136 TROUT FISHING 



respect to the beetle or fern web, that I must 

 strongly impress it on the mind of any one begin- 

 ning this kind of fishing, otherwise much disap- 

 pointment will result, and perhaps the real value 

 of the bait never be understood, because the first 

 few times it may be tried it may be found not to 

 be killing; from which it will bp inferred, after 

 too limited an experience, that it is not a good 

 bait, and that I have overrated its killing powers. 

 The season that I have usually done best with 

 the fern web or beetle is when the weather is 

 extremely hot, in June or July, and when the 

 water happens to keep up, so that there are plenty 

 of rapids, and therefore plenty of fishing, the state 

 of the water being just that which is most favour- 

 able for all kinds of fishing. The most killing 

 part of the day is the morning. You may begin 

 with it in June at five or six a.m., and often find 

 the trout take it at that time. I think I have 

 killed more from nine to eleven or twelve than at 

 any other period of the day, but this possibly may 

 be accounted for by my practice of using always 

 not that bait which simply is at any time killing, 

 but that which in my opinion the trout are taking 

 best, or with which I can kill most fish. Hence, 

 occasionally, I may have used the worm the first 

 thing in the morning, up to nine a.m., when, by 

 means of the beetle, I could have done as well, or 

 perhaps better before that hour than I did with it 

 afterwards when I had changed to it from the 

 worm. It certainly, as a general rule, is not so 

 good a bait as others, when the sun is sinking 



