166 MINNOW AND PARR-TAIL FISHING. 



accustomed to prey upon their neighbours usually 

 attain great size, and may be more readily taken by 

 the minnow than by any other means ; but these 

 overgrown specimens are generally not inviting. 



The value of the minnow, however, as a lure for 

 trout, is to some extent lessened by the difficulty of 

 procuring them. In places and circumstances most 

 favourable to their use, it is sometimes impossible to 

 get them, and we have frequently found the capture 

 of minnows much more difficult than the capture of 

 the trout when we had got them; their capture, 

 therefore, becomes an object of primary consideration. 



Minnows are not easily caught till April, as it is 

 not till the streams are in some measure reduced 

 that they venture out from under the banks and 

 other places where they have sheltered themselves 

 from the torrents of winter. In most of the streams 

 in the south of Scotland they are to be found in 

 abundance from April to November. They frequent 

 the thin edges of pools, and every place where a 

 turn of the river leaves a corner, or as it is called 

 " back water," where they can swim unmolested ; 

 and in a sunny day such places may be seen almost 

 black with them. 



A great many different contrivances are em- 

 ployed to capture them. The small pout or landing- 

 net may be used very effectively during the time of 

 a flood, and it should be worked with the current 

 about the edges of places which the minnows are 

 known to frequent, and in back water. It may also 



