9o THE SCIENTIFIC ANGLER. 



often exceed the joint takes of several orthodox fly fishers, 

 more especially if the said rod be assiduously worked in 

 early morn, during the first few hours of daylight, just 

 as the fish commence to move playfully, as though de- 

 monstrating pleasure at the advent o-f yet another day. 

 Whenever the attention of the fish is absorbed by surface 

 food, it is not advisable to fish with the worm after any 

 method, modern or ancient ; but when flies are scarce, 

 and the fish are eagerly upon the look out for what the 

 stream may produce in the shape of mid- water food, or 

 before the day's first instalments of winged insects put in 

 an appearance, the worm will do great execution. This 

 bait is inseparably connected with angling by all non- 

 practitioners of the art, but it has been as much ignored 

 in these fast-going times as it was adored by our ancestors. 

 It will admit of the fly fisher for trout pursuing his sport 

 in the teeth of circumstances adverse to the more legiti- 

 mate modes of angling. 



The ordinary fly-rod and line are employed, we had 

 forgotten to observe, in conjunction with the fly cast. 

 The most favorable spots to fish are in the surging waters 

 of rivers and tiny cascades. A mountain trout stream, 

 in which are combined a continuous and natural succes- 

 sion of turbulent rapids and pellucid pools in miniature, 

 affords the very acme of perfection for the practice of 

 this particular method of angling. Owing to the small- 

 ness of the (Kendal) hooks used (No. 10 being the size 

 necessary), a small split shot should be attached half-a- 

 yard or so from the bait, to give proper momentum in 

 the boil of broken waters. The lure should be drawn 

 briskly through even here, the strike of a fish being de- 

 tected instanter in these circumstances by the feel, as in 

 the various other styles of trouting in clear waters with 

 the worm. As the use of living bait is not infrequently 

 objected to on the ground of cruelty, we may state that 

 even worms have of late been added to the immense cate- 



