THE ANGLER'S COMPANION: A POPULAR AND PRACTICAL HANDBOOK TO THE ART OF ANGLING. By Thomas Tod Stoddart. Third edition - revised.

(1847) 1892 3rd edition. Small 8vo (142 x 205mm). Pp207 + 16pp publisher's catalogue. Engraved vignettes. Green cloth, spine titled in gilt with gilt fish motif at base.

This is the third edition of The Angler's Companion to the Rivers and Lochs of Scotland. First published in 1847 with the second edition following in 1853, for this edition the publisher has entirely omitted the gazetteer of angling locations as they felt that the information had been "quite superseded by that contained in any recent Sportsman's Guide." The book has therefore been slightly re-titled to reflect its content - angling technique with fly, minnow and worm for trout, sea-trout and salmon, some fly-tying, pike fishing and cookery. The section covering fishing with salmon roe has also been omitted, the method having become illegal since the second edition was published. Some copies of this edition were issued with a publisher's catalogue bound in at the rear, others were not. Chapters include:- The fresh-water trout; Angler's tackle and equipment; Fly-dressing; Trouting flies; On trouting with the fly; On fishing with the worm for trout; Trout-fishing with the minnow and parr-tail; The salmon; Sea-trout; Salmon flies; On salmon-fishing with the fly; Salmon-fishing with the parr-tail, minnow and worm; Pike and pike fishing; Cooking of salmon, etc. "Thomas Tod Stoddart qualified in law but never practiced. He wrote bad poetry and excellent books about angling and fished from childhood into old age." "...the most important and influential of all the earlier writers on Scottish angling. He was not an innovator, and expounded the traditional Scottish angling methods incomparably well and sympathetically from about 1830 onwards." (Simmonds).