METHODS OF CAPTURING MINNOWS. 177 



mind, and anything is better than running short of 

 minnows; and when any difficulty occurs in this 

 respect we would counsel an immediate application 

 to the bottle. We have started to fish with min- 

 now in the early morning without a minnow in 

 our box. Arrived at the water-side we set our 

 bottle, and then put up our rod ; by the time this 

 was done the bottle had secured a dozen, which 

 we commenced fishing with, and then set the bottle 

 again. Now this is very convenient, and wastes 

 less time than any other method of catching min- 

 nows, and for the minnow-fisher the bottle is a great 

 invention. 



When minnows are intended to be used imme- 

 diately, they may be captured with a small hook. 

 The best way of doing this is to take a hook, and 

 attach to its shank three or four small pieces of gut, 

 with a pair of small hooks, say No. n, attached to 

 each, which should hang from an inch to an inch 

 and a half below the single hook. This latter is 

 then baited with a small piece of red worm ; and 

 when the minnows are clustered about it, it is 

 pulled out with a jerk, and the angler will gene- 

 rally get two or three minnows hooked by the out- 

 side of the body. The object of this is to get small 

 minnows, as the bait is usually seized by the large 

 ones, to the exclusion of those which the angler 

 wishes to capture. 



Those anglers who have the command of a piece 

 of water can always keep a supply of live minnows 



M 



