312 Rod and Tackle. CHAP. xx. 



Otter. An artificial otter is not imfrequently used in lakes in 

 Ireland ; and as some may like to use it in India, where the competition 

 amongst anglers is not so great as to bring down on you from your 

 neighbours the charge of poaching, I will supply instructions for 

 making one. 



I should add that it has this to be said for it in India, and that it is 

 on this account solely that I mention it, or ever deigned to give it a 

 thought, that here we do not know definitely by the experience of ten 

 thousand anglers exactly how to fish. We are all more or less explorers, 

 trying to find what fish there are in India that will take a bait, which 

 will take a minnow, which a fly, and what fly is preferred. For this 

 purpose the otter covers a larger field of experiment, it searches more 

 water, and it allows of one man trying twenty or thirty flies at one time, 

 instead of three at the most. 



Take a light plank, inch or an inch in thickness, of 2 feet in 

 length, by 7 or 8 inches in depth, and lead it so that the water-line shall 

 be about i inch from the top. Insert a brass ring, or light staple, 

 exactly half-way up in the centre of the stern of the plank, and two 

 more like staples, two-thirds forward, one in the top edge of the plank, 

 and one in the bottom edge, or exactly opposite each otr^er. To each 

 of these staples tie a cord about 2 feet long, and bring the ends 

 together, so that when suspended the plank shall hang quite even cross- 

 wise, but lengthwise shall have the stern slightly lowered, say 6 or 7 

 inches, for it is on the principle of the inclined plane that the otter 

 acts. Then to the point where the three cords are knotted together 

 tie a long cord, push the otter out from the shore, nose foremost, in 

 the direction you mean to walk along, keeping the line taut, and try it. 

 If the otter acts properly, it should keep parallel with you, keeping the 

 line taut all the while. But if the top and bottom cords are not of 

 exactly equal length, it will not sit true, and consequently will not have 

 so good a hold of the water. If the cord from the stern is too short, 

 the otter will have a tendency to yield to your tension and to come in 

 to you, and will not keep away enough to keep the line taut. In such 

 case let out the stern cord a little, and try again. If you lengthen the 

 stern cord too much, the angle of the plank will be too great, and the 

 otter will pull away from you too much, and in consequence will not 

 keep pace with you, but will lag behind. You must therefore humour 

 this stern cord till you have got it to work nicely ; and, that attained, 



