138 THE PRACTICAL ANGLER 



line in the water as possible ; but you must take 

 care not to raise it so quickly as in any way to in- 

 terfere with the motion of the worm. It is of great 

 importance that there should be very little line in 

 the water, not so much because it is calculated to 

 alarm the trout, as because the action of the stream 

 upon the line will in some cases bring the worm 

 down much faster than it would otherwise come, 

 and in others bring it nearer the surface. If you 

 throw your worm into an eddy or any quiet piece 

 of water at the side of a stream, and any part of 

 the line alights in the current, the worm will be 

 swept out almost instantaneously. When you 

 throw your worm and line into an open stream, the 

 worm presenting considerable surface to its action 

 is carried down almost at the same rate as the 

 stream ; but the line, not presenting so much sur- 

 face to the action of the water, lags behind. If 

 this takes place to any extent, and there is much 

 line farther up the stream than the worm, the stream 

 still pressing on the worm, and the line above pre- 

 senting some resistance to the free progress of the 

 worm down stream, it is brought nearer the sur- 

 face. To avoid this, the angler should keep his 

 rod a little farther down stream than his worm, 

 and should have no part of his line in the water, but 

 four or five feet of the very finest gut, which should 

 now and then be drawn gently down stream, so as 

 to keep as little line above the worm as possible. 

 It is by attending to this that the angler can keep 

 his worm near the bottom ; but it must be done 



