Ill I! Ill i; / ON RIVER ANGLING I OR SALMON AND TROUT. () \ RIVER ANGLING SALMON AND TROUT: MORE PARTICULARLY AS PRACTISED IN THE TWEED AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. BY JOHN YOUNGER, .ST BOS WELL rf. WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH. 1840. EDINBURGH : Printed by Andrew Shortrede, Thistle Lane. CONTENTS. PAGE TREFACE, 7 SALMON FLIES, .... . 13 MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS, 22 TROUT FLIES, .... . 29 DRESSING OF FLIES, 42 CASTING, OR WHEEL LINES, . 46 FISHING RODS, 49 SALMON ANGLING, . 52 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS, 62 TROUT ANGLING, . 68 ANGLING WITH WORM FOR SALMON, . 76 ANGLING WITH WORM FOR TROUT, . 82 FISHING WITH MINNOW, 87 . 89 IlOE BAIT, 92 TABLE OF SALMON FLIES, . 95 2067G33 . — 1 do not my that the Adlington booki are the best now made, since the elder Adlington died ; but being acquainted with their numbers, I have taken them to mark the sizes. PREFACE. Angling having, of late years, become a more general sport than formerly, for those who have spare time on their hands, and being at the same time a very proper recreation in the intervals of business and study, many are enticed to the rivers who, from want of early practice in the art, or experience in the proper methods, fail of success, and, as may be ex- pected, get disheartened in the pursuit. Among the various treatises hitherto written on the subject, there is no one, so far as the author has seen, of such a plain and practical kind, as to guide the inexperienced angler to a andentanding of the principle <>n which he is to procee d in ingling, particularly with ily. The following brief treatise M written with a view to rapply this defect, by i \ in ■ simple form the geaeral Ike art as practised l>y the author after tfo forty yean ingling in the Tweed ;m<l some Of its tributaries. Ami although the 1 4 from persona] knowledge speak of the more northern river-, yet in the com the work he will introduce some supplemen- tary remarks ranrffhed by the observations of a friend, in whose experience, ami gi knowledge of the subject, he has the fullest con- lidence. On this point he will be the more par- ticular, as the result of that ingenious friend's practice proves corroborative of the main prin- ciple here laid down in reference to salmon angling. From the absence of all known archetype in nature for the artificial salmon flies used on our PR] I At I . f) rivers, it remains yet undiscovered for what the salmon take them, and why they should be so fastidious in their preference of one to another. The philosopher and the practical angler being seldom, if perhaps ever, united in the same indivi- dual, salmon angling is yet only pursued according to use and wont, without any attempt having been successfully made to reduce it under ircnera! principles. The writer hopes, in the con: these remarks, to throw at least some glimmer- ings of light on the subject, which, in the absence of all true philosophy, is preferable to utter darkness. In regard to trout angling, the principle is more easily understood, it being only nee. to imitate very nicely the natural Hies which are seen on the river, and to make the proper selection. The writer conceives it better to make par- ticular mention only of the best standard flies, with the manner of dressing and using them, rather than give a detailed description of infinite 10 PREFA4 l . inferior varieties, lie will, therefore, gi\c only useful directions, divested of all the unnecessary discussions and superfluity of frivolous anecdote, which have hitherto tended to swell the bulk of treatises on this subject. Thus will also be avoided all insignificant and endless enumeration and invention of names to ilies, which rather tend to bewilder the reader's imagination, than prove instructive to the individual desirous of practical information. It may be proper to observe, that as this little treatise was originally written in the form of a letter to a friend, and put in type from that copy, and has only in the correction of the proof sheet been divided into sections, the arrange- ment may not be so distinct as the nature of such a work might properly require. The smallness of the volume, however, will greatly obviate this objection. He has submitted it in its present form to some of the most experienced practical fishers on the Tweed, who have autho- rized him to state, that the views expressed by PREFACE. 11 the writer are completely confirmed by their general practice. Should the writer's style of language be found not sufficiently perspicuous, the reader will be lenient when assured that he has got the very best style the writer can possibly afford from thirty shillings' worth of scholastic education. As to deprecating the spirit of criticism, he need not fawn or cringe about the matter, since he believes that no literary giant will do him the credit of taking the smallest notice of this little work. John Young er. Green, inter, 1839. ANGLING WITH FLY. ON SALMON FLIES. To begin with " the monarch of the tide" — Salmon will occasionally take any fly of a hun- dred shades of variety, and often, in the most promising hour of weather and water, will, without any understood cause, disregard all kinds whatever. They are, therefore, accounted more capricious creatures than we might con- sider them, were we better acquainted with their appetites and habits, and perhaps other sympa- thies dependent upon certain unknown combina- tions of atmospheric influence. 14 SALMON PLIES. No man can say that he has ever seen any insect or fly, frequenting the surface of our waters, which in any respect nearly resembles those with which we angle most successfully for salmon * Therefore, an imitation of nature is not in this, as in general cases, the ground on which the salmon-fly angler can possibly pro- ceed ; since, in this pursuit, he is left in a great measure to his own fancy, until from long experience he has discovered the com- binations of fur and feather, with which he finds himself, or perceives others, most generally successful. From experience in dressing flies for other people, and frequent angling for my own recrea- tion, I have long ago decided on the flies which the salmon seems generally to prefer to * It has been often observed and believed by experienced fishers, that salmon, when in the salt water, feed on an animal commonly known by the name of a sea mouse, and that when in the rivers they perceive something seemingly alive of a like appearance, they rush to devour it, as they do that animal in the sea. Though I know nothing of this sea mouse, yet I strongly suspect, that in their salt water migrations, salmon must meet with some sort of flies or insects as an article of food, to which the flies we here angle with may have a near, although to us an unknown resemblance. Salmon evidently migrate to the northern seas, as early storms in the north, before the winter has yet set in with us, always drive them in Bhoals on our coasts. SALMON FLIES. 15 all others. These I have reduced into five dis- tinct kinds; and on investigating why these should generally be most successful, they will be found to embrace all the clearly marked dis- tinctions of the leading character of the flies in most general use. For instance, suppose you were to collect all the salmon flies generally used on the Tweed, they would, at first sight, present the appearance of an endless confusion of variety ; but I am convinced you could not classify them into above five, or at most six, distinct kinds, in which the decided principle of all the vague variety of colour, fur, wool, and feather, would be found to concentrate. Consequently, the best known materials, wrought into the best practical combinations for proper effect, will, I conceive, be found to constitute the Jive or six flies I shall here endeavour to describe. FIRST FLY. First fly, — A black, or very dark body, of fine soft cow-hair, with a tuft of yellow silk or worsted for tail, and a very little red, green, deep orange, or claret, twisted close round the root of the tail tuft, gold twist thread rolled round the 16 s.VI.MON 11.1 IS. body, about an eighth part of an inch distance between the folds, and the hair picked out with a ))in, to shade it as equally over the gold thread as possible, giving it a fine soft hackle appearance, with another tuft of dark orange, or rather red, round the shoulder, close below the root of the wings. A gray, or bright mottled pair of turkey feather wings, either from the tail or the wing of the fowl, according to size and circumstance, and having the mottle or speckle equally bright on both sides of the feather. If a smaller sized hook, where the pile of the feather is sufficiently large, to cover the whole length of the fly's body, then take one of a few feathers from the back of the drake imme- diately above the wing. Some prefer the mal- lard, insisting that its feathers are softer. I prefer the tame drake, because its feathers are soft enough, far better mottled, and more varied in light and dark shades of colour, to be used according to the state of water and other circum- stances. The gray feather of the argus, or silver pheasant, is perhaps as good as either turkey or drake ; and a small feather lies below the wing of the snipe, about an inch and a half long, of a beautiful light gray, very well adap- SALMON PUBS. 17 ted for a large sized fly, by tying two leathers on whole for the pair of wings, adjusting the length by the body of the fly. The wings should never be so long as to project over the tail tuft, and they should be put on unbroken, with the upper sides of the feather kept outermost, and lying as flat along the upper sides of the fly's body as possible. Slight variations may occasionally be used with effect. As, for instance, dark blue wool for body, or water-rat fur, over which roll a cock hackle, preferring the kind which are black half way along from the root, and red towards the top, the colour as bright on both sides as can possibly be got; and in low water, and bright weather, the light gray wings should bo supplanted by others of a dark brown freckle, even as deep as the colour of the woodcock wine. The bittern is an excellent wing of this kind, and large enough for any size of summer salmon fly. SECOND FLY. The second fly has, in all respects, the very same body us the first, the only variation baing B 18 SALMON FLIES. in the wings, which are what we technically term a white top. This is a black or dark brown feather, with a little white on the top, from the tail of a turkey for the largest size of fly, or those from the rump above the tail for the smaller sizes, the feathers being smaller every row as they ascend upwards from the tail to the back of the fowl. Of this last rump feather, which is alike in length of pile on both sides of the rib, (or stem,) you have the advantage of forming the pair of wings with the greatest facility, by cut- ting with the point of a pen-knife the rib of the feather, at the exact breadth of the wings intended for your fly, which are thus the more easily tied on unbroken, as all wings should be, both for salmon and trout flies. Those white top feathers, which are of a glossy black, are preferable ; and the white top should not exceed three-eighths of an inch, arid even three-six- teenths makes a fine fly of a smaller size. TUIRD FLY. The third fly has the same body and tail as the former, with a pair of white wings, pre- ferring those of a pale or French white, that is, SALMON FLIES. 19 of a light buff or yellowish tinge. This feather is got also from the white or cream-coloured turkey's tail or rump. But the wings of such a fly should by no means be broad or full, only a few piles of feather in each wing being requisite. This last fly is preferable in cold spring fish- ing, particularly in heavy water. It is likely that this wing catches the salmon's eye more readily in deep or sullied water, as he will come up to it boldly, when he will rise to no other. If the wings of this fly are too broad and flashy, you may readily raise a fish, but on a closer sight he will reject, and pass it untouched ; therefore, give as much wing only as will render the fly perceptible to the fish from the bottom of the deep water ; any thing more will give it an unnatural appearance to him on a nearer inspection. FOURTH FLV. The fourth fly, in many cases the best, is alto- gether of a dun colour, body and wings. Al- though fox, and other furs, and mohairs, may be used for the body of this fly, with a hackle rolled over it, still I prefer fine woolly cow hair, from 20 SALMON FLIES. the flank of a dun coloured cow, or outfield kyloe. This, with a little gold thread rolled round the body to give it an insect appearance, and the hair picked out to fall softly in a half shading over it, is, when well done, on all colours of fly better than cock hackles. The proper dun colour is not easily described. It seems to par- take of brown and white, a shade of red and yel- low, with the slightest tinge of silvery gray, and a yellow tuft. The wings ought to be of the same colour, at least as nearly so as possible, preferring such as have a tendency to whiteness on the top. These may be had from the tail and rump of a dun turkey, a fowl precious to a Tweed salmon fisher. FIFTH FLY. The fifth and last fly has a body made entirely of the dark gray fur of a hare's lug, mixed with the least streak of red, or dark orange mohair, or pig's wool, with a tuft of yellow, or light orange, for tail, over which, at the insertion of such tail or tuft, give a turn or two round of red worsted, mohair, or pig's wool, and then twine the body neatly round with small gold thread ; SALMON FLIUS. 21 and if the hook is large, I approve of a short bristled hackle, rolled round close to the gold thread ; but as this is a fly more adapted to summer waters, and therefore seldom requires to be on the largest size of hooks, a hackle is generally unnecessary. A wing from the bright mottled feathers of the drake is the best adapted for this body, taking those of the darker shade for the clearer water. In every case of light wings, white, gray, or mottled, the shade should be darkened as the water falls into summer clearness, until, on the smallest salmon fly for fine light water, you may darken down to a brown woodcock wing. For the largest size of this fly, the ears of the roe-deer are, by my friend already alluded to, preferred to the hare's lug, as being " a beautiful dark gray, and making a lovely body, either with or without a hackle." Of course, these furs, like all others, ought to be gathered while the animal has its winter's coat on. The long tuft feathers on the head of the lapwing make the finest dark hackle for this, or for any low water fly, as the feather is long enough to lap often round, and very fine and short in the bristle. 22 MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. For occasional variation of the three first flies, the body may be made of peacock's herl, using as many piles rolled round together as will produce the proper thickness of body. In this case, a fine dark hackle is necessary to give it the proper appearance. Such hackle laid round close in behind the gold twist, produces a neat effect, besides being thus saved by the gold thread from the teeth of the fish, which are apt to cut the hackle unless so protected. 1 prefer all hackles as short in the bristle as pos- sible. Those fine half black, half red hackles, so common with us twenty-five years ago, seem now to be out of fashion amongst our barn- door fowls ; few of the present colours are bright throughout ; the inside is generally of a dirty pale yellow. Also, the real black are now changed to white near the root. Cocks of the game breed produce the best hackles for fly dressing generally, being longer in the feather and shorter in the bristle, than those of the common fowl. MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. '23 I am not fond of broad shining tinsel in any case, except occasionally in deep dark cold winter water, and then I generally prefer gold to silver twist, not being so showy ; and except on a large hook in dark water, a silk thread, or piece of gut rolled round the body to give the fly a maggoty appearance, is perhaps preferable to any twist or tinsel. In very clear water, and fine weather, I consider all sorts of tinsel and thread unnecessary. Pig's wool, dyed various colours for tails and tufts, is preferable to mohair and worsted, being a brighter dye, and more determined colour in the water. Much has been said of late of Irish flies, made like butterflies, of parrot and other bright fancy feathers ; and even broad clear tinsel, and rough red, blue, and white hackles, have been occa- sionally used on the Tweed, with unexpectedly good success. Hence, inexperienced fishers are very unwilling to believe in the general pro- priety of sober coloured flies. Yet, if the matter be observed and considered, it will be found resolvable into my principle of light colours in deep dark waters. Partial success in high or agitated waters, or in such places as the Trowcrags, is an exception to the general 24 MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. rule, and cannot constitute a gaudy fly B stan- dard one for ordinary pool and stream fishing. Besides, people often decide hastily in appro- bation of those flies with which they raise salmon, whether the fish touch their hook or not, thinking he has missed his bite. I think very differently in such a case, as the fish lies quite at ease in the water, and on a glance of a fly moving over him, will sweep up in soft easy motion, following it round the curve it describes with a discerning eye, and on resolv- ing to seize it, will not miss his bite once in twenty cases ; but when not pleased with it, he will shy oft', at which instant you may often perceive a back tin, or the web of his tail, Hap above the surface, or he will throw himself indignantly out of the water, and sinking buck with easy motion, return again to his old lair, his chosen spot on the rock at the bottom of the river. By overlooking an angler from an eminence, we see that many fish rise and examine his fly, of which he himself has no per- ception, not being in a positron to see any but such as come above the surface. In regard to flies generally, either for salmon or trout, I have in practice found it beneficial to attend principally to a natural proportion of MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 2j parts, such as it is not easy to give or to re- ceive a very proper idea of by mere description, and of which an individual can only acquire a correct notion from personal experience and attention to those in general practice. As, for instance, instead of a full dress, prick-winged, starch, pert-looking fly, give it rather upon the whole as much of a modest simple maggot appearance as possible. The wings of a salmon fly particularly, should lie at careless ease along the sides of the body, which is much the better of looking somewhat caterpillar like. I do not allege that the materials of fur and feather here specified are the very best adapted of any to be found in the range of nature for the effects I intend to be produced : they are only the best that have come within my obser- vation, being our own local product. What I advise relates more properly to the general combinations of the colours, shape and size of the fly, as suited to the state of the water, tlian to the particular materials by which such a combination may be best effected. For in- stance, several foreign birds, such as the Bengal, and other kinds of bustard, the pencilled and silver pheasants, produce beautiful feathers of the black and white, mixed and mottled kinds. 26 MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. And for a duller shade, there is a feather on the outside of the peafowl's wing, finely adapted to a hook of large or middle size, and easily tied on without breaking or separating the pile. But with a little trouble in the selection, the turkey produces nearly all the varieties of mix- ture and shade necessary. In collecting feathers, I would recommend that you select merely the feather, or that part of it, that is of use ; the remainder only tends to foster moths, by which three-fourths of all the best collected feathers are generally soon destroyed. In a box two inches deep, and eighteen long, by twelve broad, I can keep select and put all the feathers useful to dress ten thousand flies. I may observe that some, even professional fishers on the Tweed, may decry the preceding selection of salmon flies, yet I assert, that if you will observe their own selection throughout the season, you will perceive the substance of this principle unconsciously confessed in their gene- ral practice. I consider it unnecessary to vary these flies in hope of success ; only be particular in adapt- ing the size of the hook to the state of the water, as from the time the water has fallen in from MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. "27 a flooded state to a fishing size, and thence down to the lowest size of pure summer clearness, it requires not the colours or the form of the flies to be varied, so much as the size to be gradually diminished, from the largest salmon hook down to the smallest, even to the size of a trout bait hook, No. 10 of Adling- ton's ; and when trouting in low clear water, a salmon will often take a large trout fly, after all forms of salmon flies have floated over him in vain. With my spring trout fly, No. 7 of Adlington's, I have killed a fish fifteen pounds weight. But the most essential point necessary to be clearly understood in angling, and which, how- ever simple, seems generally overlooked, even by writers on the subject, although the most easily perceived in the practice, as well as on the slightest glance at the philosophy of the case, is this. The salmon lies the whole day stationary on his chosen spot on the rock, at the bottom of wateY, four, six, eight, or twelve feet deep, from which situation he must perceive the fly on the surface, before he ascends to seize it : therefore it must be of size and colour to catch his eye, through that medium of water, less or more dis- coloured by earthy particles. Hence the maicv 28 MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. difficulty of ascertaining the exact size of fly, wing and body, first to catch his observation, and excite him to rise, and yet not to exceed the appearance of mature on his near approach. I have often known a fish in deep water rise three times successively at a fly of a very full light wing without effect, and when I diminished the breadth of each wing by half, he has seized it greedily on the fourth rise. On this principle is grounded the main reason why every fisher succeeds better on his own river than a stranger, from his local knowledge of the depth and eddy, rock and gravel, of every cast, pool, and stream. He knows from daily experience the size and colour of the fly requisite for each according to the state of water, whether or not he is at all able to explain the matter. Deep water, either in pool or rapid, generally requires a fly of a larger size than more shallow pools and streams, even on the same day, and without change of sky, wind, weather, or water. In heavy water, or in fishing over a deep cast, I prefer going over it first with the largest or brightest fly I suppose at all likely, say a large size of my third fly ; this may catch his eye and engage his attention. Should you not raise him, or should he rise and MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 20 pass the fly, then try him with one a size or two smaller, or a little more in sober colour, which he will likely then take. On the contrary, in low pure water, when beginning to go over a cast, use your smallest or sober coloured fly first, and if he do not rise to it, then go over the cast again, with one a size larger, or a shade brighter. An experienced good fisher, even on a strange river, may conceive pretty nearly the spot where a fish will lie, according to circumstances, the state of the water, or the curl of the surface in pool, rapid, or eddy ; but no description is of avail in giving an idea of this, as the skill can only be acquired by experience. TROUT FLIES. In regard to Trout Angling the case is re- versed, as the trout, while feeding on flies, swims near the surface, picking and choosing the fly, agreeably to his taste. As for instance, in a summer flood, when the river begins to subside, you may perceive on the yet brown muddy water a variety of flics of manv kinds and 30 TROUT FLIES. colours floating down the current, and the trout rejecting all the gay profusion as they puss, and selecting one kind, probably a small dark co- loured midge fly, no doubt just as carefully as he does in the clearest water, when, circling round his pool with easy motion, you may observe him darting forward to scan the coming fly, which he rejects, and springing aside to seize another of a kind which he approves. Before proceeding to give my selection of trout flies, I would wish you to observe how these flies are bred, and the successive appear- ances they present in their change from one state to another, which will assist you to account upon philosophical principles for various phe- nomena occurrent in angling, which tend to confuse the ideas of superficial observers. If, in the middle of winter, you lift a stone from the bottom of the river, you may perceive on the under side of it numbers of small cases, formed of mud particles, cemented by a gela- tinous substance into a consistence like brown paper ; by pressing this case you will see that it contains a dark green maggot or chrysalis of the future water fly. These are in myriads, and constitute a portion of the food of trouts throughout the winter, as they do in their more TROUT FLIES. 31 fully formed state when winged in the summer. On 23d November, 1837, from the stomach of a trout about half a pound weight, I counted out three hundred of these maggots all in the skins, many of them still retaining the appear- ance of life. The genial fine weather in early spring brings forth a portion of these every fresh sunny hour, just as they come into a state of forwardness to the maturity of their existence. Having left their habitation on the stone, they float for some time enclosed in a second tough film, within which their wings lie in one single fold, and from which they creep out by degrees, leaving this last coat a floating wreck. So soon as ex- tricated, their wings spring erect, shewing them of the finished, lovely, gentle inhabitants of air. As the trout are feeding on these in all states, both at the bottom, and as they ascend to the surface, no wonder that people sometimes catch a few trouts with very ill formed flies, even without wings altogether. Yet this is not a sufficient reason why you should not have a fly formed to give as much as possible the shape, colour, and appearance of the natural fly in its state of fullest perfection ; and for this purpose 1 will here give you briefly my selection of trout 32 TROUT FLIES. flics, imitated so as best to promote general success through the season.* But, first, allow me to observe, that if you go out a-trouting about ten o'clock on a mild March or April day, you may thrash away perhaps an hour or two without seeing a natu- ral fly, or a trout rise. At last, unexpectedly, you will hook a trout with your flies carelessly half sunk in the water, and, before you have landed it, you will perceive the trouts all in a plunge, nothing but heads and tails flapping amidst myriads of pretty large flies, which cause * Though some species of the water-fly are considered ephe- meral, I do not think the one ahove described exactly so, as they continue to flutter about the bushes, where you may beat them out in thousands on a cold morning, and when brought home to the windows will live for days. After they have risen from their maggot state at the bottom of the water, to the most perfect winged portion of their existence, they swim and flutter on the surface till they have gone through all the operations necessary to the continuation of their Bpecies, dropping their eggs on the surface, which, being of a more specific gravity than water, sink gradually ; and wherever the current of water may leave them at the bottom, they settle and adhere by a gluey substance to the under edges of the stones, where from the mud of the river, they gather the material particles proper to form the case in which we find them there contained, and which, by some operation of the insect, is formed into a proper fitting sheath for its body, where it lies snug, with its black head and feelers peeping out on the sweet light of life, dining like a young emperor on the rich delicate minute animalculae, of which the water is prcguant. TROUT FLIES. 33 the surface of the middle current to assume a reddish brown appearance, as seen at the distance ; and on a near inspection, you will conceive they might be best imitated by the dark gray of a hare's lug for body, and brown speckled wood-cock wings, which most fishers positively decide on using in preference to all other material, never considering that hares' ear fur is much darker coloured when wet, and therefore, from experience, I disapprove of it, unless mixed half with yellow, preparing the body rather of the shortest, or beliy part, of w r ater-rat fur, teased up with an equal propor- tion of yellow mohair, or fine wool, which mixture forms a dirty green colour, and while in your hand looks far too light for the body of the natural fly, but when wet must, to the trout, have the closest resemblance, as with it you will have most success throughout all the spring months. First, Take of Adlington's (of Kendal) steel hooks, (round bend) No. 7. To form your pair of flies, make the wing of the one fly with the lighter coloured part of a wood-cock wing feather, the other with either a starling wing, a bunting, or a lark. I cannot say which of these three is, in all respects, the best. Let the body be made of the 34 TROUT FLIES. shortest of the water-rat fur, (that which grows nearest the belly, and has a yellowish gray lustre on the surface,) mixed up with an equal propor- tion of yellow worsted wool or mohair (dyed pig's wool is preferable where it can be got fine enough) well teased together, making your fly, body and wings, fully as large, upon the whole, as the fly you imitate, (in earliest spring I some- times use No. 8;) and fish on with this pair, using no variation whatever from early spring down to the settling in of fine weather about the end of April, when the fly, of which this is the imi- tation, is succeeded by one of a size smaller, or rather more slender, and the least shade lighter of colour in body, and transparency of wing. In ordinary seasons, this last fly comes up about the end of April, or beginning of May, and con- tinues for about three weeks or a month, when it is the chief object of trout in preference to the former fly, of which a few are still seen straggling about on the surface. My usual imita- tion of this fly is with the same mixture of blue water-rat fur and pale yellow, inclining to white, for body ; and for wing, the most transparent feather to be got, from the wing of the bunting, or that of a full grown cock-sparrow. As these flies are tender, you may perceive TROUT FLIES. 35 them in breezy weather all dishevelled, as blown in from the ruffled surface to the sheltered eddies, with their wings dashed asunder, and spread on the water like shivered oars. In this state, the trouts are devouring them ; and from this circumstance a hundred vile imitations of this fly meet with a partial success, while those who use such often ignorantly aver that it is of little consequence to be nice about flies. The next best imitation of this fly, (or it may be even a preferable imitation to mine, as I never used it,) has the body the same as described, and for wings a small body feather from various birds, say the grouse, of a lightish fine freckle striped on each side, and rolled round the head of your fly in the manner of a hackle, to imitate the diehevelled wings of the natural fly. This is technically called a spider fly, and some aver that with it they have great success, of which I have no doubt, as I have long seen it much in vogue.* * I discovered my imitation of the above fly to be a killer thirty years before I really ascertained its proper archetype. At that time fishing along with a dear companion, now in his grave, we were on opposite sides of the Tweed, a little above the Doup roads, on the head of Merton water, and wading deep, when, to prevent entanglement, we took cast about, our flies both alike sweeping the same centre spot of heavy water. 36 TUOUT FLIES. About the middle or end of May, sooner or later, according to state of weather, a small dark fly appears, which you will best imitate with the wing of a cock-sparrow, (the best adapted of all our Scottish birds for the wing of any small imitation fly,) the body being made en- tirely of a little of the dark gray of hare's ear on a hook of No. 1 of Adlington's. This small fly appearing on the water before the former is retired, you may then use one of each, making the small dark fly the trail one of your pair, reserving the former for bob, and for days or weeks after, you will take trouts alternately with each ; and observe, that though trouts may occa- sionally be taken at this period with flies of other descriptions than these, yet be convinced that no trout that will take any other would have rejected them. When you find the trouts decidedly prefer the small fly of your pair, then when in a circle of about fifteen yards diameter he caught tlircc trouts, while with one of my flics I caught fifty-four, which weighed twenty-four pounds. We then examined this indivi- dual Hy, which, in the dressing up, I had accidentally varied from the rest of our usual earlier spring flies, and we after- ward-, adopted it as a Orel favourite of never-failing good . although it was only Lost May that I ascertained the natural fly above described, of which RKK had. bj chance, been a successful imitation. TROUT FLIES. 37 discontinue the large bob one, and constitute your pair both of the small on very fine gut. Whatever other natural flies appear on the river throughout the succeeding months of June and July, or even August, still continue with the same small dark flies as here stated, with only the following occasional variation : — Let the body of one of them be made of a pile or Jierl of the peacock's tale, rolled round very closely to form the body in place of the hare's ear fur, and with these you may succeed, less or more, every breezy summer day. When in hot weather, and clear unruffled water, you cannot succeed in the bright sunshine,* you may still continue with the same flies morning and evening, about sunrise, and from a little before sunset till dark; and as at the mid- summer season the trouts continue to take flies throughout the night, you may, about twilight, * By using very small fine gut, and a single hook of the smallest size of this fly, delicately formed in the dressing, I have caught a few trouts in the very clearest stream, and lowest state of water, under the brightest noon sun. But the success is not worth the trouble farther than to ascertain the extent of your art. This fly ought to be tied with dark blue thread, as it admits of little fur on the body, and blue water-rat or mouse fur is perhaps as good as hare's lug. 38 . TROUT PUIS. exchange your small dark flies for one single 3y of the following description : — A hook of Adlington's No. 6, or sometimes No. 7, the wings of the fine buff yellow part of a song-thrush or mavis wing, or any feather of the same colour, which may be got from a buff- coloured hen, and a long body made of the deepest yellow (not exactly orange) floss silk, or silk thread, with a very short red hackle round the shoulder of the fly, close behind the wings, which merely gives the appearance of feet and feelers. With this fly used singly (for of such in the night I never use a pair) you will take trouts throughout the night, and these generally of the finest quality of large trout. And although in the course of a summer night you perceive the trouts occasionally suspend feeding on the surface for half an hour or so at a time, till you might suppose them all asleep, yet, by waiting patiently, you will soon perceive them rising again as formerly. Lying on the surface, they have only to open their mouths to receive the floating fly, which motion, seen betwixt you and the north light, has much the appearance of a drop of rain on the smooth water ; for then they are generally found on the smooth pool just above a ford, or break of water, TROUT FLIES. 39 preferring the middle current where the gravelly bottom is cleanest of mud, and the greatest quantity of flies are swimming down. Trouts may take occasionally various kinds of flies throughout a summer night. I have often, indeed, caught them with a small salmon fly, or with a good imitation of that large May fly, found creeping amongst the stones by the water side ; but until I invented the above described fly, about twenty-five years ago, I never could make what you might call a heavy night's take. I intended it in imitation of a fly you may see every summer evening by the water dancing over head in the manner of midges. That natural fly has transparent wings through which shines the deep orange colour of its long smooth body, much darker upon the whole than my imitation, which, as above stated, should be several shades lighter than the natural fly. What has lately been called " the professor fly" appears to be a vulgar imitation of this last, with dark mallard wings, ill assorted to the colour of the body. As fish roam and feed principally in the night, various kinds of bait fishing, particularly with par-tail and minnow, may then be practised with great success, and this perhaps in most 40 TROUT FLII-s. kinds of weather and seasons. But these come more properly under another head ; and besides, I disapprove of summer night's fishing, seeing that it is most unwholesome from the evapora- tion of moisture, and, at the least, unfits the individual fur all active exertion throughout the succeeding day. Throughout the autumn, and any fresh fine weather thereafter, the trout will take flies until the cold frosty season lays asleep all the insect tribes ; therefore, as the autumn falls into colder days, gradually enlarge your trout Hies until they reach the first spring size of Nos. 7 or 8 of Adlington's, preferring darkish brown or dusky colours, both wing and body, like the colour of the hen blackbird, or the water-coot's wing, with any fur for body of much the same colour. Some approve of hackles, black and red, parti- cularly in this season ; and though I know they do well in some smaller streams, yet they do not in the Tweed between Melrose and Berwick; and I am convinced plain flie3 Mould likely catch the same trouts, as I never have had much success with hackles in the Tweed farther than occasionally a very small short bristle of hackle close in behind the wings, which gives the fly the appearance of feet and feelers, and which; TROUT FLIES. 41 $s it can do no harm, may be used, though by no means an essential appendage. Though some have occasionally succeeded well in the Tweed with the palmer fly, (that is, a hackle without wings,) yet with these I have never had any success the least deserving to be compared to that which I have had in the smaller streams, such as the Ayle water, where they were ever my first favourite from May down to the end of autumn. To produce the best specimen of these, observe the following directions : — Take a hook of No. 6, or sometimes No. 7, of Adling- ton's, that is, a middle sized trout hook, and two small hackles from the head of an old cock, (not from the sides of his head, where they are found too long in the bristle, but from the high back part of his head, where such feathers should be about an inch and quarter long,) and begin to- wards the bend end of your hook to tie your gut, rolling back on the shank to the head end of your fly, where tie the quill ends of your two hackles inwards, and then also at the same place tie the root end of a peacock herl ; then lap forward your tying thread, and first over it roll your peacock herl, which having fixed at the tail by a tie of the thread, then take in your tweezers the tops of the two hackle feathers 42 TROUT FLICS. together, and roll them both at once neady down over all, fixing their ends with the tying thread ; and thus is made a proper palmer fly. Let your pair of palmer flies be, the one of black, the other of red hackles, or such feathers as partake of both colours, — black half way up from the root end, and red to the top. Such do remarkably well. ON THE DRESSING OF FLIES. Despairing to give any practical idea by mere description of the manner of dressing flies, it might perhaps be as well to refrain from at- tempting it, as the methods of holding the flies while dressing, and the opinions as to where you should begin and finish, are so various, agreeably to taste and habit, even amongst the best practitioners. As, for instance, my son and I laugh at each other's method of holding the salmon hook while dressing it, whilst we contend for the best finish— he holding it loosely in his hand, while I keep it linked to a DRESSIXG OF FLIES. 43 hold-fast. Briefly then, tie on the gut, be- ginning at the head end of the hook, lapping it firmly along till nearly opposite the point of the hook, where tie down the worsted for tail-tuft, and there next tie down the end of the tinsel, and if a hackle is intended, there also tie the point of the hackle ; then dub the fur for the body on the waxed thread, and lap it solidly in a regular progression upwards to nearly the head end of the fly, there fasten the thread till the tinsel is rolled forward, and the hackle beside it ; which of these is the first rolled on is of no consequence, providing the hackle is laid close in to the wake of the tinsel, to be as it were guarded by it from the teeth of the fish. When all is brought forward, and neatly fas- tened down by the tying thread, rather less than a quarter of an inch from the end of the shank, then add whatever bright tuft of colour you choose to put below the wing ; again fasten the thread, pick all the body of the fly with a small awl or pin, and adjust it ; lastly, lay on and tie down the wings unbroken, crossing them with the tying thread as often as may be seen necessary to adjust, and hold them fast, and then fasten your thread by a few knottings around the head of the fly. 44 DRESSING of PJ In trout flics, I dress the reverse way, begin- ning at the tail end of the fly to tie on the gut, lapping it up to within a little of the head, then putting the wings on first, and when these are properly set and adjusted by the crossings of the thread, I choose my fur, and dub it on the thread, rolling it round for body, and fastening the thread. The fly is thus produced in a twinkling. To dress trout flies in a superior style, when the hook is tied to the gut and ready to put on the wings, cut with a pen-kttife two wings close from the rib of the feather, lay the one piece upon your left fore finger, and the other exactly upon it, with the two insides together, then close your thumb upon them, and place the hook below, pressing it up close to the wings, and while held in this position, lay the tying thread round over it, and while in the act of drawing it tight, press the points of your finger closely also on the tying thread, causing it to draw the wings straight down together on the hook so as to prevent its ruffling or twisting them to one side ; then lap the thread once or twice more round on the same place to secure the wings, and letting the wings escape from your fingers, divide them asunder, and cross them DRESSING OF FLIES. 4J round between with the tying thread, when they will stand up unruffled in the texture, a beautiful model of the living water fly. One may even go the length of cutting the two wings from the two corresponding feathers of the pair of wings from the same bird, but this is extreme nicety, which may only be resorted to as a trial of skill. I may observe, however, that not above one of fifty to whom I have shewn this method of putting on the wings has ever succeeded in doing it well, but this I consider proceeds only from want of practice. I have often thought that in the trade of fly dressing there is too much of show and variety, and tinsel glitter, even for any river. Such Hies I deprecate, and I suspect those who make them do so merely to increase their sale, as inexpe- rienced anglers are apt to conceive that they ought to provide themselves with every variety of hook exhibited to them in a tackle shop. As to the question of dressing salmon flies on whole length threads of gut, or on loops, I con- sider it merely a matter of taste or convenience, as they may be neatly and effectually done either way. Looped hooks are perhaps more conve- nient to puck and carry, and also require a less 46 DRESSING OF FLIES. stock of gut on hand, either for the dresser ot the purchaser. And if looped, I would recom- mend the loop in small salmon flies to be rather of three-ply twist of small fine gut, than of one stout thread, as it is tougher, and it should be kept so short that the double eye may barely admit the single stout gut to which it becomes attached, after being opened by inserting the point of a pin, so that the last fastening run- ning knot may form what may be considered a small head to the fly. For regular fishermen on the water, who generally dress or repair a fly or two every morning, as their principal dependence for the day, perhaps the plain gut without a loop may be as well ; it is as neat and efficient, and quite as convenient. ON THE CASTING OR WHEEL LINES. In either salmon or trout angling I do not like too light a casting line, as it does not throw so well, particularly in any breeze of wind. I prefer a casting line of three or fourlengths of LINES. 47 good horse hair, firmly twisted with the fingers, (not plait,) and not looped to take off and on the wheel line, but neatly lapped to it inseparably, to remain and be rolled up along with it. The first length of hair should be nearly as thick as the wheel-line, suppose eight, ten, twelve, or fifteen horse hairs ; the second length some two or three hairs smaller, and so on downwards until about the fourth or fifth, according to the length of the hair, forming between five and six feet in all ; let the last be six, eight, ten, or twelve hairs thick, according to the strength of the hair, or the weight of the line wished, for salmon, trout, or both occasionally, (as I gene- rally have used them.) Then begin with three equal hairs of hand-twisted gut, choosing the hairs finer as you come downwards to the four or five lengths, till, if for spring salmon fishing, the last is small enough to be next the hook- gut, to which it should be attached by a neat loop. In clearer summer weather, when single gut becomes necessary, have three or four addi- tional lengths of good gut along with you, ready knotted and looped, to link on in addition to the former, which can be added or removed agreeably to circumstance or fancy ; let all the 48 LINES. knots be well tied, both of hair and gut, and the ends neatly lapped down with wax thread, so that you can roll all up through your rings without rag or hinderance ; and when done with fishing unlink the hook, and roll in all at once. Wheel lines last best that are made entirely of horse hair, as silk or a mixture of it rots so readily when wet. A salmon wheel line for the Tweed here, at St Boswells, should not be shorter than at least seventy-two yards ; and all below Merton water about a hundred. Even hair lines are not long in rotting if carelessly left wet on the wheel. If drawn off, and hung up whenever they are wet, until dry, they will last very long, except the short piece of the end used in casting, which should be renewed frequently. I had a good wheel line, of my own making, that lasted me twenty-five years, fishing occasionally, both for salmon and trout, besides lending it often ; but I never suffered it to lie wet on the wheel. OX FISHING RODS. To produce the best fishing- rod for use and durability, take a billet of good hard red hiccory, well seasoned, (as it generally is before it reaches us here,) of about three or four feet long, and have it ripped down into slips of various thickness, proper to form the whole rod, butt and top. Joint up as many pieces as will produce the length you wish, say eighteen or twenty feet long for a salmon rod, and from fourteen to sixteen for a good trout one. Make these into splice joints of sufficient length, the splice being seven inches at least for the butt joints, and tie them up well glued, until the glue is dry ; then lay the rod upon a straight plank, and have it planed up all in a piece to a proper thickness, — a person of skill standing beside the joiner, trying and adjusting its elasticity to the proper spring, till he find it please, recollecting to allow something for the weight of the tyings of joints and rings. If the planing could be so managed, the perfection of the rod would consist in having it to taper correctly the whole D 50 FISHING RODS. length, from butt to top, and the wood being of the same piece and growth, the spring must be equal and correct throughout. After it is properly planed and smoothly polished with sand paper, cut it correctly across into two, three, or four pieces, as you please, and have your brass ferrules straight, not tapering, but alike wide at both ends, these sunk just a little in the wood at the under ends, and left full and flush over the wood at the upper ends, and used either with or without screws, according to pleasure. These all adjusted, then roll up your wood-glued joints with good silk, or I would rather prefer very line lint thread, using varnish on the thread rather than any wax, and, begin- ning at the top, tie on your rings, which choose large enough, making them perhaps six inches apart at top, and lengthening the distance between as you come down towards the butt. Then have the whole slightly painted or var- nished. If a rod is made up of various kinds of wood, or even of different trees of the same kind, you can never have the same equal degree of fine elasticity ; whereas, thus making the whole rod out of the same short piece, you not only improve the proper spring, but also find the best precau- FISHING RODS. 51 lion against its twisting, — to prevent which pro- fessional rod-makers often render the wood short and fragile by the application of heat, and other methods calculated to damage it in this most material respect. I prefer hiccory, as it combines all the essential qualities, without the incon- venient weight of lancewood : only great atten- tion is necessary in selecting the good billets of hiccory, as very much of it is unfit for the pur- pose. To those who reside near the water, I would recommend a rod all of glued and tied joints, a9 best in point of real use, and not so liable to break in the moment of action. Or, indeed, even for travelling, I would prefer tied joints, as, wherever a person has time to stop to tish, though only for a day or two, he has, at least, five minutes to spare for tying up his rod in a sufficient manner. Rods are often breaking at brass joints, and those who use them, instead of bringing in a back-load of fish, are constantly arriving home from the water telling you, " I've broke my rod !" Such sickening news may generally be prevented by tied joints. A one hand trout rod, between thirteen and fourteen feet long, is very convenient and plea- o*2 FISHING RODS. sant to use, even in the Tweed, when wading deep. But in moderate wading, we cannot command much water with less than a rod of fifteen or sixteen feet, which I would recom- mend to be very soft and pliable for about three inches on the top, much more so than is gene- rally used, as a hard springy maintop readily twitches the hook from the trout's mouth. ON SALMON ANGLING. The greatest requisite in an angler is the art of throwing his line properly. Though some attain this more easily, and with less effort, than others, yet it is a point which can only be gained by practice, even with the best rod, but when once learned, it is done with little comparative exertion. And besides that, in casting, a good deal depends on a finely balanced rod, yet as much depends on being accustomed to the use of any particular one. I have seen a fisherman in daily use of a rod so heavy and unyielding, that any person else could hardly suppose i€ SALMON ANGLING. 53 ietended for the purpose, and yet I have stood amazed at the sight of the line the owner would throw with it, from the mere force of habit, whilst he in derision would pronounce, a fine soft springy rod, " a mere wattle." A stiff rod requires great force and quick motion in bringing it back, to give the requisite impetus to the forward throw ; while one of an opposite description of fault, too supple, from its tendency to yield, requires a very slow motion to bring the long line fairly round with it, and communi- cate just the necessary quantum of force to impel it again outward. Of course a medium is best ; and if we cannot possibly have a perfectly equalized spring from hand to top, (which, like perpetual motion, it may be impossible to pro- duce,) then let the stiffest part of the rod be about its middle, rather softening below, and also above to the extreme top. Practice with such will make the best throw, and such is also best for holding up the fish in the run, without any tendency to jerk the hook from his mouth on any sudden fling. Indeed, the art of casting seems to depend on a free motion of the body, and there seems to be a kind of innate feeling, a delicacy of touch necessary to throw a good line, which some may J4 SALMON ANGLING. never be able to acquire even by practice. And though we have known instances of gen- tlemen who, on their first start out, have killed salmon, yet this has generally been under pro- per guidance and direction on a favourable day, or on protected water, where fish were numerous and undisturbed, and * with all appliances and means to boot." Such instances are, of course, no ways indicative of superior skill in the indi- vidual. When the river is low and clear, then is the time to prove the abilities of the angler. Then a long line is required ; and great skill is shewn in making the fly light like thistledown within an inch of the spot intended, say twenty-five or thirty yards from the hand, and three or four at the least above and beyond the spot where from previous knowledge of the spot or general skill, he knows for certain the fish must lie. I recommend a beginner to practise throwing the line on a broad smooth pool, where he can see that it is delivered out properly, and falls lightly, without splashing. In such case the practitioner will perceive something which he cannot easily account for : and that is, that after he has even attained a great degree of perfection in the art, he will not be able to distinguish SALMON ANGLING. „} how it happens, that in one throw his long line will proceed direct out, his fly alight- ing 1 lirst on the water ; in another throw the middle of his line will fall first, while the farther part, still obedient to the general impulse, will proceed out the full length, the fly falling the last on the surface. This last throw is not so good as the former, for this reason, that the main current having caught the middle of his line first, carries it too quickly down, leaving the fly lagging, to form an awkward curve ; as, before it comes over above the fish, the fly should lie on the water, so as to have the appearance of plying at an angle against the current. And the angler should so manage his rod that, while he lets his line float round at its full length, yet to cause his fly come as slowly as possible over the main spot. In this case the salmon will some- times rise at once, rather before you expect him, but more generally will follow the fly to the eddy, or edge of the deep, where, if on examina- tion he feel disposed to seize the hook, he has it before you perceive a head, fin, or tail above the surface. Indeed, before you perceive the web of his tail he generally has the hook in his jaw a foot below water, as in descending he goes, like other divers, head foremost. 66 SALMON ANGLIn The angler's next motion is generally termed striking, which, to my taste, is a wron:,* word to express that particular action by which a true angler retains his already hooked fish. This motion is rather a retentive hold than a start, or a strike. Your tyro, keen and vigor- ous, is for ever striking, as the weakest part of his tackle, or a shred torn from the mouth of the fish, will often abundantly testify ; while the true angler will go through the whole pro- cess with perfect ease, or rather, in what an inexperienced onlooker would account a care- less or slovenly manner ; in short, as seemingly easy and unrestrained as the 6tep and manner of the savage in his native forest, — so nearly do the accustomed habits of art approach the per- fect ease of nature. But I believe that in fishing, as in other things, example is more instructive than precept, and, therefore, a beginner would do well to set him- self to observe with attention an experienced fisher begin and go over a stream or cast : his easy positions of body, method of casting, and manner of leading his line ; and above all, should he hook a fish, the way he manages him, until he is laid "broad upon his breathless side," a rich and beauteous prize. For instance, he SALMON ANGLING. 57 will not drag his fly across the stream, neither jmll it against the current, which is a common error with beginners, and quite absurd. But in salmon fishing, he will, in throwing his line, direct it full out, to make the fly alight on the spot desired — not straight across the current, but slanting a little downwards, so that it may form as gentle a curve as possible ; he will move it as slowly as the current will permit, over the spot where he expects the fish to be lying ; be will make no perceptible motion to keep his fly on the surface, (except on a sluggish pool ;) but let it sink a little, depending on feeling rather than on sight, and though apparently keeping no pull on his line, yet all the while able to detect £';the touch of a minnow. On a boil, or other appearance of a fish, he pulls up his line, not twitchingly, but actively, steps a yard or two back, rests a minute, to let the fish resume his lair and attention ; and perhaps feels inclined to alter his fly, before he annoy and disgust, or alarm his fish, to a shade darker, or a size smaller, when he will, most probably, come up and seize it in earnest. Should he not rise again, or rise and pass it thrice, leave him quietly alone for the present, and return to try him some time afterwards. On taking the flv, the fish means o8 SALMON ANGLING. ta return with it to his precise select spot of lair, on rock, stone, or gravel, at the bottom ; and the fine angler, holding him gently, often, in the first instance, allows him to do so, but soon, too surely feeling his awkward predicament, he bolts off, " indignant of the guile." Then is the time when the fisher is attentive ; with the butt end of his rod resting on his thigh or groin, he keeps the top nearly erect, never allowing it to fall below the proper angle of forty-five degrees, as relative to the situation of the fish, as in this position the elasticity of the rod never allows the line to slacken in the least degree for a single instant, however the fish may shake, flounce, jerk, or plunge. With two or three fingers and the thumb of his left hand the angler holds his rod, while the wheel-line runs out, regulated by the first, or first and 6econd fingers, relieved or assisted, as occasion may suggest, by the light hand, when it can be spared from its necessary occupation of rolling up the wheel line, as the fish settles a little, or returns inwards. In this manner the fish is allowed to run right out, up, down, or across, as he may choose. But if in an outright dash of thirty or fifty yards aslant, ending in an ont- vard bound fling above water, the inexperienced SALMON ANGLING. J9 angler should feel flustered, which he is very likely to do, and by some involuntary twitch of the running line, let the top of his rod be pulled down to a level with his own head, then the tug of the last plunge will assuredly break his hook or line, or tear the hook from the mouth of the fish. Or, what is as bad, a sudden jerk or turn of the fish will give the line a momen- tary slackening, when the hook's hold, already so strained as to have widened its incision, will fall out, and your fish is gone for ever. More hooked fish are lost in these two ways than from all other causes put together ; and this can be easily prevented by a little self-pos- session, simply by keeping up the top of your rod and letting the line run with ease, regulated as above described by the feeling of your fore finger. But if the matter is properly man- aged the fierceness of the fish is the angler's main sport. The faster he dashes on, the sooner is he exhausted. Sometimes you may see him on the opposite side of the river, with the web of his tail above the water, and his nose struck into the gravel, in endeavour to dislodge the vile little instrument of his ruin. The fish will then again allow himself to be led at ease to the angler's side of the river, like GO SALMOX ANGLING. a bridegroom to the altar, when, on finding the water shallowing, he will again make another desperate effort, probably a new dash into the middle current; but, too much exhausted to resist the still continued pull upon him, he will soon again fall into the shallow, where, on a sight of his enemy, he is again alarmed into a new effort, and again exhausted by turning his outward bound head down with the water, again and again, and again, as if the parties were in the amusement of forming circles, until his own last efforts to keep swimming are made subservient to the cautious angler, in moving him by degrees into the shallow, where, half dry, he must, like all the strong, at last yield to his fate, and fall panting on his side, while the line rolled up to within rod length, which is to be rield with its top landwards, without slackening, and the fisher seizing him with the fore finger and thumb of his right hand across by the root of the tail, (which is by far the surest method of seizure,) lifts, or rather slides him out head fore- most, over gravel and grass, and in mercy fells him with a blow on the back of the neck.* * The natives of Australia are said to drown the fish they catch by seizing them with the gripe above mentioned, and holding them with the head below water. The gills thca open, and let in the water, which drowns them in a minute. SALMON ANGLING. 6l After going through this process with a twenty-two pounder, (and the process would be the same with a forty-four,) the writer can aver, that he does not conceive that from the moment he has hooked such, until he was laid on the grass, he ever, for an instant, had three ounces of more or less pull on the fish ; for, in all cir- cumstances of run, regularity of pull is the sure test of true skill and final success. Indeed, t have seen many a fine fish laid on the dry gravel, when the hold of the hook in the lip of his mouth was so slight as to be smaller than the steel of the hook : so much for equal pull and cautious management in the run. And, in short, a man is never a master angler so long as a desire to have his hooked fish to land excite9 in his feelings the least agitation, as the matter should be managed with that cool philosophical ease of mind, which is alike above the paltry calculations of loss and gain, and the common ridicule, which often tends to stir up a degree of childish fretfulness. This perfect ease is absolutely necessary to first-rate excellence and ultimate success. 62 OENERAL OBSERVATIONS. Dut the very perfection of the fly fishing art 19 to feel enabled to say, that you will take a salmon with fly, when from the low clear state of the summer river, the regular fisherman, as well as the common amateurs, have all given up the case as hopeless. To effect this, take the smallest salmon fly, neatly dressed on a fine round thread of blue clear * (not white) gut. Choose the cloudiest or dullest hour of daylight, and Cast in the manner formerly described over the deepest part of the stream or pool, where fish then lie, allowing your line and fly to sink deep in the water ; for though at this time the fish will not rise to a fly skimming on the surface, he will yet venture on a bite as it quietly passes him so nearly below. In this * I dislike dyed gut; its natural colour, which I call blue- clear, is the colour of water, .is may be seen by putting it into a white basin of water. The dark or blue colour of a river is the reflection of the sky, as seen on the surface from above. Such gut gives the same reflection when in the river. And what is still a better argument, the fish seem of my opinion,] as tbey always take best with it. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. G3 way I have often succeeded to the admiration of even the fisher who rented the water, and of late have been delighted to hear my friend mention it as a point of his own discovery, to enrich the present paper ; assuring- me he has often killed tish in the northern rivers as well as in the Tweed, by following this plan, when not one old hand, who knew every pool and stream, could stir a fin, or be persuaded to attempt ■<*. trial. My friend informs me, that « in these small waters, or tributary streams which run into the large rivers, you may fish with great success with what is commonly called a sea trout hook. In several small salmon waters in Argyleshire, and other island streams in the west, I have (says he) fished successfully with hooks of the above size, when I could not stir a tin with a common sized salmon hook. And it may not be generally known, that in these smaller waters, salmon, grilse, and sea trout, will take the fly greedily when the water is in such a state of foulness, that those who have only been accus- tomed to the Tweed, Tay, &c. would suppose it the next thing to madness to attempt trying a fly of any kind." I may remark here, that if my friend had thought of observing carefully, 64 GtffBRAL OBSERVATION t. he must have found this would not happen in the swell, but in the fall of such flooded streams ; .iiul while these fish, like natives in an inun- dated district, were thrown out of their usual spots of habitation, and were still moving about in an unsettled and shifting manner. In this way, salmon occasionally take the fly in large, though more particularly in smaller streams ; as the sand and mud is gradually subsiding, the fish driven into the shallows ascend to the surface, the water being purer there, and thus take the fly on the same principle that trouts feed generally. But trout will not take the natural flies in the rising swell of a river, until it has begun to fall, when they attack them greedily even in the white muddy water. In regard to the different kinds of salmon flie9 applicable to the different rivers, he farther states a curious fact, that, "In no two rivers that I know of do they angle with flies, which at all resemble each other in point of shape and cha- racter combined. In the Spey, Findhorn, and Ness, rivers not above thirty miles apart from each other, the style of their hooks is nearly as opposite as possible. In the Spey, the com- mon drake, or mallard wing, with yellow or orange body, and black hackle from the breast GENERAL OBSERVATIONS 63 tuft of the heron, is one of their principal hooks ) and another, a hook dressed altogether from the heron, — namely, a blue or slate-coloured wing, with hackle to match. In the Findhorn, again, nothing but Irish flies, or imitations of them, seem to succeed. And in the Ness, the flies used are of a much more quiet and modest kind, somewhat resembling those used in the Tweed in point of materials, but not generally so large in size, and the form is shorter and thicker. In both the Spey and Findhorn the hooks are much larger than for the Ness. " I am not able to say how far one might be successful in any river with a common Tweed fly, only varying its size and colour to the state of the river at the time ; I think the chances are that one might kill fish in any river with them, just on the same principle, that in the Tweed many are successful with the bright gaudy Irish flies, which are so opposite from the legitimate Tweed hooks. But I do not think this has ever been properly and fairly tried, for one is apt to adopt the hook com- monly used on the river he goes to, without giving himself the trouble to inquire into the cause for such a form or style being adopted. For myself, I have hooked and tended good E 60 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. fish both in the Tay and Findhorn with the common Tweed fly ; and I am sure they would do also in the Spey, although I allow that I would not have the same confidence in fishing with any other than the common and well known hooks for each respective river." An old friend of mine, John Haliburton, formerly fisher on Dryburgh water here, and afterwards at Crago'er on Merton water, who removed to a farm near Hamilton about fifteen years ago, once accompanied three or four gentlemen on a day's stroll to the Clyde, where with his old Tweed hooks, (exactly such as I have described,) he saved the credit of the party by personally killing the only five salmon seen that day. But then I have never seen any man who could excel Haliburton in laying a fly to the eye of a salmon ; and yet he is the only instance I have known of an excellent angler who was not bred to it from boyhood, for John had never once thrown a rod at the time he took a lease of Dryburgh water, being then a labouring man, a husband, and a father. But then he was one of the few amongst the sons of men who could calculate on the nature of things as they are, or may be improven to advantage, without regard to fashion or general GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 67 opinion. While in Crago'er, in the year, 1816, I knew him, in five days of one spring week, kill with fly, with his own hand, ninety-nine salmon, (mostly foul fish, and kelts of course,) and on one of the days he caught twenty-four, many of them about and above twenty pounds weight. But, except John Thomson, once in Newstead, or the Kersses, the Purdies, and Johnstones, who, on the Tweed, could ever throw a line with Haliburton ? But not to multiply instances bearing on the point, I find, from my own experience, and that of others, in whose skill and judgment I place full confidence, that the matter is resolvable into this general leading principle, that large or showy flies suit best in deep, dark, or drumly waters, and the finer modest shades of variation, such as I have here endeavoured to describe, are necessary to entice in the settled calm of summer pool and stream. But it is seldom difficult to find arguments in support of exceptions to any general rule, and I am aware that in no instance could it ever be more easy than in the very limited selection of flies I have here described, as almost every fisher prefers a particular style of hook, and [ am quite aware an angler might fish sue* GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. cessfully for a lifetime, and yet never use a ffy that could be proven to be an exact type of any one here described. At the same time, I am certain that unless he come so near that m? principle can be detected in his practice, his general success will be far from coming up to his wishes and expectations. ON TROUT ANGLING. In trout angling, the whole proecs?, like the casting, is of a lighter character, in pro* portion to the lighter implements used, and varies considerably from the salmon, principally in this respect, that as the trouts lie or swim about in more varied situations, according to the state of water, sometimes in the main streams, sometimes in the eddies, and in still heavier waters on shallow gravel beds, the angler will perceive that on spots where he might be successful yesterday, not a trout will be found to-day ; for in heavy flooded waters, they fall <sier situations, and as the water clear? TROtJT ANGLING. 6i» and lightens, again seek the deep for food, plea- sure, or security. On the subsiding of a flood, great takes are often made in eddies, where all the finny breed are driven in shoals to quiet nooks, creeks, and -cairns ; and where the frothy scum of the agi- tated surface is seen collected and wheeling in circling motion, great slaughter may often be made by any one who can simply throw a fly ten yards out before him. This happens after the tine fresh spring, and early summer flood- ings in March, April, and May, and sometimes later according to the wetness of a season ; but, of course, only on the first day of the ebbing flood. Hence, throwing the line for trout does not require the same regularity of plan and manner as the casting for salmon, since it is often more necessary to throw aslant upwards, or straight across, than downwards. And, indeed, in trout angling generally, it is very improper to hang the fly on the stream, far more so to pull it against it, as the natural fly never floats in that direction. In fishing either stream or pool regularly over, cast the fly across, or slanting considerably up- wards, and let it iloat down the current of its 70 TROUT ANGLING. own accord till it come gradually full round, managing your rod so as all the while to keep the line and flies under such command, that should a trout touch the hook unseen below the water, you can detect him on the instant. This action is simply a tightening feci, as the trout is generally previously hooked from the natural resistance of the floating line. If he is not felt to be hooked, then it is necessary to pull fully up and make another throw ; but never let the first pull in feeling for a trout be so decidedly forcible as to be called a strike, for it ought not to be done with a third part of the force requisite to lift the line clear off the sur- face, as necessary to make another throw. And, indeed, in casting generally for either salmon or trout, the angler should never snatch his line quickly from the Mater, but give it first a gentle pull, and let the lifting it be a second and brisker action ; as a large trout, or sometimes a salmon, may be following the fly, and will readily, at that particular instant, be just seizing it, if you lift it with foolish force, it is struck off from the gut in his mouth. In low waters, I have in such circumstances caught many salmon with the trout fly, on which, at such times, they occasionally feed ; and, therefore, TROUT ANGLING. 71 in Tweed (routing, I have always used a wheel line long- enough to secure any salmon acci- dentally so hooked. The manner of angling for trout, as a driver lashes stage-coach horses, is ridiculous, as if a large trout were foolish enough to take a fly so offered ; the angler is still more foolish to strike the fly from off the gut in his mouth, and come home with a tale of sad mishap that a great salmon had broken his tackle. An amateur angler here last season came from the water with a sad complaint against a mon- strous salmon that had robbed him of his bait- hook and gut line ; and what a weight he was, to be sure ! My son, who had happened to tie on his hook in the morning, trouting a little next day with the same roe bait at the spot, caught a trout not half a pound weight with the identical hook stuck in its stomach, and the thread of gut hanging nine inches from its mouth. But constant and successful trout angling in the Tweed, or other pretty large rivers, requires the fisher to trash himself rather unmercifully, as, to secure general success, it is absolutely necessary often to wade deep and long to get to where the trouts may be lying ; for to stand on shore and see them tumbling up in the main n TROUT ANGLINo. current of broad pool or stream, or on the opposite eddy, is of* no avail to fill a large basket ; besides, he must wait with Job's pa- tience, and shift about, often for hours, till the time when they are pleased to feed, which is various and uncertain ; and more particularly so in the Tweed than in the smaller streams, accor- ding to the circumstajices already described. When a lad, I have often fished patiently for three hours without the appearance of a fin ; and on the two or three succeeding hours, have filled my basket, which held nineteen pounds weight. This happens often under circum- stances to us unaccountable, but frequently on a fine forenoon, when the natural Hies are float- ing down, and not a trout stirring ; and after a break of thunder, or a slight shower, sometinn s of hail, or even a fine breeze of wind, they will get all into motion at once, and feed vora- ciously. Much depends on the state of the atmosphere, of the influence of which we are yet ignorant. But the perseverance necessary to general success, requires the angler to starve and labour diligently, to wade in awkward situations in a kind of half-floating way, to creep on the narrow ledge of a shelving rock, under pendent tree and TROUT ANGLING. 73 brier, overhanging dripping precipices, jutting and shivery, such as the Dun-Hare-G'rag, Hawks- lee Scaur, the whirlpooling Fatterdon-Pot,or the black drowning Gibson's-hole below ; some- times fishing on his knees, pulling in the hooked trout by the line in hand, as in such unfrequented situations the large one pounders are not yet acquainted with the hook, but keen and ready. But these were the sports of greener years ! The slippery foot on the loosening stone, or the tremulous grasp, with the deep below, is not the task for lusty manhood, or the stiffening bones of age. If ever now, once in a season, I do try the trouting, I must get on more in the way the old trout feeds, rather lazily and shyly. It has a sobering effect, to feel the play of youthful muscle torpescent ! Yet, though, like a well-hooked fish, we must succumb at last, still there is a certain pleasure in the reminiscences of some of our early starts in such pursuits. It is now forty years since I, then a boy, so poor as not to be master of a hook or a half- penny, sallied out to the small burn, which, at that time yet unrestrained, like myself, chose its own vagrant way from Eiliestovvn House to the Tweed, circling through the low rushy leas, l'i ruling dimple, pool, and ripple, and gianped 74 TKOUT AM.l IN.. out half a stone of speckled trouts, whore my neighbour! never suspected such a thing existed. The poet is in error when he says — The trout within yon wimplin' burn Glides swift, a silver dart ; And safe beneath the shady thorn, Defies the angler's art. This the trout cannot do, for its clammy nose, and clear round eye, is ever protruded, on the alert for a fly or a worm, and well the angler knows where and how to drop the line into the pool before him. When a whale is not safe in the Polar Ocean, talk, forsooth, of a trout in a burn ! O dear shade of Burns, the poetical por- tion of your earthly feelings might have been too fine for an angler, as well as those of your grand successor Byron ; or they might not, for all the fascination of song; although I grant you, that even I, when a hungry laddie, have often enough got into these fits of extreme sensibility, returning the small trout to the stream, As piteous of his youth, and the short space He had enjoy'd the vital light of heaven. And, indeed, I have often felt the full force of Byron's satirical remark on anglers long before lie wrote it ; ay, and occasionally got into euch qualms of reluctance, that I would suspend TROUT AN GLIM.. 75 my angling- pursuits, and admire the trouts tumbling up in the streams, suppressing the desire to cast a hook amongst the freebooters. And the same sympathies have at times unfitted me for some necessary employment of lii even to the length of requiring an effort of my strongest philosophy to bring me to prune a rose or pluck a flower ! This was nursing the poetical temperament to an unnecessary tender- ness, i( No angler can be a good man," says Byron; yet, I believe, these sensitive gentlemen, the poets, could all eat lamb, veal, and oysters, as heartily as trouts can snap up lovely itmoceai flies, or gobble the small fry of their own species * with all the mischievous appetite of a cannibal. And, alas! the sensibilities of genius give no sufficient guarantee for that consistency of cha- racter which would justify us in bestowing the designation of "a good ?>ia/i" on any human being. * From the stomach of a trout, of about a pound weight, I have twice cut out six small trouts, pars, or smelts, averaging five inches long. The one first swallowed digested nearly to the bones; the last, whole and entire, still stuck in the gullet fol lack of capacity in the stomach equal to the voracity of its nature. One of these trouts took my imitation fly, over ami above this gorged bellyful, by which it was caught ; the other the half of a small trout, with which a hook was baited. 76 ANGLING WITH WORM FOR SALMON. Anci.im; with worm for salmon is practicable only when the river is very low and clear, and in all dry ami frosty weather. In January, 1814, when the Tweed was frozen in on both tides, leaving only about a fourth of its entire breadth still open in the middle, John Haliburton fished with the worm, walking on the ice, a lad attending him with tin- long gaff, when he made great daughter, until the ice closed over. His greatest diffi- culty was to keep the fretting line running. Worm angKngi bowerer, can onlj be practised most successfully in the *ery lowest state of tbe river, after the fish have set up, as the fishers term it, and will not take a fly. In the summer season, the best fishing hours are very early in the morning, from daylight till the sun has become too bright, or in a day LTray throughout The worm used in this angling is called the dew worm, from it-; briii": found in the sprint: and summer nights among the dewy grass. I i.VG WITH WORST FOR SALMON. 77 They may be seen in a morning' lying linked in couples all along the pathway sides, or on old pasture leas, where, on the least disturbance or tread of foot, they sink into their respective holes in an instant. Fishers generally gather them in candle light, stealing softly along, and seizing them before they can escape \\ lit D required in cold seasons of the year, they are dug from the earth in certain places where found in greatest plenty. They are kept in moss for son:.' days piwiou9 to being used; and if long kept require to be fed with a little cream or sweet milk, and red earth or brick dust. Anglers differ in their choice regarding the size of the two hooks proper to be used for this sort of bait, but those most generally preferred on the Tweed are large sizes, N03. 18, 19, of Adlington's — the other Nos. 15 or 16. As they require to be shorter in the shank lor this purpose than for the fly, it is requisite to break a piece from the shank of each, when the larger one is tied to the end of the gut, the other as much farther up on the gut as to allow its point to be turned round to the shank of the first hook, and a little of the shank of each to be left untied for the purpose of catching 7H ANGLING WITH WORM FOR SALMON, into the worms, and preventing them from slipping- down from their proper positions. The first worm is then put on by inserting the hook at its head, and running it up over that hook altogether, then turning the uppermost hook round, and inserting it also at the same incision ; then run the worm up over this hook also till the tail of it is fairly above the bend of the hook, and the upper part on the line above. A second worm is taken, and the hook entered about its middle, running it up also to the second hook, which is entered at the same incision, and run round in the loose end of the worm, which covers it over the bend and point. The remainder of that worm is pressed up till it appear contracted and thickened on the short piece of gut intermediate between the two hooks; then a third worm is taken and run on the first hook head foremost, leaving its tail to cover and project over the point. This is called a full and proper salmon bait. Some use only two large worms in the manner of the first and third, with half a worm, or a small one put on the second hook to cover its head and point. A few large grains of shot, ready nicked half through, are kept by the fishermen very ANGLING WITH WORM FOR SALMON. 79 conveniently in a quill for the purpose of adding an additional sinker to his line, as the strength of a stream may require, and from three or four to ten of them may be used as considered necessary. They are easily closed on the gut line by a little pressure of the teeth, and may be opened with a knife, and taken off at pleasure, according as the angler requires it to sink, or move on in the various strength of still or rapid water. These are put two or three together, or some inches apart at pleasure, none within a foot, nor exceeding thirty inches from the hooks. Thus equipped the angler will commence at the head of a stream or cast, and proceed down- wards in the very same manner as if fishing with the fly, taking a full step between each throw. He will throw well over the fish lair, and let his line and bait travel gradually round, just making as much motion as to prevent it sinking and hanking at the bottom, and always lifting it gently for the next throw, in case the fish should seize it on the instant. But gene- rally the fish will follow it, and commence nibbling at the bait, quitting and seizing it alter- nately — sometimes he will run off with it a few yards, then quit it — return, and seize it again, SO ANGLING WITH WORftf FOR SALMON. all which time the angler will cautiously g4v« way to his motions, which appear to he very capricious, allowing- the line to follow hi in freely, yet never permitting him to be alto* gether unfelt. Sometimes these motions will be continued for a consider^ 1 *e time, five or even ten minutes, when hb will quit and leave it alto* gether. But more likely he will attempt to swallow the whole bait, which he generally at last succeeds in doing ; and this motion is understood by the angler from the particular twitching the fish makes in gobbling it. The angler at last feels that he has it pretty fast, and by a sudden resistance fixes him, when he is then run and landed in the same manner as if hooked with fly. Salmon are very voracious in regard to the worm bait. I have known two fishers, each of whom has, at periods more than twenty years apart, met with the self same occurrence in the very same place — the Bayhill cast> at Dry burgh Chainbridge. The fish took the bait, and was run sometime from near the head to the foot of the stream, when by some accident the line was broken, or cut on a rock, within a foot or two of his mouth,5when the fi3her coolly put on a ANGLING WITH WORM FOR SALMON. 81 new tackle and bait, went up and began again at the head of the cast, and exactly on the same spot hooked him again with much less ceremony than at the first, as the fish seized it this last time with great eagerness, and was run and landed with the first, bait, hooks, gut, worms and all, hanging in hi? throat. When the water has 1- .en very low in drought, the first trial of this worm bait is a searching thing for the river. I have asked Haliburton, — "John, are there many fish yet left in the water?" "I cannot just say," he would reply, u as the water has fallen so low they have been set tip to the fly for some time past ; but I will inform you to-morrow night how many are in the Caul-pool, the Broom- ends, and Bach-brae, as I mean to be on them very early in the morning with the worm, and every one you know must have a passing pool at the first bait." I went down to the Caul- pool about five or six in the morning, and found that John had already eight lying on the gravel. Salmon axe never caught with worm except in the vcrv lowest state of the river. 82 ANGLING WITH WORM FOR TROUT. The worm preferred for trout bait in the Tweed is what is commonly called the black headed small tailed worm. In manured and fat clay soils, this worm is found of gross habit and dark colour ; and where the soil is light and sandy, is of a bright colour. On digging any earth in dry weather, it is found rolled together • resembling a mulberry or a cherry. When got in this state, they may be fished with as soon as gathered ; yet, in general, to have them in proper order, they ought to be kept some time before being used, a few days at least, amongst moss, and the moss occasionally changed. If kept over three weeks or a month, they require to be fed with a little cream or sweet milk, and brick dust or red clay, but always replaced into moss a day or two before being used, which renders them clean and tough. Although trout may be taken with worm in any state of water, yet the most proper time is in the very lowest and clearest state of the river, from the end of May to the end of July ; and the best hours of the twenty-four are from ANGLING WITH WORM FOR TROUT. 83 the first break of daylight to six or eight in the morning. If the day is what fishers term ■ a gray day," dull, with the sun shaded, or a little breeze, they will continue to take the whole daj\ And although considerable success may sometimes be had under the bright sun, which often indicates a degree of frost in the atmosphere, yet a day of alternate cloud and sunshine is considered the very worst that can occur. The rod proper for worm requires to be a little stiffer than that used for fly, and the cast- ing line within five or six feet of the hook, should be of very tight round gut, with the knots well lapped down to prevent catching the stones. One grain of lead shot, No. 3, should be fixed on the gut above the first knot, or about eight inches from the hook. No. 1 I of Adlington's is often used, but No. 12, or even 13, are better sizes. Anglers differ in opinion about putting the worm on the hook, but the best practice is to enter the hooks at the head of the worm, and run down it till the worm is brought up all over it, and leaving the tail of the worm to curl over the point, which should always be kept covered, as the trout in worm feeding is so 84 ANGLING WITH WORM FOR TROUT. extremely suspicious that he will hardly take a worm where the hook's point is seen. Thus equipped for a start in low pure water, the angler lets out a line only about the length of his rod, and entering at the foot of a stream, continues to wade upwards, throwing his line nearly straight up before him, or occa- sionally only a little to a side, as the run of water in regard to his position may require, or where from habit he believes that a trout may likely be lying on the watch for a floating worm. As his worm and line travel down towards him, he keeps a continued check upon it by a perfect management in raising the point of his rod, and on feeling the least stop, he can generally determine whether it is a small or a large trout, the small one continuing to follow and nibble, while on the seizure of a large one, the worm is stopped at once, when the angler gives a gentle pull, which being downward against the trout, generally gets a secure hold of him. In this way, great slaughter is made of the very best trout ; and this, by a dexterous hand, is accounted the most masterly mode of all trout fishing. As it is necessary, in very clear water, to keep out of view of the fish, coming from below ANGLING WITH WORM FOR TROUT. 85 and fishing upwards in this manner gives the angler also this decided advantage. By a skilful and diligent fisher in our smaller rivers, trout may be taken with worm all the autumn, in almost any state of the river ; and as in the colder part of the season trout gene- rally leave the streams, seeking the more easy current of the pools, they will there also take a worm dropt near them ; in which case it is necessary to give the worm as much of a nice motion by the management of the rod, as to prevent it sinking and settling at the bottom. One man I see daily, an old gamekeeper, in pre- sent lack of other occupation, and who must do something for a dinner, is so excellent at this method, that he kills, at an average, about half a stone every day, in the Ayle water ; and to- day, (September 16, 1839,) after yesterday's very high flood, while Ayle water is yet white and muddy, he has come in with nine pound weight of beautiful trout, taken there with the worm. For harvest wages, half-a-crown a-day, and victuals, I dare say he could teach any active man to do the same in the course of a fortnight's diligent apprenticeship. So far as regards fishing with worm in 86 ANGLING WITH WORM FOR TROUT. drurnly or flooded waters, except by a know-in* and dexterous angler, as above alluded to, I consider it merely a boy's amusement, gene- rally done without art, and not worth farther description. In the Teviot, and all the streams between that and the Cheviot range of hills, particularly in the pastoral districts, where the Oxnam, the Kail, and Coquet waters glide through amongst sheep farms, great execution is done with a red and bright yellow freckled worm, called the Brandling, or Bramble Worm. This worm is found in very old dung heaps, and when taken out emits a strong smell, felt at a considerable distance. I have heard it affirmed, that my grandfather, in the olden time, killed thirty-six dozen of trout in one day, in the Kail water, with that worm. I believe this the more readily, as I know that a nephew of mine killed half that number in one day with the fly, in that small stream. And a Jedburgh amateur angler assured me to-day, that he once killed the same number, eighteen dozen, in one day, with the Bramble Worm, in the Teviot. Yet, though these worms have been brought and bred here in dung, I have never known FISHING WITH MINNOW. 87 much success with them, nor heard that they were at all to be preferred in Tweed fishing to the common worm. FISHING WITH MINNOW. Minnow is a very good bait for either salmon or trout, although a very small trout or par, put upon the hooks whole, in the manner of a minnow, is a preferable bait for salmon. For trout the minnow may be fished with in any state of water, flooded or clear. It is best, however, in the evening, particularly in the shallow of a ford or the break of a stream. Some use three, four, or five hooks on the minnow bait, and put it on various ways ; but the best practice is with two hooks, the largest, No. ]4, the other, No. 8 or 9 ; these are tied distant from each other the full length of the minnow. The large hook is entered at the mouth of the minnow, and brought out at the root of its tail. The small one serves principally to hook its mouth and hold it on. Or, the minnow may be reversed, with the same chance of success ; the large hook entered at its tail, and brought 88 FISHING WITH WINNOW. out at its mouth ; and the small one hooked through the gristly part at the root of its tail. As many lead shot are put on the line, a foot or two above the minnow, as will make it keep half sunk in travelling. Swivels are also necessary on the line, to prevent it twisting, although what is called ■ spinning the minnow" intentionally, is nonsense. It is just thrown in nearly straight across, and allowed to travel slowly round, like the salmon worm bait, in about mid-depth of water, with only as much movement of the rod as to prevent it sinking and catching on the bottom. The trout seizes it sometimes with a dash, but more generally follows it slyly, and snaps it, getting himself hooked before the angler actually perceives him, which renders any idea of striking him absolutely ridiculous. The natural retention of the hand in fishing is generally sufficient to fix the hook in any fish without intentionally striking ; and in all angling it is proper to depend more on feeling than on sight. For salmon, the principal minnow hook should be a size or two larger, say No. 15 or 16. And in fishing with this bait purposely for salmon, you go over the salmon cast with it just the same as with the worm or the fly, hanging it as FISHING WITH MINNOW. 89 long as possible, with a gentle motion, over the spot where you suppose him to be lying. But, as formerly mentioned, a whole small par, or young trout, is a preferable bait for the salmon. Sprats, or garvies, as they are called, which I believe are young herrings, are excellent bait for salmon. The first time they were tried in the Tweed was in the spring of 1837, at the first opening of the river, when I acci- dentally saw these sprats, and conceiving they would be good salmon bait, procured a few, and recommended them to a Mr George Brown, then here on a fishing excursion. On his first trial with them he made great havoc amongst the salmon in Dryburgh water, — then took a few to Kelso, and there introduced them, where they became a favourite bait for the season, till, at last, the fishermen prohibited their use, from a supposition, that the daily use of such a large bright bait scared the fish from their waters. PAR-TAIL. Par-tail is seldom used for salmon, but is a capital bait for trout Two hooks are also 90 PAR-TAIL. necessary for this, the same as for the minnow, only of a larger size. No. 15 or 16 is small enough for the end one, the upper one No. 9 or 10. Measuring- from the bend of the hooks, they should be tied about two inches and three- quarters apart, or a little more than half the length of the whole par, or trout, to be cut and used for the bait. Half an inch of the large hook should be left out untied, for the purpose of being run back and fixing the bait, to counteract its tendency to slip off. Any very small trout, par, or smelt, may, of course, be put on whole in the manner of a minnow ; but when too large for this, it is cut across to the proper length, to suit the distance of the tied hooks, slanting the cut from above the back fin to a little below the middle of the belly. The fins, and web of the tail, should then be nearly all cut on , and the large hook inserted a little above the tail, and brought out at the cut end, leaving it to hang free and clearly out. The other hook is put through the solid gristly part, above the root of the tail. The hooks thus left clear out have a fair chance to get hold when a trout bites. Swivels are necessary on this, as on minnow tackle j also lead, to make it sink half-depth in rough water ; PAR-TAIL. 91 and thus prepared it is proceeded with the same way as with the minnow. Though trout will take the par-tail occasion- ally in any state of water, exactly as they do the minnow, yet the best time for using it is on the first swell of a flooded river, in muddy water, and then best in the shallow, just above, or on the break of a stream. In this case I prefer using drag hooks, that is, two hooks, No. 9 or 10, tied back to back on a strong gut, attached to the line, an inch or two above the other hooks, and projecting three or four inches out beyond all. The first trial I made of this was when I was one day obliged to give up fly-fishing by a sudden flooding of the water from a thunder shower. This was exactly on the spot where the Merton bridge is at present founded. Of a dozen good trouts then caught in a few minutes, eight were hooked outside the body by these trail hooks. I have, consequently, preferred them ever since in coloured water, and with them have been always proportionally suc- cessful. In minnow and par-tail fishing, however, one cannot succeed well every day on the same spots of water : the reason is quite obvious. 92 ROE BAIT. Minnow and par-tail are excellent baits in the night throughout the summer, in all states of water. But night fishing cannot be recom- mended ; it is so baneful to the health. Minnow, for bait, are caught various ways, with nets or with worms ; but boys will always provide them for a trifle. And the moment they are caught they should be dropt in a box overhead amongst salt, for preservation, unless they are to be used that same day. ROE BAIT. Salmon roe has, of late years, become so fashionable as a trout bait for all seasons of the year, that those who profess superior methods of preparing it, have generally a demand above their means of supply. After all, I must confess I have never seen much success with it, except on the first of the autumn or winter floods, when, for a day or two on the subsiding river, it is most deadly. One thing that particularly recommends this bait to so many is the simple method of its appli- cation, being level to any capacity. ROE BAIT. 93 Receipts for preparing the roe are held as secrets by individuals ; the object of all and each is to preserve it clean, and near the natu- ral colour. Some prefer it broken into paste ; others preserve it as whole in the roe as possible. One receipt I can here give in a note.* While, at the same time, I must confess, that the best success I have ever seen with the roe bait, has been with it simply salted, as taken from the salmon's belly, even unbroken from the netting, laid on a board or slate, set in a sloping posi- tion, to let the blood and wet run from it while absorbing the salt. When half dry it is best for use ; but if long kept, till dried hard, it should be dipt in water, to soften it a little, before being used. The hook used is No. 9, 10, or 11, just tied on the gut like any other bait hook. The only great error in this fishing is using too large a bait ; the size of a pea of prepared roe is always * Take the roe from the belly of the fish, and put it in water, a little more than milk warm, stir and wash it till the roe leaves the netting, and runs like shot, clear away the refuse, then drain it, and hang it in a flannel cloth to drip, for twelve hours or more ; put it then in a vessel, and salt it, adding a small quan- tity of saltpetre, and set it in the open air to dry, or before a fire, not too near ; then pack it in small pots, and run a little suet over it, to exclude the air, when it will keep for years. 94 ROE BAIT. sufficient ; any larger piece prevents the hook from catching, in which case the hook is pulled from the trout, generally leaving the bait in his mouth. The proper places are on the eddies of strong or flooded water, on some fine gravelly bottom, where the trout have come in shoals to the quiet water ; and there it is only neces- sary to drop in the bait, and wait till a trout is felt or seen to move the top of the rod ; then pull up, lead it out, and throw in again for another. The best time is the morning. I have seen a lad bringing in at breakfast time seven dozen, which would weigh above two stone ; and a boy lay down beside them half the number, which would overweigh one stone ; and these had been caught with the plain roe, simply as salted from the belly of the salmon. SALMON FLIES. s a 3 £ a o s For body, soft cow hair is best, to be well pricked up to give it a hackle like ap- pearance. This to be used when the water is low. White tipsnottoexceed three eighths or three-sixteenths of an inch, if hook bo small. The rest of the feather should be glossy black. Wings to be made very slen- der. Feather from the white or cream coloured turkey. The dun colour partakes of brown and white, a shade of red and yellow, with the slightest tinge of silver gray Dark orange or red. The same. The same. The same. The same as No. I. The same as No. I. None.except on large sizes. Dark orange or red, or none. i H H Yellow. The same, or orange. The same. The same. The same as No. I. The same as No. I. Yellow, or same colour as body. Yellow or light orange. P For largest hooks, a small feather lying under the wing of the snipe ; for middling sized hooks, tur- key, gray mottled ; for smaller sized hooks, drake, gray mottled, or argus pheasant. The same. Drake, brown freckled. Same as No. I. and var. 2. Turkey, white tip. Turkey, white, or rather French white. Turkey, as nearly of same colour as body as possible ; those having a tendency to whiteness on the tip to be preferred. Bright gray mottled feather of drake. If water clear, use a feather of a darker shade. Black, or very dark blue ; no hackle ; gold twist ; with a very little red, green, or deep orange, close over root of tail tuft. Water rat fur, hackle having black root and red top. Same as No. I. Peacock herl ; gold twist ; black hackle. Same as No. I. with var. 1 and 3. Same as No. I. with var. 1 and 3. Fox fur, and mohair of same colour, or cow hair from flank of dun coloured cow ; hackle ; gold twist. Dark fur of hare's lug, with the smallest streak of red or dark orange mohair, or pigs wool, a little red round root of tail, small gold thread ; if hook be large, a hackle. No. I. Var. 1. Var. 2. Var. 3. No. II. No. III. No. IV. No. V. EDINBURGH : Printed by Andrew Shortrkde, Thistle Lane. UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY B 000 002 678 1