ANGLING. The art of angling, or of catching fish by a rod and line, is of very ancient derivation. The earliest writer upon it in our country was the Dame Juliana Berners, who wrote a treatise on it in the Book of St Albans, printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1496. Between that time and the present there have been nearly a thousand books, or parts of books, written and published upon this subject.

The practice of angling may be arranged under three heads, viz., top or surface, mid-water, and bottom angling. Surface angling includes fishing with an artificial fly, or daping with a live fly or other insect; mid-water fishing includes spinning or trolling with a dead bait and fishing with a live bait; bottom fishing includes angling with worms and other baits, either resting on or traveling with the stream along the bottom. The last is usually the first practiced by the angler, and we will therefore take it first.


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