FOE TKOUT. 89 



partial to a change in this respect. Take as an illustra- 

 tion upon a recent occasion having been requested to 

 test the killing qualities of a new artificial, we had re- 

 paired to a famous brooklet, and had succeeded in creeling 

 some four brace of good fish from a confined length of a 

 hundred and fifty yards, which was the extent of our 

 permit. All further dealings were ignored after this be- 

 ing accomplished, though we had moved many more fish 

 than we had taken. Something like half an hour elapsed 

 without our turning over a single fin. Upon this we put 

 another bait of a totally different shade, when in action, 

 upon the line, and commenced, and in the course of the 

 next twenty minutes five more fish were landed, when the 

 fish again turned stupid; but upon a bright metal bait, 

 without coloring matter at all, being presented to them, 

 two more brace were taken. Beyond doubt the fish's eye 

 and palate are tickled by a change occasionally. 



We invariably advocate the use of the very finest possi- 

 ble tackle for mid-water fishing in low and clear water. 

 The popular belief would appear to be strongly in favor 

 of the reverse; for bait spinning under all circumstances, 

 scarcely anything can be more erroneous. The accom- 

 plished scientific troller will extract fish where it is 

 usually deemed almost an impossibility. And when an 

 incredulous bungler fails to effect a single capture, and 

 returns troutless and dispirited from the well-stocked 

 stream, fair sport will often accompany the rodster who 

 is really a master of the trolling art. 



THE ROD, to be suitable for spinning, should be bamboo 

 or cane, light and stiff, and from twelve to fourteen feet 

 in length for open water; but for small streams eleven or 

 twelve feet is recommended as being quite long enough. 

 The sixteen and eighteen feet double-handed rods, usually 

 advocated, are now deemed much too cumbrous, and are 

 rapidly being discarded. The greater utility of a single- 

 handed light rod has long been obvious to a large class of 



