152 CREEPER FISHING. 



CREEPEB FISHING. 



BY THE EDITOR. 



Its head was covered wi' a black airn ladle, 

 It liad black legs, and tail as sharp's a needle, 

 A great red e'e stood stairin' in its breast, 

 I'm like to swarf 0, 'twas a fearfu' beast ! 



Tannahill. 



Though .the creeper has long been known as a 

 deadly bait to the knowing ones who have used it, 

 so conservative are anglers in general, that it is only 

 within the last year or two it has been much used 

 on the Borders, especially on the lower parts of the 

 Tweed, and on -the Teviot and its tributaries. 

 Younger himself was influenced by this feeling, and 

 said he " couldna be fashed to write aboot it ; it was 

 sic a short time on." Cotton knew it, and calls it a 

 Jack, the name, by the way, of a fish common in the 



