he chances of raising a fish on that beat are
exhausted.

Should a small fish come on, haul it in hand-over-hand; and the man must
not stop rowing, as the other minnow is out, and must be kept spinning.
If, however, a fish that needs playing comes to you, you must seize the
rod to which he has come, and the boatman must take the other, and wind
in as fast as possible. You should not commence winding in till the
other line is wound up so far as to preclude the chance of the fish
mixing up both lines together. Barring the risk one runs of a serious
mess, it is not a bad plan to troll from a reel a cast of larger-sized
flies than would be used in ordinary fly-fishing. This line follows, of
course, in a _straight_ track behind the boat, and the minnows being
considerably to right and left of it, there is no danger of their
getting mixed so long as the boat is moving; but the risk is apparent
should a fish come to either of the three lines, and great activity is
then necessary on the part of yourself and boatman to keep things right.
You must keep the fish at as considerable a distance from the other
lines as you can, and trust a good deal to the chances of war for the
ultimate safety of all. Some days, even when casting was unproductive,
we have been fortunate in securing fish by trolling our flies in the
manner described. Indeed, unless the day or the season is decidedly in
favour of trolling minnows, we prefer, if only trolling two lines, to
troll from one of them with the minnow, and from the other with the fly.
This must always be decided, however, by the judgment of the angler, and
by his surroundings for the time being. One thing in favour of trolling
with the minnow is, that the best size of fish are caught by that means.
This is not invariably the case, but it is the rule. And in concluding
this chapter, we must not omit to acknowledge that we are glad to know
that when we are not so young as we once were, and when the wielding of
a rod all day long shall have come to be a serious matter, we shall
still have the pleasure of roaming about our lovely lochs--Highland or
Lowland--and have the excitement of landing fish, coupled with our
enjoyment of fresh air and grand scenery. For this reason, if for no
other, cultivate as often as you can, without entrenching on the nobler
pastime of fly-fishing, the art of trolling--for we must confess that
there is an art in this as in everything else; and should my reader be
scepti