TROLLING. 103 



SECT. I. TROLLING. 



THIS description of fishing is, as I have already said, a 

 very killing one; though to render it successful requires 

 some skill as well as activity. 



Anglers divide trolling into three kinds: sinking 

 and roving with live bait trolling with gorge and 

 snap hooks, and dead bait and spinning, in which the 

 fish with which the hook is baited, whether real or 

 artificial, is given a revolving motion. 



The fish to be taken by trolling are salmon, trout, 

 pike, and perch. 



Trolling is much esteemed, especially in the vicinity 

 of London, and is practised when other modes of 

 fishing are useless. 



For trolling, properly so called that is, with a gorge 

 bait the rod should be long and stout. A well- 

 seasoned bamboo-cane, from fourteen to sixteen feet in 

 length, is the best you can have; but in the absence of 

 this, take the next best within reach. If you have a 

 winch on the rod, there should be a ring on each of its 

 joints; but if a thumb- winder is used, which some prefer, 

 a large ring at the top of the rod, or at most two or 

 three up it, will be ample. The rings must be large 

 and strong, however, and the top one, two or three times 

 the size of the rest. Trolling is sometimes practised, 

 and not unsuccessfully, with a hedge stick, having a 

 forked top, the line passing from the thumb-winder 

 over the fork of the stick, which thus forms the top of 

 the rod. 



The trolling-line should be of silk, or of silk and hair; 

 the former, however, is preferable. The length should 

 be from fifty to sixty yards, and it should be seasoned, 



