130 Improved Asiatic trimmer. Chapt. ix. 



its brittleness, you need not bemoan the absence of gimp, 

 for you will find it a good substitute, and easily procur- 

 able for a mere song all along the west coast of India. 

 Having live baited, you can fish with a rod, or can set 

 trimmers after the English fashion for pike, just as you 

 prefer. 



But there is yet another way of fishing for murrel 

 which is the most killing of all. It is the native method 

 of setting a trimmer, and is very simple and very perfect. 

 In your large still pool look for a bush with a bough 

 overhanging the water. You will find plenty of them, 

 and can set an Asiatic trimmer at each. Be prepared 

 with some live frogs in a covered earthen pot. Bait one 

 by passing a hook in and out through a little bit of skin 

 in the centre of the back. Be careful you do not touch 

 any thing but the veriest skin, and bear in mind old 

 Izaak Walton's famous injunction to "treat him tenderly 

 "as if you loved him." Then reach out, and pass the 

 line over a fork in the overhanging bough, the object of 

 the fork being to keep the line off the shore, and then 

 lower away your frog till he just sits comfortably and 

 naturally on the surface of the water, unsuspended by 

 the hook, his weight really being on the water, and yet 

 without an inch of slack line. Then make fast to any 

 convenient object on the shore, giving, as aforesaid, no 

 slack line at all. You may leave it to do its work 

 while you go away and tie a dozen more, or spin, or 

 smoke the pipe of peace. 



The murrel feeds largely on frogs, and sailing quietly 



