CHAPTER VII 



ON ANGLING WITH THE WORM 



FISHING with the worm is not usually held in such 

 high estimation as it deserves ; a circumstance 

 entirely owing to its being but very imperfectly 

 understood. Fly-fishers are apt to sneer at worm- 

 fishing as a thing so simple that any one may succeed 

 in it their notions of it being that it is practised 

 either when the waters are swollen after rain, or with 

 a float and sinkers in some deep pool ; and it is not 

 surprising that with such ideas of it they should hold 

 it in contempt. Worm-fishing is only worthy of 

 the name of sport when practised in streams inhabited 

 by wary trout, when they are low and clear. Under 

 such circumstances it becomes a branch of the art 

 which, to be pursued with success, requires the most 

 intimate acquaintance with the habits of the trout, 

 and the nicest powers of casting, and which in point 

 of difficulty is only inferior to fly-fishing. Those 

 anglers who despise worm-fishing as a thing so simple 

 as to be quite unworthy of their attention would 

 quickly discover their mistake if brought to a small 

 clear water on a warm sunny day in June or July. 



