182 APPLICATION OF SINKERS. 



loaded line lying motionless exactly in the spot where it 

 was cast, it will require no sage to predict that he will be 

 more indebted to good luck than skill, if he ever takes a 

 fish, unless the water is populous indeed, and the fish as 

 sharply on the look-out for food as a lawyer is for clients. 

 In regard to the float : in deep, muddy, still waters, 

 in ponds, or in perch-fishing, it may be used with 

 evident advantage to suspend the bait at a proper dis- 

 tance from the bottom, and to keep it in motion, and 

 from lying dead upon the mud ; but in all clear, shallow, 

 or swift-running streams, it is worse than useless, and 

 few indeed of our northern anglers ever saw one. 



PELLET SINKERS. 



The bait, once in the water, must be made to swim 

 as near to the bottom as possible, yet it must not be 

 suffered to touch or rest there, but be kept rolling gently 

 along, at a distance of three or four inches from it, by the 

 flow of the current. To effect this in different depths of 

 water and velocities of current, much judgment is re- 

 quired in the due loading of the line with sinkers, 

 according to the varying depth and rapidity of the 

 same. In comparatively still water, perhaps no sinkers 

 may be necessary, the natural gravity of the hook and 

 worm being alone sufficient but where there is con- 

 siderable depth, or any current exists, one, two, or more 

 No. 4 shot pellets must be applied from nine to twelve 

 inches from the hook, and about three quarters of an 

 inch from each other, so as to avoid exciting any sus- 



