though very troublesome, where I have been forced to creep under trees and bushes, dragging my rod after me, with the very top of it in my hand, to get near the water; and I have been well paid for all my trouble. Whilst you are getting in your rod, throw a brandling or grub, or what you fish with, into the place, which will make the fish take your bait the more boldly.'

The grasshopper is a most valuable bait for dibbing for grayling and chub. The former fish will take an artificial grasshopper well, by sinking it in the water and drawing it up gently to the surface. The natural insect is the best, however, for chub. On the next page is a representation of an angler intent on dibbing for chub.

You see that he is hiding himself as much as he can; and thinking that there are fish peering from beneath the leaves on the surface of the water, he drops his bait first on one of those leaves, and then by a sliding motion causes it to slip off, and fall on the water. The fish, taking this fall for a natural one, is not scared, but seizes the bait boldly. Practise a similar ruse whenever you can-wherever there are branches hanging over the water, rocks, or other substances in it and above the surface. On them first drop your bait, and by a second motion cause it to descend on to the surface of the water. Do this whether your baits be grasshoppers, flies, caterpillars, beetles, or

any living thing liable to be blown or fall from banks, branches, leaves, rocks, roots, or piles into

the water. I need not explain-it is apparentthe rationale of this practice. You must see that you are following nature. In fishing with the grasshopper, let your hook be whipped on with green silk on a link of fine gut, stained a light green colour.

In dipping for trout and grayling with the May-fly or stone-fly, Cotton says: To bait with either a stone-fly, or a green or grey drake, put two or three on the hook together, which should be carried through the thick part of the fly's body

DIPPING FOR TROUT AND GRAYLING. 133

under the wings, with their heads standing different ways: pass your hook through them under the wings, about the middle of the insect's body, and take care that your fingers are always dry when baiting, or you soon kill or spoil your bait.' The following bait I confidently recommend:-Make a pair of wings of the feather of a landrail, and on the bend of the hook put one or two caddies. The head of one caddis should go up close to the wings. Angle with a stiff rod about fourteen feet long, a foot-line eight feet, and a hook No. 5 or 6. Let the bait float down the stream just below the surface, then gently draw it up again, a little irregularly, by shaking the rod, and if there be a fish in the place it will be sure to take it. If you use two caddies with the wings, put the hook in at the head and out at the neck of the first, and quite through the other from head to tail. Two brandlings, or small red worms, may be fished with in the same way.

Many are the precautions recommended to be adopted in dibbing. The chief are to keep beyond the sight of fish, and when you have hooked one to get it out of the water expeditiously with as little disturbance as possible. As dibbing is not always to be practised behind the friendly shade of bushes or trees, the angler is often forced to content himself with the resources of the bank he stands on, to which he should creep on his hands

134

CAUTIONS NECESSARY IN DIBBING.

and knees. In some cases, it is true, he may procure the shelter of a hurdle interwoven with boughs, or he may adopt some similar artifice; but many cases must occur where he can trust to concealment only by prostration, or stooping low.

I place this chapter immediately after those connected with artificial fly-fishing, for which I consider it an occasional substitute, necessitated by locality and the state of the water and weather. He who has become accomplished in the practice of artificial fly-fishing, will quickly become an adept in the gentler exercise of angling with the natural fly and other living insects.

ADVANTAGES OF TROLLING.

135

CHAPTER VII.

TROLLING. - RODS, LINES, TACKLE, AND BAITS, AND
METHODS OF USING THEM.

IN ENGLAND proper trolling is practised to perfection. It is somewhat depreciated, because as yet not well and generally understood, in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. In those countries flyfishing is everything, and in them it is certainly better and more generally practised than in England. The English, however, are rapidly becoming good fly-fishers. Let me hope that the Irish, Scotch, and Welch are as rapidly growing good trollers and spinners. If they follow my instructions they have nothing to fear, and will find that trolling is occasionally productive of average angling pleaWhen neither fly-fishing nor bottom-fishing can be practised, in consequence of certain forbidding circumstances of water and season, trolling can be resorted to as a first-rate substitute. The largest-sized river-fish are killed by trolling, and I have no doubt that this mode of angling would prove very successful in the sea. A knowledge of it must be a great resource to the angler who visits foreign climes, and there dwells by large rivers and wide lakes. Numerous letters addressed

sure.