THE TROUT. 
91 
let it nearly touch the ground. In this manner I have caught 
many fine trout in mill-dams, ponds, and deep quiet waters, 
during July and August, when not a single fish would rise at 
any kind of artificial fiy which could be offered. I have never 
seen the method described by any author on the subject, but 
I can with confidence recommend it to my brothers of the 
angle, at those times when the usual baits fail to procure a 
dish of fish. 
“ When you have struck a good fish, keep him as near 
the top of the water as possible, and carry liim down the 
stream above the weeds, and, if you succeed in getting him 
into clear water, with a little care he is your own.” 
Cotton gives the following method of angling by the hand 
with a ground bait: “ And by much the best of all other, is 
with a line full as long, or a yard longer than your rod; with 
no more than one hair* next the hook, and for two or three 
lengths above it; and no more than one small pellet of shot 
for your plumb ; your hook little ; your worms of the smaller 
brandlings, very well scoured ; and only one upon your hook 
at a time, which is thus to be baited : The point of your 
hook is to be put in at the very tag of his tail, and run up his 
body quite over all the arming, and still stripped on mi inch 
at least upon the hair; the head remaining part hanging 
downward. And with this line and hook, thus baited, you 
are evermore to angle in the streams, always in a clear’ rather 
than a troubled water, and always up the river, still casting 
out your worm before you with a light one-handed rod, like 
an artificial fly, where it will be taken, sometimes at the top, 
or within a very little of the superficies of the water, and 
almost always before that light plumb can sink it to the bot- 
tom; both by reason of the stream, mid also that you must 
always keep your worm in motion by drawing still back 
* If the American Angler prefer any of Walton's or Cotton’s instruc- 
tions, lie should iu all cases use line gut, instead of hair as described. 
