142 THE PRACTICAL ANGLER 



ledge and taste. When worm-fishing is not in season, 

 the trout captured by it are neither so large or so well- 

 conditioned as those taken with the fly. Trout never 

 take a worm freely till they are thoroughly satiated 

 with surface food ; and this seldom happens until the 

 May-flies are off the water, or at a time varying from 

 the beginning of June to the beginning of July. 

 It is now that worm-fishing commences in earnest, 

 and really good and exciting sport it is. The trout 

 are in splendid condition, strong and vigorous; so 

 that a half-pound trout at this season will afford as 

 much play as one of twice the size would have done 

 two months earlier. It is the most certain and 

 deadly of all fishing ; and by it more trout may be 

 captured in the month of July than by any other 

 means in any other month of the year. And he is 

 not worthy of the name of angler who cannot, in any 

 day of the month, when the water is clear, kill from 

 fifteen to twenty pounds weight of trout in any 

 county in the south of Scotland.* 



Sport can also be more relied upon in this than in 

 any other kind of angling ; thunder in the air, that 

 dread of the fly-fisher, does little harm here. We 

 never found trout taking better than one day in Gala 

 during a thunder-storm, when we captured 22 J Ibs. 

 of trout ; and they continued taking as readily as 

 ever, till about one o'clock, when suddenly the water, 

 which before had been clear, came down quite thick 

 and muddy, and put an end to further sport. 



The first part of the day is undoubtedly the best, 

 * See introductory chapter, and footnote. 



