MINNOW TROLLING. 99 



swer the purpose. Many persons consider these baits are improved 

 by being kept a few hours in bran to harden before they are used : 

 but I have always found the fresher the baits are the better, which 

 I have always taken care to avail myself of whenever I could 

 procure them. 



The hook on which the minnow is spitted should be propor- 

 tioned to the size of the bait, and must be no larger than the 

 minnow can be well baited on ; it would be well therefore to be 

 provided with hooks of two or three different sizes, which may 

 always be shifted as occasion may require. The hook should be 

 long in the shank, and round and short in the bend, the barb 

 inclining well either to the right or left, which will materially aid 

 the spinning of the bait. My plan of fixing the flyers is a very 

 simple one : I tie a common loop of gut, leaving two ends, one 

 not above an half an inch, and the other from four to six inches 

 long. To the short end I fasten a single hook about No. 5 or 6, 

 and to the long one three rows of double flyers back to back of 

 small sized fly hooks, these I fasten to the link next the hook, 

 looping it on the same way as a bob fly, and not drawing the loop 

 quite tight at first, I slide the flying gear down till the hooks 

 assume their proper position ; the large flyer hook I run carefully 

 in at the mouth and bring it out again, either through the gills or 

 the cheek on the side to which the bend of the hook inclines, 

 whilst I run in one of the double flyers in the lateral line on the 

 other side just behind the pectoral fin leaving the others unattached 

 to the bait. By loosening the loop the flyers may be run up the 

 hook link whenever it is necessary to rebait, for which purpose a 

 common toilet pin or stocking needle is the best instrument that 

 can be used for forcing open the loop should it be tightly drawn 

 together. 



There is another plan of minnow trolling I have occasionally 

 employed to advantage, by substituting a wire of about the length 

 of an ordinary sized minnow, barbed at the end, and slightly leaded 

 at the other extremity, instead of the large hook on which the 

 minnow is commonly spitted ; this wire being thrust into the 

 minnow's mouth in the same manner as the hook ; and the wire, 

 being pliant, it can be turned in any way so as to make the bait play 

 more freely, and flyers are attached to it as in the former instance. 

 As far as spinning went it certainly did very well ; but I fancied I 

 lost a great many of the fish I got hold of, for want of the large 



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