viii Preface. 



Some space is devoted to night-fishing as followed 

 during June and July ; for though I respect, I do 

 not share, the opinions of those " honest anglers " 

 who regard it as little better than poaching. With 

 legitimate lures, and under proper regulation, it may 

 yield good, and withal true sport, at a time when 

 day-fishing is utterly barren. 



But the distinctive features of the book are the 

 prominence which it gives to the art of fishing with 

 what may be styled the loop-rod and line, and the 

 pre-eminence which it claims for such over the 

 ordinary appliances of jointed-rod and reel. Not 

 that these latter should be entirely discarded 

 indeed, in certain circumstances they alone are 

 admissible but my experience of both has gone 

 to show that, for the most part, in ordinary trout- 

 fishing, the loop-rod and line are immeasurably 

 superior in everything that makes for skilful and 

 successful angling. 



For more than forty years, from early spring 

 until the close of autumn, I have followed this 

 method of fishing, chiefly on the Clyde and the 

 Tweed, not only with the keen relish of the sports- 

 man for his sport, but with the zeal born of neces- 

 sity. For, as in the fishing season my livelihood 



