160 CREEPER FISHING. 



trouts are lost by it if they once take hold. The best 

 angler who ever thrashed water James Baillie of 

 Lander baited the creeper in exactly the opposite 

 manner to that we ourselves practice. He, knowing 

 that trouts sieze all live provender by the head, 

 inserted the hook below the legs and brought out 

 the point above the breast bone ; but the insect when 

 baited in this way is apt to slip round the bend of the 

 hook after the first cast or two is made ; it is also 

 more difficult to bait it so without injuring it. 



Great care must be taken in casting with the 

 creeper, otherwise it gets destroyed : and those who 

 find that they cannot make a cast sufficiently soft 

 for the preservation of it, should use the two small 

 hooks just mentioned, as they keep it in better pre- 

 servation ; moreover, the two small hooks have been 

 the means of filling many a capacious creel. As the 

 creeper is soft and easily destroyed, it is difficult to 

 throw a long line ; so that to keep out of sight the 

 angler must stoop at certain places. Should he turn 

 creeper himself here and there he may find it profit- 

 able. When fishing with this bait we almost never 

 use a sinker, as the trouts rise and take it about mid- 

 depth, and often within an inch or two of the surface, 

 even in heavy streams. In very heavy streams, how- 

 ever, a single shot, No. 3 or 4, may sometimes be used 



