82 ANGLING. 



some knocking about, and, having to travel along the 

 bottom and meet all sorts of obstruction, it requires that 

 the worm should be big enough to thoroughly cover all 

 the hook, and to leave a bit of the tail beyond the point. 

 The angler, in a large stream, has nothing to do after 

 baiting his tackle but to drop it into the stream he has 

 selected, to let it find the bottom, and travel along by the 

 weight of the stream unchecked. If the line stops 

 suddenly, or he feels a slight pluck at the line, he probably 

 has a bite. He must not strike directly, or the trout, 

 having only just seized the worm, will not have the point 

 of the hook within his mouth, and the strike would be 

 abortive ; but give him a little line, and let him have a 

 gulp or two, and you can then strike smartly. If at the 

 bite you feel a smart " tug, tug," at the rod point, in all 

 probability the fish will feel it too, and will drop the worm, 

 and will not come again. 



If the fish are capricious, you will probably lose a good 

 many bites in a day ; for this kind of fishing is by no 

 means the certainty that some people who know nothing 

 about it consider it to be, and you lose as many or more 

 fish in bites at the worm than you do in rises at the fly. 

 When you have had a bite and missed your fish, you will 

 probably have to put on a fresh worm, as the bait will be 

 more or less torn, which trout do not much like, a fresh 

 lively bait always having the call over a stale one. Some- 

 times when the line stops it has taken hold of a twig or 

 root ; in that case, if you strike, you will probably get so 

 fast hold that a breakage will be needed. The slightest 

 tightness of the line will tell you at once whether it is a 

 fish or no, but this "feeling" a fish is a very delicate 

 ticklish operation, and the fish is very apt to reject the 

 bait when he feels there is something attached to it. 



