Having landed your first trout, do not try again in the same place, but work gradually upwards, trying every likely pool and eddy; but not casting more than two or three times in one place. If you succeed in getting two or three little trout on your first attempt in clear water you may think yourself lucky.
In April ’tis likely enough you may find the water coloured and high. If it is in flood, or approaching to it, of course the worm or minnow should be used; but of these anon.
We will suppose the stream to be but little above its usual level, and of that rich brownish colour so dear to the heart of the angler. Doubtless a worm or a minnow might still succeed; but a fly will give abundant sport, and that without requiring a high degree of skill.
Your mode of procedure need not now be so cautious as before described; and, in fact, you will find down-stream fishing often best in a coloured water. Throw, then, a long line right across the stream, near the edge of which you can safely show yourself, and work your flies across and towards you, striking smartly at any rise. You will often miss, for in down-stream fishing a strike tends to pull the fly out of the fish’s mouth, besides which the trout, on touching the surface, having his head towards you, is apt to get a sight of your rod, and to rise “short.”
If the weather and water are both favourable for down-stream fishing, you will have lots of rises, and some of the fish at least will fasten, so that you have a chance of getting a dozen or so on a good day, even before you have acquired any great skill.
The best fly for thick water I have found to be the soldier palmer, a red fly with gold twist, but it will not always succeed. A March brown, or a blue upright, or blue palmer with silver twist, may also be useful. Remember that the thicker the water the larger and more gaudy the fly may be.
We have to consider the chance of the water being too thick for fly. Then either minnow or worm will answer, the former in moderately thick water, and the latter in an absolute flood, unless the water is like pea soup. The minnow is used on a short line, with a longish rod. It requires considerable skill, and cannot be practised with safety in strange water by the beginner, or the minnow will constantly be getting lost by fouling snags. As minnows are expensive, this is a bad sort of sport for a boy with limited pocket-money.
It is a favourite, however, with the professional angler in the north, and he doesn’t lose his minnows. It is a treat to see one of these gentry spin a rough run with his minnow, and take two or three good trout where an amateur would do nothing but lose tackle.
The best way to learn to spin a minnow is to watch an old hand do it; but if the stream you fish is free from snags you might find it worth while to try to learn without such teaching. If so, be careful to keep the tip of the rod near the water, and, using a short line, to spin your minnow near the surface. If you get a run don’t snatch your minnow away, but keep it steadily on. Very likely the trout may bite short, but there is always a good chance that one of the revolving hooks may catch his jaw. If you do hook a fish get him out quickly, for your tackle being stout (as it must be for minnow-fishing) will bear the strain of anything short of a snatch.