THE TROUT 79 



he will soon smash your tackle to atoms. But in fine 

 clear streams, with gravelly and pebbly bottoms, fewer 

 hooks will answer better, inasmuch as deception is more 

 effectively preserved. 



Here we find a radical difficulty in explaining, in 

 writing, the acquisition of a purely mechanical art. By 

 once or twice looking at a good troUer, the youthful 

 angler will obtain more real insight into this mode of 

 trout-fishing than by perusing an entire volume on the 

 subject. All that a writer can do is to deal in general 

 description, and this always falls far short of elucidating 

 a matter depending more upon artistic adroitness than 

 upon abstract principles. Old Izaak Walton's mode of 

 trolling is thus stated : — 



' ' And then you are to know that your minnow must be put 

 on your hook, that it must turn round when it is drawn against 

 the stream ; and, that it may turn nimbly, you must put it on a 

 big-sized hook, as I shall now direct you, which is thus : put 

 your hook in at the mouth, and out at the gill ; then, having 

 drawn your hook two or three inches beyond a-through his gill, 

 put it again into his mouth, and the point and beard out at the 

 tail ; and then tie the hook and his tail about very neatly with a 

 white thread, which will make it the apter to turn quick in the 

 water ; that done, pull back that part of your line which was 

 slack when you did put your hook into the minnow the second 

 time. I say pull that part of your line back, so that it shall 

 fasten the head, so that the body of the minnow shall be almost 

 straight on your hook ; this done, try how it will turn by draw- 

 ing it across the water, or against the stream ; and if it do not 

 turn nimbly, then turn the tail a little to the right or left hand, 

 and try again till it turn quick, for, if not, you are in danger to 

 catch nothing ; for know that it is impossible that it should turn 

 too quick." 



This was Walton's method, two centuries and a 

 half ago. 



The mode of baiting with minnow, and managing the 

 rod and line in trolling, followed in the north of 

 England, and in most parts of Scotland, is substantially 

 the following : — A grilse-hook (No. 3 or 4) is placed at 

 the end of the line, but wrapped firmly and carefully 

 on the end of the shank to make it secure, and to leave 

 as much room as possible to bait. At the distance of 



