122 DIPPING WITH BEETLES. 



may also be angled with, as directed for grasshoppers. 

 Various species, of different sizes and colours, may be 

 found infesting different sorts of trees and plants, as 

 well as in the neighbourhood of all decaying matter, 

 animal and vegetable. The copper-coloured ones are 

 the best, while those found under horse and cow dung 

 in the meadows are excellent baits for large trout. In 

 preparing beetles for baits, the elytra, or external wing- 

 covers, should be cut off with a pair of scissors, and 

 then the hook inserted through the thorax, allowing the 

 legs to hang downwards, when they may be dipped with 

 on the surface the same as flies. They may be secured 

 in any wooden or tin box perforated with air-holes. 

 The carnivorous tribes, however, are very apt to attack 

 and destroy each other when confined in close quarters, 

 and will often carry on a war of extermination, until 

 nothing but a single valiant conqueror remains to hold 

 his desolating sway over a devastated heap of mutilated 

 remains ; or the bloody conflict lasts, until they have 

 fairly eaten up each other like the Kilkenny cats. 



In fishing with beetles and grasshoppers in the 

 streams and open water, place a single shot pellet on 

 the line in order to keep the bait rolling along about 

 mid-water (this may be done by proportioning the size 

 of the shot pellet to the strength of the current), and 

 commence at the top of the stream, as in worm-fishing ; 

 and creeping cautiously forward on hands and knees, if 

 requisite, drop the beetle or grasshopper gently and slily 

 over the bank, close by the edge of the water in the first 

 instance ; then gradually advance, cast after cast, until 



