THE JOLLY ANGLER. 67 



draw it through the rings, then another yard, and so on, 

 till your bait has got out of your sight under the trees ; 

 they will then bite freely enough. When they snatch your 

 line, hold the point of the rod nearer to them, so that they 

 may not feel the hook, and at the second tug you must 

 strike, (against the stream,) holding your rod low, or you 

 will hook the boughs. 



You may follow this method with many other baits, such 

 as a large moth, blue-bottle, slug, or a bunch of gentles. 

 When you use a real fly, and have the wind at your back, 

 you may let it blow the bait as far from you as it will, 

 then lower the point of your rod, so that it may float down 

 without interruption. When you see a fish take it, wait 

 while you might moderately count four or five, and then 

 strike. If you hook the fish, endeavour to prevent his 

 getting among weeds, &c.; he has very little chance of 

 escaping any other way, as a fly- rod is almost sure to kill 

 a fish of any size, if the hook holds, which it will generally 

 do in the mouth of a Dace or Chub, but the mouth of a 

 Trout is more likely to suffer the hook to escape, as it is 

 more bony, and what flesh there is is less tough. When 

 using a worm for Trout, always try these means in pre- 

 ference to a float, which is, generally speaking, labour in 

 vain. 



I shall now describe another excellent method of taking 

 large Trout, and many other fish, and that is, 



Spinning a Minnow, 



for which purpose you use the bag-rod with the Perch top, 

 though you may make shift with the other rod, if you have 

 a stiff top to it, but being shorter, it will not command so 

 much water as the first. The winch and running line the 

 same as last mentioned, at the bottom of which you must 

 have tackle of the following description, in the room of the 

 former gut lengthener (unless it was a very strong one, 

 when you may join this to it); the lower length of very 

 strong gut, fastened tight to a No. 1 hook, with a long 

 shank ; about three inches above this you must attach a 

 short piece of gut, with a No. 7 hook tied on, so that it 

 may hang even with the top of the shank of the large one ; 

 you then .add to these two lengths of strong (some add 



