SPINNING AND BAIT FISHING. 417 
up stream, letting the current, with an occasional assistance 
from hand and line, bring it down almost to his feet, or parallei 
with him to right or left, and if he gets a bite he strikes almost 
at once—or at any rate after three or four seconds—down 
stream, and retires with the descending fish until he has safely 
transferred it to his creel, usually without quitting the water. 
He then returns cautiously to his former standpoint and re- 
news his attentions to the still unfrightened fish above—thus 
gradually ascending the stream step by step, and fishing every 
yard of water in front of him. 
I would not be understood to advocate for a moment the 
use of the worm, even if practicable, in our highly stocked 
southern streams, nor would I personally exchange it for the fly 
whenever there is a reasonable chance of making a bag with the 
latter, but it frequently happens in such conditions of water and 
weather as 1 have described that this is in fact impossible, and 
there are hundreds of miles of wild river and stream scattered 
over Ireland and Scotland, and some of our Border counties, 
where worm fishing finds its legitimate scope and opportunity. 
And thus pursued I unhesitatingly assert that it is a branch of 
the sport which is in every way worthy of encouragement. 
As the ‘ Fishing Gazette’ has observed: ‘There are more 
ways than one of fishing with the worm for trout, and it 
depends very much upon local circumstances whether the plan 
employed is fair or unfair. The man who by up-stream fishing 
on such waters as the Yore, the Coquet, the Eden, in June, 
July, and August, can in low clear water kill a basket of trout 
in the daytime is not less scientific or sportsmanlike than the 
fly fisher,’ 
As I have pointed out, an extreme refinement of tackle and 
hiceness cf manipulation is required of the successful practi- 
tioner in the modern school of worm-fishing. For short rods, 
coarse gut, and a single big hook must be substituted a long, 
light, and more or less pliant weapon, the very finest gut, and 
hooks but little larger than those on which the fly fisher dresses 
his gnats and midges. 
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