FISHING WITH MINNOW 167 



ness done with some of the whoppers that sel- 

 dom come abroad in the daytime under normal 

 circumstances. 



LII 



In this blessed land of freedom one is permitted 

 to entertain and proclaim opinions of pighing with 

 every degree of latitude on any con- Minnow 

 ceivable subject. That is a great privilege, no 

 doubt; but a still greater is that nobody is com- 

 pelled to listen to, still less to agree with, the 

 opinions of anybody else. I am transgressing no 

 law, therefore, in affirming that the only sportsman- 

 like way of taking trout is with the artificial fly, 

 although that will be reckoned rank heresy by those 

 who own Izaak Walton as the only true head. Mr. 

 Andrew Lang, in editing one of the hundred and 

 odd editions of the Compleat Angler, was the first to 

 point out that Izaak was no fly-fisher. It is true 

 that he gives a jury of twelve flies, with directions 

 how to tie them ; but these were cribbed sans phrase 

 from an earlier authority, Mr. Barker. Walton 

 himself had his limitations; he had heard of, but 

 never seen, the use of a reel, and he relied for 

 his diversion on 'the cork or trembling quill' 



