138 TEOUT FISHING 



amount of water in the river. I write somewhat 

 guardedly respecting the time of using the beetle, 

 because I have killed so many fish with it on 

 all kinds of days, and even when the water has 

 been extremely low ; but I have endeavoured 

 to convey to my reader the general impression I 

 have, as to what circumstances are most condu-cive 

 to its killing powers, that any one wishing to begin 

 to practise this mode of fishing, may do so under 

 most favourable conditions, and become familiar 

 with it before he tries its comparative merits with 

 other baits ; as well as to insure a certain amount 

 of success, and avoid that disappointment which 

 might befall him from thinking that, because 

 it is said to be a most destructive bait, therefore 

 he is sure of killing lots of trout with it under all 

 circumstances. And I again remind the reader 

 that I have found, sometimes under apparently 

 the most favourable circumstances, that the trout 

 have not taken the bait as I expected, nor as well 

 as they would take other baits at the same time. 

 This quality of caprice in the trout, however, under 

 such circumstances, will not affect the tyro so 

 much as the adept, as, of course, the former must 

 expect to serve a hard and devoted apprenticeship 

 to the various modes of fishing before he can 

 reasonably suppose himself competent to decide 

 on the relative merits, at any particular time, of 

 any baits ; or even determine whether he, in his 

 means of using the bait, the particular bait itself, 

 or the trout, is most obnoxious to his success. 

 Before coming to the river, we may just awhile 



