SPINNING AND BAIT FISHING. 405 
12 feet, I should select, in the absence of local guidance, tor 
my ‘trial spin’ over new water. The sea-trout is also very 
partial to weeds. 
Regular lake spinning for brown trout is seldom worth 
while unless they run large, say over a pound at any rate, as 
otherwise more sport and better will be obtained by fly-fishing. 
Moreover, spinning for brown trout in lakes is rarely, in my 
experience, very deadly, unless in waters of considerable size, and 
in rough windy weather. There are, however, exceptions to 
this rule, and I have more than once made a good basket of | 
brown trout when the sun was at its brightest, and the surface 
of the lake like a mill pond, with an ordinary Devon or hex- 
agonal brass minnow substituted for the fly at the end of the 
gut-cast, and an extemporised swivel arrangement, by cutting 
the casting line and ‘knotting in’ a set of fine double swivels. 
In this sort of trolling, or ‘trailing,’ where no weight beyond 
the brass minnow is required, I found a bit of lead-wire 
twisted round the gut above the swivels a very efficient prevent- 
ative of kinking. (See engraving, p 383.) 
In judging of the ground over which it is best to spin, the 
following additional hints may be of use. 
There is round the shores of almost all lakes a point on 
the shelving bank under the water line at which light and dark 
seem to meet; in other words, where the rocky or gravelly 
bottom becomes quite invisible, owing to the depth of water. 
Just about this line, and rather a yard or two outside than 
inside of it, is usually the best for spinning. The food of both 
the Great Lake and brown trout consists, to a great extent, of 
small fry. These usually, in nautical phraseology, more or less 
«hug the shore,’ up which, therefore, stopping short at the 
shallows, the trout naturally comes in pursuit of them. This 
question of locality is, as I pointed out in the ‘Modern Prac- 
tical Angler,’ rather an important one, as thereupon it depends 
mainly whether the bait is ever in a position to be seen by the 
fish it is intended to catch. The observation has special refer- 
ence a!so to the Great Lake trout, in regard to which I have 
