JULY 167 



shall have no cause to complain that the 

 trout are languid. The condition is not 

 easily fulfilled. A fly, or two flies, or 

 even three, can be cast so far that, using 

 ordinary caution, you do not come within 

 the trout's range of vision ; but if you 

 toss a worm as sharply as you cast a 

 fly the bait will leave the hook. Hook, 

 observe ! A single hook, and that small, 

 instead of a Stewart tackle, which is a 

 flight of three hooks, is to be commended. 

 It leaves the lure comparatively un- 

 trammelled, and therefore the more 

 effective. Deftly dropped near where 

 a trout is lying, a worm at this time 

 of the year, unless a thunderstorm is 

 coming, will as a rule be rushed at. I 

 am old-fashioned enough, as they would 

 say in the Quarterly Review, either the 

 blue or the buff, to be joyful at that 

 great moment. Worm-fishing is tabooed 

 on many streams ; but the objection 

 cannot be sustained. A nibble at a worm 

 is at least as exciting as a rise at a fly. 

 The rise is over and done with, one way 



