78 ANGLING. 



BO savage, that everybody's hand is against him, and he is 

 against everybody in general, and every fish in particular. 

 He flourishes and multiplies, notwithstanding his many 

 enemies, and he furnishes sport for the angler, which is 

 second only to fly-fishing in variety and excitement. Bot- 

 tom-fishing may be emphatically the " contemplative man's 

 recreation," and fly-fishing the acme of angling enjoyment, 

 but both can only be practised in certain seasons of the 

 year, while trolling and spinning may be pursued with more 

 or less success in any season, in any water, and in any clime. 

 England is, however, its home, and I recollect the feeling of 

 horror with which an Irish angler spoke of the practice of 

 an English " brother of the angle," who was capturing large 

 trout in the evening on one of the most beautiful lochs in 

 the country by spinning the minnow. This feeling is easily 

 understood by those living in the neighbourhood of good 

 trout streams and salmon rivers who have not been de- 

 prived of the sport of fly-fishing during their lives. But 

 the fly-fisher living on the banks of many English streams 

 finds it the only substitute for the higher pursuit, and 

 those who have tried it know that it is not a bad substitute 

 at all, and that to succeed calls forth all the skill of the 

 angler, while at the same time it furnishes healthy exercise 

 for body, legs, and arms. 



It is a tempting subject this fishing in mid- water. Every 

 troller can give you some anecdote or other of the omni- 

 vorous appetite of the pike, or has some pet bait with which 

 to catch him. I can only say in this place that pike 

 spawn generally early in March ; that they deposit their ova 

 amid aquatic plants an 1 weeds in shallowy streams, and 

 then return to deep water, leaving their young to care for 

 themselves, which they certainly manage to do from a very 



