84 Advantages of Trolling. 



The great advantage of trolling with the Minnow is, 

 that it may be very successfully practised at those periods 

 when the water is unfit for the fly. The strongest 

 streams are best for the purpose; even holding it in 

 white water answers well. I have seen this done with 

 good effect when the water was black or brown after a 

 flood, or when discoloured from any other cause. It is 

 not only a destructive bait in thick or discoloured, but 

 even more so in clear waters, and on the brightest days, 

 when killing fish with the artificial fly is most difficult. 

 At such times it answers well for a change, and is very 

 exciting sport, because you can in clear water see your 

 fish as he rises to take it. If he be a large one, the play 

 tries the nerves a little, particularly if you are very finely 

 tackled, which you should be when angling in this way, 

 the fineness of your tackle tending in no slight degree to 

 increase your sport. 



There are various opinions as to the best method of 

 baiting with the Minnow, each troller being wedded, as 

 it were, to his own. I will now try to explain a few of 

 these. We will begin with the simplest set of hooks called 

 a Minnoiv tackle. When trout, &c. are on the feed this 

 answers every purpose, and is the least likely to give 

 trouble, because there are fewer hooks to get entangled 

 in the meshes of the net when landing a fish than in the 

 other plans where more hooks are used, and consequently 

 exposed. 



To carry out this, take a large-sized worm-hook for a 

 middle-sized Minnow, or even one as large as the middle- 

 sized salmon flies are dressed upon for a large Minnow ; 

 that is, adapt the size of your hook to that of your bait, 

 (some use a No. 10, or 11 Limerick,) and tie it on to a 

 good round length of gut, then take a No. 4 Limerick 

 fly-hook and wrap it*on to the same piece of gut, so that 

 the bend of the smaller hook may be about a quarter of 



