86 
THE TROUT. 
when it is drawn in the water. When all is in order, I take 
the line in my left hand, a little above the bait, and throw it 
under-hand, lifting up my right and the rod, that the bait 
may fall gently on the water. 
“ I stand at the very top of the stream, as far off as my 
tackle will permit, and let the bait drop in a yard from the 
middle of it; I draw the minnow by gentle pulls, of about a 
yard at a time, across the stream, turning my rod up the 
water, within half a yard of its surface, keeping my eye fixed 
on the minnow. When a fish takes it, ho generally hooks 
himself ; however, I give him a smart stroke, and, if he does 
not get off then, I am pretty sure of him. In this manner I 
throw in three or four times, at the upper part of a stream, 
but never twice in the same place, but a yard lower every 
cast. I always throw quite over the stream, but let the bait 
cross it in a round, like a semicircle, about a foot below the 
surface, which two of No. 3 or 4 shot, which I always have 
upon my line, nine or ten inches from the hooks, will sink 
it to. When I am drawing the bait across the stream, I keep 
the top of the rod within less than a yard from the water, and 
draw it downwards, that the bait may be at a greater distance 
from me, and the first thing that the fish will see. Some* 
times I can see the fish before he takes the bait, and then 1 
give in the rod a little, that the minnow may, as it were, 
meet him half-way ; but if I think he is shy, I pull it away, 
and do not throw it in again till he has got to his feeding 
place. 
“ The twirling of the minnow is the beauty of this kind of 
angling, the fish seeing it a greater distance, and fancying it 
is making all the haste it can to escape from them ; and they 
make the same haste to catch it.” 
Hofland has the following : “ The minnow rod should be 
of bamboo cane, at least 16 feet long, with a tolerable stiff 
top ; and 20 or 25 yards of line, something stronger than 
