SPINNING IN DEEP AND SHALLOW WATER. 213 



must be entirely subject to the breadth of the 

 water, and to the depth at the side; whence, the 

 length of your line being regulated, you will 

 have fair reason to expect a bite. It is proper to 

 remark, in this place, that the spinning-bait 

 answers well, both in deep strong water, in which 

 case, one or two shots above your swivel will be 

 proper, to keep the bait down ; or it will succeed 

 in those very rapid shallows, called scours, which 

 are to be found at the edges of all rivers in various 

 parts, and which sometimes stretch across the 

 beds of the rivers like banks, or what, in sea lan- 

 guage, are termed bars. 



" A good angler will make his bait spin in 

 still water ; but then the fish do not take it 

 readily, because the line, in such cases, cannot be 

 concealed from their view, and the perpetual, I 

 may indeed say the violent, action it must main- 

 tain scares them. This is not the case in a strong 

 current, which spins the bait when the line is 

 long, and when the rod is very gradually moved, 

 merely to direct the bait across the stream. With 

 the spinning-bait you will catch salmon in all its 

 varieties, trout, perch, and pike. Sometimes you 

 will find a chub on your hook. This, however, 

 is not the ordinary bait of that fish; but, when 

 very hungry, it will snap at small fishes, and may, 

 as I once experienced, be thus taken. Observe, 

 that as all fish, in seizing a spinning-bait, direct 

 p 3 



