46 AN ANGLER'S BASKET. 



attitudes and variable speeds, will no doubt convey to the 

 mind of a trout, if trout have minds, the idea of a wounded 

 minnow endeavouring to escape, because a live minnow in 

 full possession of his faculties does, when pursued, execute a 

 somewhat similar corkscrewy mode of progression until he is 

 in safe quarters. 



A trout usually, but not invariably, takes a spinning 

 minnow from behind, but will in some cases follow the bait 

 for a comparatively long distance before he makes up his 

 mind to have it. For this reason it is essential that the hooks 

 about the tail of the bait should be so disposed that they can 

 scarcely fail to strike a trout the moment it touches it. To 

 effect this many anglers have added what is known as a flying 

 triangle to their body hooks, and with success; others, 

 relying on an ordinary triangle fixed in the minnow's side 

 near the tail, have often to lament frequent runs but no fish ; 

 one of the principal reasons for this being that the attacking 

 trout is unable to get his jaws over the head and so on to 

 the point of the triangle hook, which is, in fact, too long. 



ILL-EFFECTS OF MINNOW FISHING. 



In small rivers, such as the majority of northern waters, 

 a day or two's minnow fishing in low, clear water suffices to 

 put the trout down effectually ; it is not so much the 

 spinning bait that frightens them into their hiding places as 

 the needful wading up-stream ; there is nothing like the 

 sight of a pair of legs for inducing a stampede among 

 thoughtful trout for trout are thoughtful, and don't you 

 forget it. 



A REMINISCENCE. 



It is just forty years since I saw my first fish lying in the 

 grass. It was summer, and it seems to me that summers 

 were made differently then from what they are now. I was 



