George and I would have gone pretty hungry in our camp and on our
tramps while in Norway had we not both been able to catch fish, for
there was little else in the woods to eat besides blue-berries (we
were now too high up for the wild raspberries which are so good in the
valleys).
Every Scout must know how to fish, otherwise he would feel so silly if
he died of starvation alongside a stream full of trout. And
fishing--like shooting, or cooking, or swimming, or anything else--is
not a thing that you can do straight off without having practised it
beforehand; so my advice to Tenderfoots is to take every chance of
learning how to fish, so that they may be able to do it when they may
be in need of fish for food.
Sea fishing, as you know, is generally done with a long line from a
boat, with a good lump of lead on the end of the line, and a number of
hooks every foot or so up it, baited with strips of fish with the
silvery skin left on them.
Then in rivers and lakes you fish with rod and line, with a float to
hold the bait at the right distance above the bottom. The hook is on a
yard or so of gut line, which is invisible to the fish; this is
weighted with split shot or small bits of lead, and the bait is
usually a worm, or a grub, or a little bit of bread paste. This kind
of fishing is called bottom fishing.
By the way, here is a good dodge for catching worms which every Scout
ought to know.
Mix a little mustard powder in a can of water, and then sprinkle the
water over a grass plot, and very _soon you_ will see worms
coming up out of the ground in a tremendous hurry.
It would be rather a fine conjuring trick to play when people are not
up to it--to take an ordinary watering-pot and apparently pour
ordinary water on the grass, and then play a mouth-organ or whistle a
tune to call up the worms. Someone else will be sure to try it, too,
and if you have taken care to empty your can of mustard and water they
will put in plain water and will get no result in the shape of worms.
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