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gentleman, or silks and satins a lady. Still, notwithstanding the strong objection one must always have to such a pounds-shillings-andpence, profit-and-loss practitioner, who makes the sport but a cloak for his more tradesmanlike ideas, and is continually keeping his eye on the "return list," a good bag is a grand, if not indeed a necessary, item in a good day's sport. We would warn, however, amiable, stay-at-home, unentered people, from taking as a matter of course any immense displays and grand-total of the killed and wounded as a true test of success, of actual enjoyment, or excellent skill and prowess: the worthy who, with five guns and fifteen assistants or beaters, fills his waggon or two with hares, rabbits, and pheasants, "without, I assure you, once leaving the home cover," has experienced far less sportsman's pleasure and excitement, and stands far less worthy of your flattering encomiums and heaps of admiration than the man who has traversed half the county to bring down his three brace of snipes and a widgeon. It is in the union of the two that we get a chance of taking the estimate of a senior optimè, when great attempts end in great gains-when the shooter, who has toiled up the mountain's side, and braved the fatigue and chance ever incident to the moors, can count his ten or fifteen brace of grouse, point to a specimen or two of that rara avis, the ptarmigan, and descant on the proportions of a buck that has taken as much time, art, and head to "circumvent" as an Ojibbeway warrior or an Old Bailey barrister. Then it is that he may justly court the applause of his audience, as, in all the pride of place and perform

ance, he groups himself and supporters into "one perfect blaze of triumph," lights that sylvan luxury, the short pipe, and taps the cold punch, or cold tea, whichever may the better suit his palate. Under such circumstances, considering what he has done and endured, we all must agree with Mark Tapley, that there really is some credit in being jolly.

As a mere matter of form, we think it right to add, that on the first of the present month the jolly young watermen, on the good understanding of "those who win them, wear them," start for "the coat and badge," and that, on or before the twelfth, the jolly landsmen, young and old, start for the moors, where, in comparison with the forms and ceremonies they have lately gone through, and breaches of etiquette and privilege they have just managed to avoid, they may relax at once into nature's independence; go almost anywhere and anyhow they like; kill their own meat; bake their own bread; and even, should they not be over particular in the observance of a byelaw or two, brew their own drink. Although, in the latter case, Sawney will take care to explain to them, that the independent spirit of person must not equal that of the liquor; or, in other words, that if they keep a still, they must keep it still.

TROLLING AND TRIMMERING.

BY CHARLES WILLOWDALE.

"And now's the season, when the bright
Calm days with fearlessness invite,
To float on some smooth river's tide,
Whose waters through fair landscapes glide,
Through rural scenes, and woodland bowers,
Rocks and romantic cliffs, and towers,
Which lift their crests aloft, and throw
Rich umbrage on the flood below."

MANT'S BRITISH MONTHS.

The trolling for this year may now be said to be over-if it ever indeed began. I have not known so extraordinary a season for many years. The constant north and north-east winds, with hardly a single intermission, rendered it anything but a work of pleasure to pass even an hour standing by the river-side. Sun there was none for weeks together; or if there were, the wind made it so intolerably cold that no one could stick it long. Other years have had their obstacles and cold blasts-snow in April, and hail-storms in May; but the spring of '45 has been all along bitter cold weather. We were not troubled with floods, it is true; nor was the water turbid or high; and yet no one found sport, owing, no doubt, to the absence of even a fortnight's sunshine to set the pike and small fry upon the move. I had several days, such as they were, in February; and during March we were out frequently. April, which is generally a good month in rivers not troubled with many weeds, was a failure this year; and May was rainy, ending in a flood. Nothing could exceed the scarcity of roach with us; and frequently I have had a man casting over ground-bait for two hours without taking more than half-a-dozen bait fish of the right size. Generally one finds the snaptackle catch most, and the gorge tackle secure most. But there was one peculiarity about the cold weather: it reversed the order of things; and pike gorged better, when they did bite, than I have any recollection of their doing before in the early months. Through this circumstance, which I discovered by mere chance (having lost my snap-hooks, and being ill provided with a relay, and adopting a gorge as a make-shift), I secured three fine fish in a reach of water where the banks are so steep, that as we never troll through it with snaptackle, it mostly stands over for the trimmers. Several friends, who are as good at it as need be, have, on comparing notes, agreed with

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me in opinion that whenever pike bite slowly in March and April, they mean gorging when they rise. There is some reason in this. When the fish are all on the move, they take more food and grow less voracious than when, from the unusual chill in the water, the small fry are in the deeps, and consequently food harder to come by among the fish of prey. Where a pike bites in this state of things, there is no mistake about him. He does not play with your bait-fish, carrying it about in his mouth, and ultimately throwing it up. No; he means eating his dinner when it is ready, and then going down to his haunt again in the deep water.

July, August, and September are the three best months for trimmers. The weeds are now well up, and the large pike will lie in the deepest beds of weeds, for security against foes and the advantage of gliding unseen upon their prey. Without thick weeds no pike will remain long in any part of a river. They may be found in the deepest waters during winter, and some parts of the spring; but they are sure to take themselves off to the weeds as soon as these are sufficiently up to form good continuous places of safety. There is another reason for shifting their ground from the open water to that which is more obstructed. It is the many unmistakeable warnings which they have received from the snap-hooks of the troller. How many a rise is followed by the snap and a miss-that is, one cries out, "There! I just touched him: a trifle more, and I should have had him!" Not a doubt of it: the instinct which teaches the swallow to leave this for a distant country, and the salmon to seek the fresh waters to spawn in, imparts a knowledge to the pike that he is by no means safe in clear water in June. June generally is a bad month for pike-fishing. It is too weedy for trolling, and too soon for trimmering. By this means the pike get a rest, and with that their confidence returns. They are neither alarmed by persons walking on the shores, nor the motion which they get an inkling of, of the bait-fish cast upon and drawn through the water: the river, in a word, is more quiet; and hence, when one begins to cut holes a mongst the weeds, or deposit the trimmers in the natural spaces left at the turns of the current, dike mouths, and small holes and hollows, the fish do not suspect, after eyeing the live bait for half-anhour or so, that there is anything wrong. Do not start, my friend! "Eyeing the live bait for half-an-hour"-those are the words: and so a pike will, for I have watched him, and seen him do it. I have seen him sail round it; sink himself to the bottom; glide up again, and take another circle round it, and eventually turn away from it, or go slap at it, and seal or escape his fate as the one or the other of these performances crowned his manœuvres. Again: trimmering is mostly done with a boat, and there is nothing in a boat to give the alarm to pike. Unlike to persons and motions on shore, the boat glides quietly along the stream; the trimmer is set, and nothing more occurs for an hour at least, to disturb the fish in that part of the water where the lines are set for the day.

A man who is really fond of trolling seldom cares much for trimmering, and vice versa. "Oh," says the troller, "you are off trim.

mering again, are you? It is always a puzzle to me how any one can find an amusement in that dull work." The patron of the cork and bullet is not a whit behind him of the pole and snap: "How it is that my friend John Porter can discover any interest in flinging that poor devil of a dead roach all over the river," says the other, "I am quite at a loss to know. To me it is the greatest mockery on earth. He swears he has a rise, and he pulls out a weed as long as his arm. He exults in a run, and he lands safely a rotten stick which has got foul of his tackle by the under current. It's poor stupid work, that trolling! Come with me for a day's trimmering, if you would witness real sport." Now each of these has its pleasures and its votaries; and I, who have followed both, always found diversion in either in its season. "There is a time for all things," says the old proverb; and I, who am a lover of an old adage, am also well content to take things as they are summer or winter, good or evil. Were it not so, we should all take to the turf, leaving the rivers alone; or to the fields, deserting the woods and "the stinking vermin." Therefore, as the trolling season in my estimation is over for 1845, let us take a peep at its friend and follower-that of the trimmers.

There is one advantage in trimmering-that it is pursued at a season of the year when all the delights of early rising may be enjoyed in perfection. No one thinks of leaving his bed with the first peep of day in February, March, and April; but it is not so in July, August, and September. Can anything exceed in beauty the fragrance and stillness of a July morning? Is it not a perfect paradise to stroll down to the river-side at four o'clock; while nature is just awakening around, and nothing heard to disturb the quiet and repose of the time, except the distant village clock, the birds early orisons, and the splash along the stream of the carp, bream, and pike? He who would excel in trimmering must not be a sluggard. He must rise with the lark. He must put in practice another of my old saws:

"Early to bed, and early to rise,

Will make a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."

He must have his casting-net upon his shoulder by a little after five, and all his bait-fish ready by about six. The trimmers are then to be set. It requires two and a boat to do it properly. It is too much labour for one man to cast, sprit, and put in the lines. Besides, if there is a wind, it is next to impossible to hold the boat up at a hole, and put in a trimmer as it ought to be; and although shoving the sprit into the mud, and tying it with a cord to the stern of the boat, may make a very good shift now and then, it is "making a toil of a pleasure"-(Saw the third).

The bait-fish having been caught, and if they are plentiful at intervals-I had almost said at different stations-along the line intended to be trimmered, it is better not to have too many in the peck at one time; for their scales get rubbed off, and the fish themselves bruised and sickened, before they can all be baited, which prevents their

working well, and, if the day is hot, soon ends their lives. Two dozen are plenty to begin with, if relays can be obtained; and if not, say four, which will bait four dozen hooks-enough for one day in all

reason.

The arming-wire is to be inverted near the belly of the bait-fish half-an-inch beyond his gills, and brought out along his side, between the back-fin and the tail, so that the hook lies even with the back and belly of the bait. The pike always strikes his food across, and having given him three or four bites-much as a terrier shakes a rat-gorges him. It is apparent, therefore, that the hook is not to be where the pike champs; because if he gets pricked, he throws up the bait and makes off.

The bullet is to be placed at such a depth as to bring the cork into mid-water, and the bait-fish within about eight inches of the surface. If the day is cold and windy, let the bait-fish lie half-a-foot deeper. It is well to have the bullet heavy enough; for when the pike runs, it is not felt, and unless it is sufficient to keep the bait in its place where there is a stream, all the advantage of fishing in natural or cut holes, among weeds, is lost. One might as well throw the trimmers in at random, and so save both time and trouble.

The trimmer rollers should invariably be painted white, and numbered in dozens: it prevents not only the loss of the tackle, but, it may be, a good fish as well.

It is almost useless to trimmer in a dead water, especially on a hot day. You want a stream, not a rapid one-for pike are not fond of rapid waters, nor can you trimmer to advantage in sharp currentsbut water of moderate flow; or if it be a river where the navigation is carried on by stanches, and not by sluices, the running off of two or three stanch-waters in the course of the day is the grand thing for trimmering it brings the pike out of their haunts without alarm, and, making all astir in the river, ensures splendid sport.

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The largest and best pike will always be taken by trimmers. Good fish are frequently taken by trolling, from 8lbs. to 12lbs. ; but it is seldom that one gets beyond. With trimmers we arrive at 20lbs. and 25lbs. weight, and generally average 6lbs. to 10lbs. ; whereas the troller cannot say so much for his generalities.

The boat has an advantage, in carrying the spoil, beyond panier or pocket; and not the spoil only, but the good things of this life which the troller's pockets fall short of. And then for luncheon and dinner in trimmering, there is always some overarching willow, alder, or sallow; some quiet shade, where, after a bathe, with the casting-net suspended on one side, and the sprits and boat-hooks hung around on the other, the sportsman finds in the good cheer and good company advantages which our solitary friend of the snap and pole must look for in vain. These are among the advantages which trimmering possesses above trolling. The day may be diversified with angling: perch-fishing, carp and chubb-fishing, whipping for dace with the fly, and humble roach and bleak-fishing, to the true lover of our gentle craft, may fill up the hours between setting and taking up the trimmers. These remarks apply to those days when the lines are

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