WITH THE PARR-TAIL, MINNOW, AND WORM. 279 



narily suggests itself, ought, as a final expedient, to 

 give out line liberally with his hand say three, four, 

 or five yards beyond what was made use of; he should 

 then cast out from him, as if with fly tackle, in the 

 direction taken immediately before running foul, and 

 finally, this done, recover line quickly. I know of no 

 surer method than this of liberating fast tackle. The 

 experiment, as detailed, may and ought to be repeated 

 at least a dozen times, without despair of success. In- 

 deed, unless the locking of the tackle happened to be 

 an involved or desperate one, I never saw it fail. 



I proceed now, having thus briefly disposed of these 

 methods of salmon-slaying, not however because they 

 merit small regard, but chiefly, as I have already in a 

 former chapter, engrossed all that appertains to either 

 subject, I proceed to describe the manner of fishing for 

 salmon with the worm, as practised on Tweedside. I 

 am not aware that in any one of our large northern 

 rivers, the Tay, Dee, Spey, Findhorn, Ness, or Shin, the 

 mode of angling I am about to treat of has been more 

 than very occasionally tried, and I can easily compre- 

 hend why such occasional experiments, although made 

 by those instructed in the art at the feet of old Father 

 Tweed himself, have generally proved failures. 



On these rivers, to give the experiment full justice, 

 the experimentalist would require not only an accurate 

 knowledge of how he is to conduct the whole process, 

 but he must have besides a most intimate acquaintance 

 with the stream he is angling in, and be able at a glance 

 to ascertain from its size, colour, and temperature in 

 what humour the fish are; for in worm-fishing for salmon 

 there is this peculiarity, that it cannot be indulged in as 

 a common or every-day sport, but is dependant more 

 closely upon circumstances than any other branch of 



