BAIT FISHING. 119 



excellent sport with perch and other fish with that bait in such 

 places. A float is never required in fishing a trout stream, unless 

 it is in the very dead waters, and even in these it may be dispensed 

 with, as when a trout bites it may generally be discovered by the 

 motion of the line, even where the rod is fixed and the bait allow- 

 ed to remain stationary. A very killing way of catching trout, 

 but it must be admitted a very poaching one, is when the waters 

 are foul to use a number of willow rods, with a line of about three 

 yards attached to them, which being baited with a good sized 

 worm is cast into a quiet part of the pool, the rod is then stuck 

 firmly in the ground. After some respite these rods are visited 

 one after another; the fish taken off, and the hooks rebaited. 

 Generally speaking this is an unfair way of fishing ; the only places in 

 which it can honestly be practised, are those brooks that from a 

 scanty supply of water it is utterly hopeless to angle in at any 

 other time ; and not even in these can the banking system be justi- 

 fied, unless there is a great dearth of fish there, so that it is scarce- 

 ly possible to catch a dish of fish by the ordinary means of a 

 single rod and line, 



The worm may be fished with all the year through, but when 

 the flies are plentiful upon the water it is not so well taken as 

 earlier or later in the season. It is generally taken best towards 

 the autumn. In the spring the best time is from the middle of 

 February to to the middle of April. 



Many persons erroneously imagine that nothing can be done 

 with a worm except in a discoloured water, but this is incorrect. 

 When the waters are discoloured the fish are certainly often found 

 to bite very freely, and as at such times the presence of a clumsy 

 bungler cannot be so easily detected, or his ill-arranged tackle 

 noticed by the fish, it sometimes happens that at those times he 

 catches some of them ; but a really good angler will never quarrel 

 with a clear stream if it is well broken up into scours and stickles, 

 As for myself, I always, even for worm fishing, prefer a limpid 

 stream to a turbid one ; though a slight tinge on a clear stream 

 upon the clearing up of a flood it must be admitted is an improve- 

 ment ; but I have an utter dislike to fish in a puddled water. The 

 best weather for worm fishing is a grey overcast sky, neither too 

 hot nor too cold, though I have met with good sport in all wea- 

 thers, and have sometimes been doomed to disappointment when it 



