200 THE PRACTICAL ANGLER 



by any means attractive; and the practice is so 

 simple as to render it quite unworthy of the atten- 

 tion of the sportsman. 



That trout can detect the presence of roe in their 

 neighbourhood is certain, but, in our opinion, the 

 distance at which it is supposed they can do so is 

 greatly exaggerated. Mr. Stoddart mentioned that 

 on several occasions he captured trout which he had 

 every reason to believe had been attracted for half- 

 a-mile by the scent of this bait, which is certainly 

 giving trout credit for possessing extraordinary 

 powers of smell. We think that on the occasions 

 alluded to by Mr. Stoddart, he captured the trout 

 which belonged to a part of the river so much below 

 where he was, not because they had been attracted 

 all that distance by the smell of the roe, but because, 

 when a flood begins to subside in the fall of the year, 

 they travel upwards in search of spawning-ground. 

 As a proof of this, let any one commence angling 

 with the roe in a favourable state of the water during 

 March or April, when trout will take it as readily as 

 in November. On his first commencement at the top 

 of a pool, which we shall suppose is a hundred yards 

 long, he may capture in an hour three or four dozen 

 of trout ; but then there comes a stop, and though 

 he were to fish all day in the same place he would 

 get very few more. Let him transfer his operations 

 to the foot of the pool, and he may capture as many 

 more, showing either that the trout cannot detect 

 the presence of roe a hundred yards above them, or 

 that they cannot be troubled to go so far for it ; and 



