Minnow- Tackle. 1 99 



in their feeding ; and if we cannot attract them at 

 times with a daintier bait, we must endeavour to 

 meet, so far as we can, any disposition on their 

 part to toy with the good things already provided 

 for them. Hence the necessity for the other tackle. 

 In fishing a low clear water up-stream, with the 

 trout biting shyly and holding feebly, try flight 

 No. 3 (hooks Nos. 8 and 3), and use small minnows 

 to correspond. In a full black water, where the 

 trout are equally coy, I recommend tackle No. 5 

 or 6, dressed with hooks Nos. 4 and 10, and 

 baited with a larger minnow. No. 4, composed of 

 hooks Nos. 10 and 6, is also very serviceable in 

 flooded waters, and should carry a good-sized min- 

 now. It, and Nos. 5 and 6, are well adapted for 

 night as well as for day fishing. In all these 

 varieties the smaller hooks act as drag or flying 

 hooks, to secure, if possible, in some way or other 

 those fish which bite shyly and short, and evince 

 an inclination simply for a little flirtation with the 

 gamesome lure a state of affairs defined, by those 

 who know, as " attention without intention." But 

 the result in low life as in high often turns out 

 more serious than was contemplated, for coquetry 

 may end in capture. The mode of action of these 

 flying-hooks is not always uniform. Usually they 

 get hold of some part of the fish's head the seat of 

 giddiness ; sometimes they catch him in the ordi- 



