110 WORM FISHING FOR TROUT. 



attention of the fish is absorbed by surface food, it 

 is not advisable to fish with the worm after any 

 method, modern or ancient ; but when flies are scarce, 

 and the fish are eagerly upon the look out for what 

 the stream may produce in the shape of mid-water 

 food, or before the day's first instalment of winged 

 insects put in an appearance, the worm will do great 

 execution. This bait is inseparably connected with 

 angling by all non-practitioners of the art, but it has 

 been as much ignored in these fast-going times as it 

 was adored by our ancestors. It will admit of the 

 fly fisher for trout pursuing his sport in the teeth of 

 circumstances adverse to the more legitimate modes 

 of angling, 



The ordinary fly-rod and line are employed, we 

 had forgotten to observe, in conjunction with the fly 

 cast. The most favourable spots to fish are in the 

 surging waters of rivers and tiny cascades. A moun- 

 tain trout stream, in which are combined a continuous 

 and natural succession of turbulent rapids and pellucid 

 pools in miniature, affords the very acme of perfection 

 for the practice of this particular method of angling. 

 Owing to the smallness of the (Kendal) hooks used 

 (No. 10 being the size necessary), a small split shot 

 should be attached half-a-yard or so from the bait, 

 to give proper momentum in the boil of broken 

 waters. The lure should be drawn briskly through 

 even here, the strike of a fish being detected instanter 

 in these circumstances by the feel, as in the various 

 other styles of trouting in clear waters with the worm. 

 As the use of living bait is not infrequently objected 



