THAMES TROUT-FISHING. 417 



It has been my luck never to be ' broken ' in Thames trout- 

 fishing. If, however, I have not cared to use the very thickest 

 gut, I have been most careful to look to my knots, lapping them 

 with fine floss silk, secured by a setting of copal varnish ; nor 

 have I ever used a trace, without first testing it by a dead strain 

 of four or five pounds. 



The proper leading of the trace I must leave to the angler's 

 own judgment and experience. Generally speaking, it should 

 of course be weighted in proportion to the depth and rapidity 

 of the water to be fished. A light lead will be useless in a 

 strong deep channel, a heavy one will be out of place over a 

 shallow. Occasional changes will therefore be necessary, and I 

 need hardly say that Piscator should be provided with leads of 

 various weight, threaded on gimp or wire, with a swivel at each 

 end, and ready for looping on as occasions required. In 

 ordinary practice, however, it will be found easier to change 

 the whole trace than to shift the lead, and he should therefore 

 have a light trace as well as a heavy one always ready to hand. 

 These will be found practically sufficient, as the sinking of the 

 lead in either case can be considerably modified by raising or 

 lowering the point of the rod, and by quickening or retarding 

 the gathering in of the line after each cast. 



The distance of the bait from the lead is another matter 

 which requires attention. My own practice has been to make 

 this distance somewhat greater than is usual with the generality 

 of Thames anglers. Three feet and a half seems to me not too 

 long an interval, except perhaps in fishing the head of a weir- 

 pool. Greater variety of sweep is thus given to the course of 

 the spinning bait, and it receives more life-like impulses from 

 irregularities in the force and direction of the current. 



I must not wholly pass by the much-discussed question, 

 ' What is the best form for a flight of spinning-hooks ? ' Yet after 

 a great variety of experiments, I cannot pretend to give a decided, 

 much less a decisive reply. I am rather tempted to answer 

 evasively, ' Use the flight with which you or your boatman if 

 he baits for you can make your bait spin best.' You want to 

 i. E E 



