140 AMERICAN ANGLER'S BOOK. 



The disgorging-hook and baiting-needle are considered 

 superfluous by American trollers, a forked stick being used 

 to disengage the bait when it is far down the fish's throat. 



In putting on the minnow for a bait, the twisted wire to 

 which the leaded hook is fastened is put — small end foremost 

 of course — into the mouth of the bait, and worked along the 

 backbone until it comes out at the tail, when it is drawn 

 entirely through, the lead lying in the belly of the minnow. 

 The tail and back fins are then nipped off with a knife, or 

 with the thumb and finger-nails, and the minnow bent slightly 

 near the tail to insure its spinning or twirling, and attached 

 to the gimp by the hook-swivel. In trolling, the minnow is 

 drawn through the water tail foremost. If you cast much 

 among weeds and grass, it is necessary to tie the tail of the 

 bait to the wire of the gorge-hook, with a few turns of coarse 

 thread ; it is perhaps better in all cases. English anglers are 

 sometimes so nice as even to sew up the mouth of the 

 minnow. 



With a line of convenient length, not longer than the 

 rod, approach the bank carefully, casting close in shore, 

 dropping the bait in softly, and by successive short pulls, 

 raising and lowering the point of your rod, draw it towards 

 you. You will notice that as you lower the point of the 

 rod, the bait shoots forward and downward with a spiral 

 motion, assisted in its twirling by the easy turning of the 

 swivels and its having been bent, and that it spins or 

 twirls in the same way as it is drawn towards you. When 

 you have drawn in the bait sufficiently near you by these 

 short pulls, raise it gently from the water, and cast and draw 

 as before. If your bait is not taken near the bank, extend 

 your cast up and down, and across towards the opposite bank, 

 and towards the water-lilies, brush-wood, and under-bushes, 

 and around and about old stumps, being careful not to be 

 caught by roots or brush. 



