAL ANGLER 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



IT may appear something like presumption in any one at the 

 present day to pretend to write on the art of Angling, a subject 

 that has been so ably discussed from the time of Dame Juliana 

 Berners even until now ; yet it must be apparent to every experi- 

 enced fisherman, that angling is a science in which some portion 

 of fresh knowledge may ever be acquired, and that there are few 

 wbo have practised the art, who cannot afford some information to 

 their fellow fishermen, however skilful or scientific the latter may 

 be. As for myself, I have been a devoted lover of the angle for 

 somewhat more than a quarter of a century, and with no mean 

 success; yet the additional science every successive season has 

 made me master of, but convinces me the more of how much I 

 have still to learn before I can claim a right to style myself a 

 complete angler ; nor did I ever meet with any persons, however they 

 may have excelled me in piscatorial skill, and who form a very 

 legion in multitude, that in some branch or other of the art I did not 

 find wanting. Now the object of my present work is to convey to 

 my readers all I know, and have been enabled to glean from others, 

 on this truly interesting subject ; but as I shall speak principally 

 from my own experience, I trust my doing so in the first person 

 may not be attributed to egotism, when my only object is to 

 treat of matters strictly according to the fact, and as they really 

 occurred. 



