METHODS OF CAPTURING MINNOWS. 169 



we would counsel an immediate application to the 

 bottle. We have started to fish with minnow in 

 the early morning without a minnow in our box. 

 Arrived at the water-side we set our bottle, and 

 then put up our rod ; by the time this was done 

 the bottle had secured a dozen, which we commenced 

 fishing with, and, then set the bottle again. Now 

 this is very convenient, and wastes less time than 

 any other method of catching minnows, and for the 

 minnow-fisher the bottle is a great invention. 



When minnows are intended to be used imme- 

 diately, they may be captured with a small hook. 

 The best way of doing this is to take a hook, and 

 attach to its shank three or four small pieces of gut, 

 with a pair of small hooks, say No. 11, attached to 

 each, which should hang from an inch to an inch 

 and a half below the single hook. This latter is 

 then baited with a small piece of red worm ; and 

 when the minnows are clustered about it, it is pulled 

 out with a jerk, and the angler will generally get 

 two or three minnows hooked by the outside of the 

 body. The object of this is to get small minnows, 

 as the bait is usually seized by the large ones, to 

 the exclusion of those which the angler wishes to 

 capture. 



Those anglers who have the command of a piece 

 of water can always keep a supply of live minnows 

 by enclosing them in a wire box, which should be 

 sunk to the bottom of the water by a weight, and 

 raised when the minnows are wanted. But as 



