MINNOW TROLLING. 101 



point in minnow trolling next to spinning and playing the bait, 

 and this nothing but experience can teach, and practice enable you 

 to achieve. Many anglers make use of leaden caps, which in 

 addition to aiding to sink the minnow, keep the flyers well against 

 the bait ; my objection to them is, that they serve to disguise the 

 fish, giving it an appearance that does not belong to it, and also 

 concealing the eyes, which is I am inclined to think a disadvantage ; 

 and to say the least, makes it look as if it had stuck its nose into 

 the mud. 



Playing the minnow is another point on which your success 

 must in a great measure depend, and which it will take both time 

 and practice to manage in a masterly manner ; nor is it possible to 

 lay down any fixed rules that can give one half the information 

 that is required. 1 have indeed been sometimes amused with the 

 arguments of some pretenders in the art upon this very subject : 

 one contending that in every case and under all circumstances, the 

 only correct method is to play the bait at one steady pace right 

 down the stream ; another as stoutly holding it should be drawn 

 right up : a third that 'this should be done by a succession of jerks, 

 which jerks, a fourth utterly condemns, and asserts the pace should 

 always be unvaried, whilst a fifth firmly insists that the only way 

 is to draw the bait right across the stream, and thus the discussion 

 may be carried on ad infinitum, and, as far as either party's being 

 convinced is concerned, ends just where it commenced ; each one 

 having just sufficient truth on his side to base an obstinate ad- 

 herence to his original opinion ; for indeed every one of thes 

 plans are proper under circumstances that may require them ; and 

 as one or other of those circumstances must constantly arise, so 

 will it be necessary that every one or other of these modes will in 

 its turn require to be practiced during the course of a day's minnow 

 trolling. 



The casting in the bait in the proper spot is also a matter of no 

 small importance. In fly fishing, as I believe I have before stated, 

 a great deal of your success depends upon your dropping the flies 

 in such a situation that the fish may see them fall upon the water, 

 as they then present a more striking appearance than they can be 

 made to display by playing them over the surface afterwards; but 

 in minnow trolling the reverse is the case, for the minnow being 

 an inhabitant of the water instead of the earth or air its flying 

 through the latter element, and then sousing down into its native 



