THE ANGLER'S SOUVENIR. 



119 



41 



when you may catch some large ones. Or, better 

 still, you may fly-fish for him wherever he is, with 

 a "black gnat" on your casting-line, and the hook 

 tipped with a tiny bit of white kid glove. This is 

 a very killing way when the fish are playing about 

 on the feed on summer evenings, but it needs a 

 quick eye to see and a quick hand to strike as soon 

 as a tiny circle is made upon the limpid stream. 

 Best of all, however because the roach is then at 

 his best and strongest, and the big ones are more 

 inclined to take the angler's bait it is to fish as we 

 are doing now, in chill October. 



On a mild, still day, and (if the water is much 

 fished) soon after sunrise, when the fish have had 

 a night's rest to make them less suspicious, a good 

 basket ought to be made in fairly stocked waters. 



And now let us delay no longer. The sun has 

 been long enough on the water to rouse the fish to 

 a knowledge that it must be breakfast-time. 



Our float, you see, is a light porcupine quill, and 

 our hook is small and fine ; six inches above it is 

 one tiny shot. Our bait is a piece of paste, the size 

 of a green pea, made of new white bread, carefully 

 kneaded with clean hands until it is tough and 

 sticky. Where we commence the water is about 

 five feet deep, and at the bottom long masses of 

 weed are swaying over smooth yellow gravel. 

 Peering downward, at first we see nothing but the 

 dark-green weeds ; but as our eyes become accus- 

 tomed to the deeper shade, we see, a foot above the 



