OTHER MEANS OF CATCHING SEA-TROUT 51 



an emphatic affirmative and add that, as the worm is 

 the natural food of most fish, the wriggler is a deadly 

 lure for sea- trout. 



An illuminating illustration of the killing properties of 

 this common worm came to my notice recently. 



Entering a river much favoured by sea-trout, is an 

 insignificant brooklet which, in the summer months, is 

 nothing more than a series of muddy pools connected by 

 an almost imperceptible trickle. 



One year, during spring and summer, no measurable 

 rain fell for several months, and the river was at a lower 

 level than had ever been known. Salmon fishers were 

 in despair, and sea-trout anglers gloomily regarded 

 the shrinking waters. The pools in the brooklet evapor- 

 ated and the course was littered with tins and other 

 debris. 



Late September brought with it tropical rain, and 

 consequent heavy floods. The river spread itself over its 

 banks and the brooklet's way was transformed into a 

 dirty torrent. An old man through whose garden the 

 raging stream raced, assembled a shabby rod and some 

 rough tackle. Then, for an hour in the morning, he 

 endeavoured to fish with a lobworm, but the current was 

 too strong. In the evening, however, the fury of the 

 spate subsided and, close to a bend in the bank, a tiny 

 backwater provided an opportunity for keeping a baited 

 hook quiescent on the bed of the stream. The old man 

 was fully alive to this fact, as he was no novice at this 

 game, and in a couple of hours he hiked out eleven brown 

 trout of goodly size and four sea-trout ranging from a 

 pound to two pounds in weight. A stranger to this 

 district would scarcely have thought that sea-trout 

 could be taken from such an inauspicious place, but 

 angling supplies some queer illusions for those not 

 initiated in all its secrets. 



