192 SPINNING THE WORM. 



expectedly deprived of his dinner, and the angler will 

 be minus his fish. 



It will doubtless have happened to every experienced 

 bait angler, that on certain days the fish are unusually 

 shy and more disposed to play with the bait than 

 swallow it ; when they will perpetually torment him by 

 mangling and rejecting the worm or nipping off its free 

 extremity, so as to render frequent renewals necessary. 

 It is when the trout are in this capricious mood, that 

 the fly-hook tackle described at page 186 will be found 

 the most efficient to use ; and if an extra degree of for- 

 bearance is exercised in striking, the angler's efforts may 

 still be crowned with success. A skilful fisher of my 

 acquaintance always made it a practice, on such an 

 occasion, to allow the line to be three times tugged, 

 and he then deliberately counted one two three 

 before he gave the stroke, and he seldom failed to capture 

 a goodly number of those cautious gentry. 



Before taking leave of this part of the subject, I shall 

 mention a method of manoeuvring the worm, invented 

 and successfully adopted by my son, who, though only a 

 boy of thirteen years of age, takes second rank to few of 

 his seniors, either as regards the management of the fly or 

 the worm, or the successful playing of a large trout 

 when he gets hold of one. It consists simply in playing 

 the worm across the water precisely as in minnow- 

 spinning, with the line pretty heavily shotted. Try the 

 plan, good reader, and you will not be disappointed. 



