DIBBING CONCLUDED. 149 top part of the rod, and drawing it to and fro; and if you see several fish, cautiously guide your bait to the largest ; play it a little, an inch or two above the water, by gently shaking the rod; then let it drop just before the fish." Mr. Blaine says, "When a fish has well taken the bait, strike smartly, and to prevent its floundering from scaring away the remainder, it is advisable, if the tackle will allow of it, that the hooked fish be immediately drawn away, or even lifted out. If the angler be on the top of a high bank, or if his fish be very large, this cannot be done; but he must content himself with guiding it with his rod and line to some distance, and then landing it; which done, he had better try another spot, until the disturbed fish be again assembled." I place this chapter immediately after those connected with artificial fly-fishing, for whichI 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. 150 ADVANTAGES OF TROLLING. TROLLING. CHAPTER VII. RODS, LINES, TACKLE, AND BAITS, AND 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 fly-fishing is every thing, 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 occasionally is productive of average angling pleasure. When 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 TROLLING IN THE OLD AND NEW WORLD. 151 to me by Englishmen sojourning by the lakes in the North of Italy, as well as on the banks of the lakes and rivers of several parts of Germany, in which immense trout are found, have assured me of their success by means of trolling, and particularly by practising that branch of it which is called "spinning." They have frequently killed from six to ten very large trout, as large as salmon, before noon, by spinning with the bleak gudgeon, or some other small fish. Trolling is very successful in taking the gigantic trout of the New World. An angler finding himself without the delicate tackle necessary for fly-fishing, in some remote part of the world where fish abound, may, if he have a few hooks only and any thing to make a line with, very soon cut a rod out of the next wood, ring it, adjust his hooks into a flight of spinning tackle, and work away successfully with this rude gear. Towns are generally built by large rivers, and most of the latter, in this land of ours, breed pike, and some of them, like the Thames and Trent, very large trout. Such fish generally refuse the fly, are seldom taken by bottom-fishing, but commonly fall before the prowess of the troller. I have just mentioned a few of the inducements that ought to lead us to cultivate the art of trolling, particularly as it is not surrounded with difficulties, and as it is a smart exercise, requiring as 152 SINKING AND ROVING. much activity and vigour to be called into play as is conducive to hardy health. The fish most commonly killed by any sort of trolling in our rivers, are pike, trout, and perch, the best fish they produce; and that is a sufficiently strong recommendation of it. I divide trolling into three parts, viz., sinking and roving, trolling with gorge and snap-hooks, and lastly spinning. SINKING AND ROVING is easily practised, and, at times, with capital success. It is done with a live bait a minnow or loach for the common trout and perch; bleak, gudgeon, dace, or roach, for pike or large trout. Small gudgeons are excellent for moderate sized Thames trout and perch-large gudgeons for the monster trout and pike of that royal stream. The best general bait for all sorts of trolling is the gudgeon. It will be refused sometimes, and the preference given to small trout, dace, or roach; but the caprice will not last, and pike will soon return to their favourite gudgeon repast. In practising sinking and roving, I would have a strong, long bottom rod, with good winch, and prepared platted silk trolling line. For footline, about a yard and a half of the best gut. The link to which the hook is tied should be of fine gimp, if you expect pike as visitors; but gut, or three-twisted hairs, will do for trout and perch. You must plumb your water, so as to have à SINKING THE LIVE BAIT. 153 good notion of the average depth, and you must put on a heavy float accordingly. If you fish with a live minnow, the float need not be heavy ; but if you angle with a large gudgeon, &c. your float must be sufficiently large to prevent either your gudgeon, dace, or roach from lugging it beneath the surface of the water. The float is chiefly used to prevent whatever live bait you may use, from sinking deeper than you deem advisable, but neither it, nor the lead on the line, should be so heavy as to hinder your bait from swimming horizontally on any side. You lead your line also, but for a different object, viz. to keep down your bait, and to prevent it from swimming up to the surface of the water. Generally speaking, you so place your float on the foot-line that the length of the latter on the hook-side, will equal half the depth of the water you are fishing in. Observe this ratio in somewhat shallow waters three feet deep, a foot more or less. In deep waters, where the largest fish roam, you must sink your bait more deeply, about two thirds or more of the whole depth. You must angle with strong, lively baits, and put them on your hooks with as little injury to them as possible, that they may swim about actively and for a long time, and appear unlike captives to the fish you wish them to captivate. Generally speaking, you will find a single hook |