192 COARSE FISH. 



is pretty work to guide your bait over them ; if the 

 line be allowed to drag ever so little in the wrong 

 place, the precise spot may not be reached in time, 

 and your chance is lost for the time being. As 

 trout are often hooked forty or fifty yards from the 

 rod-top, there is a great diversity of water between 

 rod and bait, and the workings of different eddies 

 have to be learnt by experience. If the trout does 

 not take the bait instantly, let it rest quietly at his 

 feeding-place ; here, the advantage of livebaiting is 

 apparent in quiet places, for a livebait can be kept 

 still, or nearly so, in a spot through which the 

 spinning bait must pass. In very quick runs, live or 

 spinning baits can be worked with equal ease. If 

 I know the feeding-place of a good trout in a weir, 

 I try that place first of all ; but I begin with all the 

 likely places near at hand when fishing strange 

 weirs, then try mid-weir, lastly all the distant spots, 

 thoroughly working all eddies, and, where possible, 

 the shallows, lighter tackle being required for the 

 latter than for the mid or head weir runs. I have 

 taken most trout with a quickly-moving bait, either 

 with a lengthy draw, or by moving the bait with a 

 series of short jerks. On more than one occasion, 

 I have seen trout follow the bait for a consider- 

 able distance, finally taking it with a grand rush or 

 leap. The fish give no warning, as a rule, and 

 hardly any splash ; when the bait is worked deeply, 

 the pull only is felt, but it is a pull, and no mis- 

 take, perhaps followed up by a rush of thirty 

 yards or more. It is difficult to give advice as 

 regards striking fish, as so much depends 

 on the way the bait has been taken. In 

 spinning, the angler should strike without a doubt ; 

 but in livebaiting, the hooks are free, and many 



