The trace should be from three to five feet in length, the former being long enough for a coloured water, and the latter short enough for the clearest conditions. It should, for average use, be of finest undrawn gut, though when using very small minnows in a low clear water, a much finer quality is to be recommended.
To obviate kinking of the cast and line, and to get a nice free spin, it is, of course, necessary to use swivels on the trace. Of these the angler should always carry a supply of various sizes, and at least two should be put on to the cast. The writers’ practice is more often than not to use three, increasing slightly in size as the distance from the minnow increases. And in preference to the use of lead on the trace, they are always for having it concealed in the body of the minnow whenever possible.
The most silvery natural minnows are undoubtedly the best. They should be from an inch and a quarter to two inches in length, and they are perhaps better used fresh than in any other condition. If they are put into a bottle three parts full of water, corked, and carried in the pocket, they may be kept alive the whole day, if the water be changed occasionally.
If the angler is anxious to keep the weight of his impedimenta down to a minimum, salted minnows take up far less room than live ones and are naturally much lighter, and it is doubtful whether they are appreciably inferior to fresh ones. But preserved minnows, which have been kept in a solution of formalin, are certainly not so good as fresh or salted ones, as trout never seem to want to try a second bite, when they have been missed the first time.
Minnow fishing as practised in a coloured water is comparatively easy, and does not call for any great amount of dexterity. That branch of the sport, therefore, may be dealt with first, with the prefatory remark that the minnow at such times should be used judiciously and sparingly and with a view to removing the cannibals from the river.
When a fresh is running, the minnow is used to best advantage when the river begins to rise and again as it subsides, that is when it wears the complexion known as “porter colour.” If on such occasions the angler sees an odd fish or two rise in some eddy or back wash, he may count the risers his if he spins with any skill at all.
A Brook in Spring
Photo by N. N. Lee
If the angler knows of the stronghold of some monster trout grown ugly and big on a diet of trout, minnows and bottom food, let him hasten thither with all speed if a fresh comes down the river, and fish very carefully round the ancient’s precincts, as in all probability he will come from out his keep to seek for food round the edges of the stream, and to seize any fry which he sees carried down by, and struggling against, the rush of the water.