174 MINNOW AND PARR-TAIL FISHING. 



tion to these captured with the May-fly. Trout 

 accustomed to prey upon their neighbours usually 

 attain great size, and may be more readily taken by 

 the minnow than by any other means ; but these 

 overgrown specimens are generally not inviting. 



The value of the minnow, however, as a lure for 

 trout is to some extent lessened by the difficulty of 

 procuring them. In places and circumstances most 

 favourable to their use, it is sometimes impossible 

 to get them, and we have frequently found the 

 capture of minnows much more difficult than the 

 capture of the trout when we had got them ; their 

 capture, therefore, becomes an object of primary 

 consideration. 



Minnows are not easily caught till April, as it is 

 not till the streams are in some measure reduced 

 that they venture out from under the banks and 

 other places where they have sheltered themselves 

 from the torrents of winter. In most of the streams 

 in the south of Scotland they are to be found in 

 abundance from April to November. They frequent 

 the thin edges of pools, and every place where a 

 turn of the river leaves a corner, or as it is called 

 " back water," where they can swim unmolested ; 

 and in a sunny day such places may be seen almost 

 black with them. 



A great many different contrivances are em- 

 ployed to capture them. The small pout or land- 

 ing-net may be used very effectively during the 

 time of a flood, and it should be worked with the 



