1 54 Insect-Bait Fishing. 



angler is the creeper or crab, the larva of the May 

 or stone fly. Although found under the stones along 

 the margin of rivers during most of the winter and 

 spring months, it deserves little notice from the 

 angler till about the 10th or 12th of May. At this 

 season, if the water is low and clear, and the sun 

 bright and hot, the creeper fisher will generally 

 meet with his reward in a splendid basket. This is 

 well known on the Clyde and the Tweed, where the 

 creeper is a great favourite with many an angler ; 

 but the practical fly-fisher would consider these 

 very conditions most favourable for the sand-fly, 

 and would therefore be likely to prefer it as a more 

 reliable lure. If the day be very sultry, however, 

 the great heat will hurry on the development of 

 all the sand-flies at one time: their lives may 

 indeed be merry, but they will certainly be short ; 

 for in an hour or less they will all be gone, and 

 the angler's sport will go with them. It is in these 

 circumstances that the artificial fly must be dis- 

 carded, and recourse had to the creeper, when it 

 will prove itself a most worthy and acceptable 

 substitute. 



There need be no difficulty in procuring the in- 

 sects in abundance. They will be found, as I have 

 said, under the stones that lie embedded in sand 

 near the edges of the streams where the water is a 

 few inches in depth. In a dry season, when the 



