MINNOW TROLLING. 93 



other branch of angling is of the highest assistance, yet for all this 

 practice alone, and that to some extent too, is absolutely necessary 

 to constitute a troller : but with sufficient practice it can larely 

 happen but that a corresponding improvement will sooner or later 

 be the result, and he that has the fortitude to persevere to the end 

 will have good cause for congratulation, inasmuch ashe h;is consider- 

 ably enhanced the pleasure of his angling pursuits, by adding to 

 them one of the most interesting as well as successful branches of 

 the art. 



What deters most beginners from undertaking the task of learn- 

 ing t8 troll, is the apprehension of fatigue, which a very early in- 

 sight into the practice convinces them must be gone through to 

 carry it on advantageously ; and I am compelled to confess there is 

 some truth in this; for though a child may cast a fly, it takes a 

 man to troll with a minnow, or at any rate to catch trout by that 

 mode of fishing ; but as we read of a celebrated wrestler of anti- 

 quity who by daily carrying a calf was enabled to carry the ani- 

 mal when he became an ox, so by continued use the weight of the 

 trolling rod will daily become less irksome, till at length it will be 

 scarcely noticed. At any rate before the pursuit is altogether 

 abandoned do give it a sufficient trial to see if you are not man 

 enough to master it, which if you can accomplish there can 

 be little doubt but you will become attached to the sport, parti- 

 cularly when it enables you to exhibit such living specimens of your 

 skill as you have never by any of your former devices been able 

 to get hold of. Well indeed do I recollect my first attempt at 

 spinning the minnow, though so many summers have since rolled 

 away, for I was then but a strippling of seventeen or so at the far- 

 thest. I know at that time there was a great mystery with those 

 gentlemen who practised spinning the minnow, not one of whom 

 could I prevail upon to give me any instruction in the art, till at 

 length I found favour in the eyes of a cunning old gentleman, and 

 obtained a promise from him that he would teach me all he knew 

 about the matter, and to my great gratification he fixed the day for 

 carrying his promise into effect which I must do him the justice to 

 say he faithfully performed to the very letter. Although so long 

 since, I remember almost as if it were but yesterday, how with that 

 nervous trepidation an ardent beginner so frequently experiences, 

 and a hand trembling with anxiety, I tried very much to the old 

 gentleman's amusement to fix the bait in precise accordance with 



