THE CADDIS, OR STRAW-BAIT. 255 



may be a better bait in large rivers for coarse fish 

 of the carp tribe, it is not so good a bait in the 

 gentle streams and pools of small trout and gray- 

 ling rivers as the cad or straw-bait. These baits 

 are the grubs or larvae of several of the angler's 

 best flies. No angling authority writes about them 

 more sensibly than Captain Williamson, who says, 

 " They are very fine baits for several kinds of 

 river fish. The angler must have seen in shallow 

 places, chiefly on stony or slimy bottoms, short 

 pieces of stick, or of straw, &c., which, if observed 

 attentively, will all appear to be animated. Gene- 

 rally, they consist of a short piece of straw, coated 

 over with a brown crust, and fixed to a small piece 

 of twig. Within the tube of straw is a maggot, of 

 a dun colour, with a dark head, which it pro- 

 trudes from under its little dwelling, and, by 

 means of four short stiff* legs, fixed close under 

 its neck, is enabled to crawl about the bottom, 

 carrying, like the snail, its house on its back. 

 Where the water is too deep to reach the caddies 

 with the hand, recourse should be had to a tin 

 basting-ladle, which will scoop them out admir- 

 ably, 'allowing the water to strain through the 

 holes in its half cover. In some places caddies 

 are prodigiously numerous, often covering the 

 bottoms of the shallows, either in pools or at the 

 edges of great waters, and clinging to growing or 

 dead rushes, reeds, twigs, &c. Although they 



