CHAPTEE VII. 



ON ANGLING WITH THE WORM. 



ISHING with the worm is not usually 

 held in such high estimation as it de- 

 serves ; a circumstance entirely owing to 

 its being but very imperfectly understood. 

 Fly-fishers are apt to sneer at worm-fish- 

 ing as a thing so simple that any one 

 may succeed in it their notions of it 

 being that it is practised either when the 

 waters are swollen after rain, or with a float and 

 sinkers in some deep pool ; and it is not surprising 

 that with such ideas of it, they should hold it in 

 contempt. Worm-fishing is only worthy of the 

 name of sport, when practised in streams inhabited 

 by wary trout when they are low and clear. Under 

 such circumstances it becomes a branch of the art, 

 which, to be pursued with success, requires the most 

 intimate acquaintance with the habits of the trout, 

 and the nicest powers of casting ; and which in 

 point of difficulty is only inferior to fly-fishing. 

 Those anglers who despise worm-fishing as a thing 

 so simple as to be quite unworthy <5f their atten- 



