116 TROCT FISHINa 



before the sun is up to reach some beauteous 

 valley, and there to witness the rays of the rising 

 sun bursting through the morning haze and mist, 

 clearing the atmosphere just now partially ob- 

 scured by the vapouring air, but now rarefied to 

 allow a more extended scene. Pardon, reader, 

 my hinting at the pleasure I remember, before 

 getting to the water; make the experiment your- 

 self, and I shall have your forgiveness. Arrived 

 at the water, my usual practice has been to com- 

 mence with the worm, and continue with this bait 

 until I find the fish are not taking it well ; I then 

 change for the artificial fly, and with this I work 

 away as long as I am confident I have the best 

 advantage with it. Now, I may say, that for 

 early, morning perhaps from four a.m. to ten a.m., 

 generally, the worm will beat the fly; supposing, 

 in this statement, that they be each managed 

 with equal skill by the fisherman. As a general 

 rale, in a complete day's work, the fly will beat 

 the worm in numbers, but the worm has the ad- 

 vantage in point of size. The worm is decidedly 

 the more uncertain bait of the two, i.e. sometimes 

 you can hardly kill a fish with it, at other times 

 you may kill them rapidly; with the fly you may 

 always kill some fish, but sometimes more than 

 others ; therefore, if they take the worm well, 

 stick to it if they do not take it well, waste no 

 time, but change to the fly; to persist with the 

 worm when they are taking badly, is, in my 

 opinion, a waste of time. And as we must give 

 a separate chapter to worm-fishing, we will say a 



