ON RAPID STREAMS. 185 



you are using the worm, should you witness the 

 twitching and jerking of the collar to recur fre- 

 quently with different trout, you had better change, 

 and continue no longer with the worm. Again, 

 if you have the tails of three or four worms in 

 succession bitten off without capturing the trout, 

 delay no longer, some other mode may be adopted 

 superior in killing powers to the worm. If, on 

 the contrary, every, or nearly every fish that comes 

 to you, exhibits a quiet manner in his mode of 

 stopping the worm, and then runs with it in his 

 mouth back to his lurking place, or seizing the 

 worm with greedy avidity, darts off in a deter- 

 mined course, you will do best to persevere with 

 the worm, which, under such conditions, is the 

 most killing bait you can use. 



I have already said that I usually begin in the 

 early morning with the worm, and I persevere 

 with it till I find I am losing the tails of many 

 worms, getting many bites from small fish, and 

 killing very few big ones ; I then usually try the 

 artificial fly if that is killing fish up to my ideas 

 of the number and size the river is capable of 

 affording, I continue with it ; if, on the con- 

 trary, the numbers are too few, or the size too 

 small, I then try another and another mode, tak- 

 ing care to give each a fair and patient trial. 

 Towards the afternoon I come back again very 

 often to the worm, if the minnow is not killing 

 well. It has seemed to me that the middle of 

 the day has usually afforded the least sport with 

 the worm this is a conviction to be accepted 



