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 
 
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