THK TROUT. 91 



let it nearly touch the ground. In this manner I have caught 

 many fine trout in mill-dams, ponds, and deep quiet waters, 

 during July and August, when not a single fish would rise at 

 any kind of artificial fly which could be offered. I have never 

 seen the method described by any author on the subject, but 

 I can with confidence recommend it to my brothers of the 

 angle, at those times when the usual baits fail to procure a 

 dish of fish. 



" When you have struck a good fish, keep him as near 

 the top of the water as possible, and carry him down the 

 stream above the weeds, and, if you succeed in getting him 

 into clear water, with a little care he is your own." 



Cotton gives the following method of angling by the hand 

 with a ground bait: " And by much the best of all other, is 

 with a line full as long, or a yard longer than your rod ; with 

 no more than one hair* next the hook, and for two or three 

 lengths above it; and no more than one small pellet of shot 

 for your plumb ; your hook little; your worms of the smaller 

 brandlings, very well scoured; and only one upon your hook 

 at a time, which is thus to be baited : The point of your 

 hook is to be put in at the very tag of his tail, and run up his 

 body quite over all the arming, and still stripped on an inch 

 at least upon the hair; the head remaining part hanging 

 downward. And with this line and hook, thus baited, you 

 are evermore to angle in the streams, always in a clear rather 

 than a troubled water, and always up the river, still casting 

 out your worm before you with a light one-handed rod, like 

 an artificial fly, where it will be taken, sometimes at the top, 

 or within a very little of the superficies of the water, and 

 almost always before that light plumb can sink it to the bot- 

 tom; both by reason of the stream, and also that you must 

 always keep your worm in motion by drawing still back 



* If the American Angler prefer any of Walton's or Cotton's instruc- 

 tions, he should in all cases use fizie gut, instead of hair as described. 



