IV. 



in the following pages, the opinions which, after upwards of 

 twenty years practical experience as an Angler, I have formed 

 as to fish and fishing. I have, indeed, made it the business of 

 my life to study the habits of fresh- water fish, and to devise the 

 best means of Angling for them at all seasons of the year, and in 

 every condition of the water, so that the sentiments which I 

 have expressed in this work are not founded on theory, but based 

 on long, careful, and diligent personal observation. Unfortunately; 

 I am no scholar I am but a "plain blunt man" and make no 

 pretensions whatever to having written in a pleasing and 

 attractive style. If I have succeeded in making myself under- 

 stood, I have done as much as I expected to be able to perform 

 in a literary way. 



I hope the contents of the book will be found to justify the 

 title which I have adopted for it. I have described the habits 

 of the fish pointed out their haunts at the various seasons of 

 the year the best baits to use for taking them, and when, how, 

 and where they should be Angled for. I have shown what rods, 

 reels, lines, and tackles should be used in Angling for the different 

 fish ; and, in short, I have given such instructions, and laid down 

 such rules as, I think, if attended to, cannot fail to make a good 

 Angler of the most inapt scholar. 



It will be observed that the Salmon is not among the fish that 

 I have treated of. Although I have had so many years experience 



