THE COMMON BROWN TROUT. 275 



finest gut, and let the trout swallow it. A smart jerk fixes the needle 

 transversely, and it is very seldom one is missed. 



The caution and circumspection required in fishing pools cannot be too 

 much impressed on the junior angler. Kneel, crouch do anything, in 

 short, calculated to prevent the fish seeing you. Throw up and outward, 

 and be careful, as the line is about to fall on the water, to raise the top 

 of your rod that it may in some sort arrest the velocity of the falling bait. 

 Do not disturb the water by casting repeatedly into it. Two or three 

 casts will be amply sufficient if you are likely to return to the spot, if 

 not, it may be advisable to try more. Fishing streams is by a similar 

 process. Throw in the same fashion, because, if you throw up and out- 

 ward, the falling line does not drop exactly on the water in a line with 

 the trout for which you are fishing. The need is not, in the case of 

 streams, to be so particular in keeping out of sight, but, above all 

 things, to be careful to tread as lightly as possible, no matter whether 

 wading or fishing from the bank. 



The time of day for worm fishing is, as with fly fishing, early as early, 

 indeed, as possible in the morning after daybreak. I have often got 

 from 151b. to 201b. of fish before eleven o'clock by simply acting upon 

 the principle so oft expressed by the words, "the early bird picks up 

 the worm." Trout are never so ready to feed as when, in the comparative 

 stillness of the summer morning, before the birds are fully astir, and 

 whilst the mist still hangs over the stream, one lets fall the well-scoured 

 worm. 



And here it may be well to remark that there seems to be a division 

 of habits amongst trout in this way one section may be called day fish 

 and the other night fish. I find that usually the smaller fish are to be 

 taken by day, that is, generally from seven or eight o'clock in the morn- 

 ing till the same time at night, and the larger members of the community 

 are found later, and until seven or eight in the following morning. They 

 frequent the shallows, seeking for nocturnal insects, young eels, &c., all 

 night, or may make a peregrination after prey, and in the morning retire 

 to the shelter of some favourite hover to sleep out the hours of intense 

 heat. The early and late angling theory holds good for the largest fish, 

 and experience of results corroborates it. Hence I recommend early 

 rising. The larger fish are probably by no means tired of prospecting for 

 such prey as bury themselves in the gravel or banks during the daytime, 

 therefore the angler has a chance which the habits of the sluggard debar 

 their possessor. 



In partial proof of this view, it will often be found that an interval 

 elapses between the feedings of the fish at about the time in the morning 

 indicated. The same observation applies to the evening. An hour or 



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