206 ELEMENTS OF ANGLING. 



line in the rings and beyond the top ring, this will 

 give one a cast of ten yards at least, which is often 

 ample. With practice one can coil more line on 

 one's hand, but the first loop to go on should always 

 be the biggest, and the first to go off the smallest. 

 Otherwise one gets glorious tangles. Having 

 hooked a fish from the coil, I hold him for a second 

 to get the hooks home, and at the same time let 

 the slack fall so as to wind it back on to the winch, 

 if he gives me time. If not, I play him from the 

 hand. Usually one does get time for winding soon 

 after his first rush. 



Lastly, there is what may by courtesy be termed 

 spinning, the practice of trailing (it is often erro- 

 neously called "trolling") for big lake trout in 

 Ireland and Scotland. The angler simply sits in 

 the stern of a boat and lets his spinning bait trail 

 thirty yards or more behind w r hile somebody else 

 rows. The tackle and rod must be strong, as a big 

 pike or a salmon is sometimes a possibility. No 

 overwhelming display of skill is demanded of the 

 angler, but the oarsman must know something 

 about the geography of the lake and the nature of 

 the bottom. Trailing may, however, be made some- 

 thing like an art if the angler does his own rowing, 

 and is alone; in fact, there are few kinds of fishing 

 which demand more promptitude and resource. 



