^ ,-:i^« r •V- ON ANGLING u}soos t PRnrrn bt SPOmSWOODB ASD CO.. KBW-BTRRKT SQCARR AXO PAB.LIXMKST STRKKT Digitized by the Internet Arciiive' in 2007 with funding from . IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/branchanglingOOfranrich Tdp-ADtmA jiPm HIE GxjyuTJS /liiciri i.aigman5 «*- A BOOK ON ANGLING BBirO A OOHFUm TBSATI8B OV THB ART OF ANOLINO IN MVERY BRANCH WITH BZPIOXATOBT PLATV, BTC. BT FRANCIS FRANCIS ^ 'TV FUU' ACTBOR or 'VttH CITLTUSB* * BT LAXB Ain> Kim* RC FOURTH EDITION RBVIBBD AND IMPROVED LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1876 All rights rettrved n L MAIN UBUARY / PEEFACE THE FOURTH EDITION. That a Fourth Edition of this work should be required so soon is a sufficient proof, not only of its popularity, but that it supplies the want so long felt of an efficient and comprehensive work upon every branch of angling. In this edition I have made large alterations, and to it I have made considerable additions ; one of the plates has been entirely recast, and between thirty and forty pages of fresh matter have been added. In bottom-fishing there have been valuable alterations and improvements, and in spin- ning, trout-fishing, &c., &c., also — but the largest changes have been made in the salmon-fly list. This being a point that nearly every salmon-fisher and every tackle-maker in the kingdom is interested in, I have thought it desirable to revise and renew the list of flies for all the principal rivers, so as to bring it up to the present date ; this I have done by communication with all the local authorities, most of whom are old Mends and acquaintances, who are always ready to assist me when they can, and to whom I here tender my warmest thanks. In some rivers wide alterations occur, in others the salmon seem to have resisted the more gaudy 910524 VI PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. triumphs of progress, and to be as sober-minded in their tastes as heretofore. Besides this, nearly a dozen entirely new rivers in England, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, have been added to the already extensive list, and the flies suitable for them have been carefully noted and described ; and I trust that these additions and improvements may be recognised and appreciated by the public. 1876. PEEFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. When first infected with the fever of Angling, more years ago than I care to count up, my ambition was to catch every species of freshwater fish, from the minnow up to the salmon, wliich inhabits our British waters. That satisfied, my next desire was to write a work, which should contain within one volume (as far as might be pos- sible) the fullest and most varied information upon Angling generally, in every branch of the art, which had ever been published ; and with this resolve I commenced collecting the matter for the present work nearly twenty years ago. Taken up and laid aside from time to time, little by little it has steadily progressed towards com- pletion. In the course of that twenty years I took occasion to visit and to fish nearly every river of note in the kingdom, my connection with ' The Field ' affording me peculiar facilities for obtaining permission to fish very many waters which are closely locked against the general public ; and I have roamed England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland over to gather fresh knowledge, and to put it into a practical and concentrated form for the use of my readers. vii^ PREFACE TO . A modern work on general Angling has long been much needed. We have works upon fly-fishing, and excellent ones too ; we have good works upon spinning and trolling ; we have few modem works upon bottom-fishing at large ; and we haN'e no modern book upon all of these styles com- bined, since the last book of any note of that sort (which is Ephemera's 'Handbook') was published twenty years ago, and Angling has made great strides in the last twenty years. One thing the student may rely on, viz. all that is set down here is the result of carefully conned experience, often proved. I have not entered the realms of fancy, and I have not borrowed the experience of others as though it were my own, and of my own origination. I have endeavoured to borrow as little as possible; and where I have been obliged to borrow, I have striven to make the fullest acknowledgment of my indebtedness, and to do that justice to others which I hope to have done to myself. The branch in which I have been the most com- pelled to borrow is in the trout flies. The reason of this is obvious, as the flies on which the trout feed are the same to-day that they were 500 years ago. Perhaps to Mr. Ronalds' ' Fly-fisher's Entomology ' I am the largest debtor, and a better authority one could not borrow from, since it is by far the best work that has ever been written on the subject. But it must not be forgotten that even Ronalds borrowed these flies for the most part in his turn. Let the reader turn to one of our earliest books on fly- fishing, and he will there find described by Cotton all the best flies taken by the trout in the present day, and which have been more or less reproduced and described by every subsequent angling writer up to Rpnalds. There we find THE FIRST EDITION. IX ? the red-brown (February red), the blue and yellow duns, the house fly, the green drake, the hawthorn, the black gnat, the ant fly, the whirling dun, the peacock, the barm fly, and other flies, given by the very names they are now known by ; while most of the remaining flies which the modem angler uses are also described, though under other names ; but they can easily be identified by the method of dressing laid down for each of them. These flies, then, are again reproduced in Ronalds, who for the first time describes and classifies them entomologically, thus ren- dering to the fly-fisher one of the greatest boons conferred upon the art since Cotton's day, as the angler is through Ronalds enabled to identify each fly with nature, and to study its habits and changes. All that I have been able to do while following in so well marked and beaten a track — and it is all that any other author could do — has been to make such suggestions upon the dressing of the various Hies as may render them, in my opinion, better imitations of nature than have yet been made public, and to select and make such suggestions as to those flies which are the greatest favourites with the fikh, as may simplify matters to the beginner. In inducting the tyro into the mysteries of the art, I Ifave endeavoured to make every direction and informa- tion as clear and practicable as possible. This work is in- tended to be a useful and not merely a decorative one : thus, the plates are not for the sake of ornamentation, but for direction, and as an aid to the student of tackle- making and fly-tying. Each illustration of tackle is really needed, and the flies shown are not a mere selec- tion of gorgeous and pretty subjects, or I should have chosen very difierently ; but each fly is a specimen of some X PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. separate class of flies, in which a special peculiarity of manufacture is evident. I have to thank many kind friends for assistance in lend» ing tackle and flies as subjects for the engravings, and also for description, as will be found in the body of the work. I have given much time to this book, but I have given it willingly, for it was indeed and in truth a labour of love. Whether the Angling public, to whom I dedicate it (desiring no more potent patron), will appreciate my labours remains to be seen; and so, without further apology — if an attempt to supply a long-felt and obvious want, the existence x)i which few persons have been in a position to know and feel so well as myself, be thought to require an apology — into their hands I commit it. Francis Fbancis. Thb Fibs, Twicksnham: 1867. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. B0TT0M-PI8HIN0. PAOB THB OBIOnf OP AKOLIlfa — POHD-FXSHWO— PTntT-FISHllfO- THB HOB- FOLK 8TTLB — BAmC-rUHOfO — THB OXHWEON— THB POPB— THB BLBAX — THB BOACH — THB BUDD— THB BAC9 — THB CHUB— THB B A BWBT . 1 CHAPTER II. BOTTOM-FisHiNQ — Continued. NOrrarOBAM AKOLIVO— CA9nXO PBOM THB BBL— DACBOia — TIGHT CORKOia — THB 8LIDBB, VTC 61 CHAPTER III. BOTTOM-nsHrao — conlinued, THB BBBAM — THB CABP-^-THB TBBCH — THB BBL— THB PBBCH— PATBB- NOSTBBXlfO, BTC 73 CHAPTER IV. MID-WATEE FISHINO. THB PIKB — SFUrXING — TBOLLDTO -WITH THB DBAD OOBOB — LITB BAIT' mo, BTC 100 CHAPTER V. ABTIFICUL FLT-FI8HIN0. ▼ABIBTIBB OP TBOUT — IKSTBUCTIOKS AB TO BODS AHD TACKLB— BOW TO Uni THBM — WBATHBB— HOW TO CH008B PLIB8 — DBB88 — WIOHT- 188 Xll CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI. ABTIFICIAL FLIES. PAOB CX>lfrRAST OF SYSTEMS — COPYINO NATURE AKD COPYINa NOTHTNO LIST OF FLIES FOR EACH MONTH 186 CHAPTER Vn. ON LAKE-FISHING, ETC. LAKB-FISHINO — DAFING THE CREEPER — THE BBBTLB — THE WORM 250 CHAPTER Vni. SPINNING FOB TROUT. SPINNnfO FOR LARGE TROUT — SPINNING FOR TROUT IN SMALL STREAMS — THE PAR-TAIL — THE GRATLINO 278 CHAPTER IX. THE SALMON. THE BOD — THE REEL AND LINE — HOW TO USE THEM — CASTING — STRUUNQ — PLATING A SALMON — SKA-TROUT FISHING . . 303 CHAPTER X. SALMON FLIES. LIST OF SALMON FLIES — GENERAL FUES — ^UST OF FLIES FOB SCOTCH RIVERS 333 CHAPTER XI. SALMON FLIES — contmued. LIST OF FLIES FOB IRISH BIYEBS 392 CHAPTER Xn. SALMON FLIES — continued. LIST OF FLIES FOB WALES AND ENGLAND — LIST OF SEA-TEOUT FLIES 426 CONTENTS. xiil CHAPTER Xni. TACKLE-MAKING AND FLY- DRESSING. PAOK ON MAKING TACKLB, KNOTTIKO, BTC. — HOW TO DRB88 THE TBOITT FXT — THB METHOD OF DRESSWO THE SALMOIf FLT .... 454 CHAPTER XIV. CONCLUSION. ON HOOKS — THB BAIT TABLB — BBCIPB8 AND NOTABIUA . 478 INDEX 606 LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS. PLATB Frontispiece. — Thb Author akd his Oillib, I. — LAin>iiro Nkt8 &c. II. — Thb Slidbb akd othbb Floats &c. Ill— KxoTS, HrrcHBS, &c. IV. — Spqcnuco Flights, Lrads, &c. V. — SpmKiNo Tacxxes Baited VI. — Lite-bait Tacklbs &c. . VII. — Natural Trout Flibs V^III. — Tacklb fob Mikkow Spnnriifa &c. IX. — Imitatioks of OttUHS Ain> Bbbtlbs X. — Salmon Flibs : the Goldfinch &o. XI. — The Bittbbn, Parson, and Snow Flt XII.— The Tartan, Bbault, and Sfby Doo Flibs XIII. — The Popham, Shannon, and Owbnxorb Flu» XIV.— Trout Flt Dressing &c. XV. — Salmon Flt Drhssino XVI.— Scale of Limerick Hooks To face page 11 70 95 104 112 130 186 284 295 340 869 389 408 457 466 482 ON ANGLING... • »».*••• CHAPTER I. BOTTOM-FISHING. THE OSiniK OF AyOLCTO — POHB-FISHIXO — PUlfT-FISHIKO — THll KORFOLK STTLB— BANK-FISHINO — THB GVDOBOIC — THB POPB — THB BLHAJC — TUB ROACH — THK KUDD — THB DACV — THI CHTTB — THB BABBBT.. The art of Anolinq is a very ancient one, and it is difficult to say when it did not exist. Indeed, man might even have taken a lesson from Nature herself, and doubtless has done so. For the Angler or Fishing-frog (Lophius piscatoritis) has for its necessities as complete a rod, line, and bait appended to its nose, and uses this apparatus with as much skill in decoying within reach of its voracious maw the unwary fish who are deceived by the shining appearance of the filament forming the bait, as the deftest fly-fisher employs amongst his human imitators. The fishing-parties of Antony and Cleopatra will be fresh in the memory of every schoolboy,* while representations ' The story of Antony employing divers to fasten fish on to his hook is, no doubt, a singular specimen of angling. But the Chinese may be said to practise the plan habitually. The rocks and stones at the bottom of the sea on the Chinese coast are covered with small shell-fish. Two men go out to fish ; one holds a line to which is a baited hook ; the other, a diver, takes the hook and a hammer and dives to the bottom, and there he begins crack- ing and knocking to pieces the masses of shell-fish. The fish draw round to feed. The diver selects his fish, and literally thrusts the hook into its mouth, and his friend al>ove pulls it up. B 2 THE EAKLT MASTERS. of fish and fishing have been found upon some of the oldest temples and most venerable remains extant. In every community in savage life, too, are found instruments of angling :.; ru^e enough, but sufficiently effective for the waiits o'f those employing them ; showing the various arts '.us^i^t in fishing to have been of primitive and universal iiivention. It is not, however, our purpose to give a retrospective history of angling. Our business lies with the present, and with a very brief notice we shall dismiss the past. One of the first treatises in the English language on angling is that of Dame Juliana Bemers, or Barnes, in the Book of St. Albans. It is entitled ' The Art of Fysshynge with an Angle,' and was published in 1496. There were other authors who added to the stock of angling litera- ture, as Mascal and Markham ; but the next one of note was the well-known Izaak Walton, who wrote ' The Con- templative Man's Recreation,' and first published it in 1653, and in fifteen years it ran through five editions. Since then, with the additions by Cotton and Venables, the book has run through an extraordinary number of editions, and is still republished at intervals. From that time down to the present the number of writers upon angling matters has abounded beyond measure, and the literature of angling is one of the richest branches of literature we have. As the writers have increased, each one adding his particular notion or two to the common stock, so has the art progressed towards per- fection, and, long ere this, fish would have become extinct, but that nature has wisely ordained that, as the fishermen become learned in their art, the fish shall become learned also ; and thus hickory and horsehair, gut and steel, are robbed of a portion of their destructiveness ; and although our dear old friend and father Izaak no doubt would form a most agreeable fishing companion, we question, if he POXD-FISHIXG. 8 revisited the scenes of his former exploits, with the same tackle he used then, whether he would not find rather more diflBculty in ' pleasuring some poor body ' with the contents of his creel than he was wont to do. The art of angling, as pursued in the present day, must be divided into three branches — Bottom, Mid-water, and Top or surface-fishing. The first comprehends bait and float-fishing of every kind ; the second, spinning, trolling, and live-baiting ; and the last, daping and fishing with the artificial fly. As the first has by far the greater number of followers, owing to the greater facilities offered for its pursuit, we shall commence with that. Bottom-fishing may be subdivided into still-water and stream-fishing. Still-water is usually the first essay of the tyro, and with that we shall commence our instructions. Still-water or Pond-fishing may be practised under various circumstances, and the tackle used must depend upon the fish to be fished for. The fish which usually frequent ponds are roach, perch, carp, tench, bream, eels, and pike. The tackle, as we have said, must depend much upon circumstances ; such as whether the pond be shallow or deep, clear or muddy, much fished or the re- verse, and also upon the kind of fish the angler is going after. If he be not particular, as few young anglers are, we recommend to him a bait and tackle which will take all pond fish, and even the jack himself at times. Let him employ a good long bamboo rod, not beyond his strength. It is always advantageous to have a reel, as big fish are capricious, and sometimes will prefer the clumsy bait of the tyro to the neat and trimly impaled worm of Mr. Professor himself; a gut bottom of not less than two yards ; a light cork float (Plate II. fig. 2, p. 70), carrying four or five No. 1 shot, the last of which should B 2 4 STREAM-FISHING. be a good foot from the hook. His hook should be upon gut rather finer than the line, and the best general size he will find to be about No. 6, 7, or 8, it does not matter a great deal which. If there be many roach in the pond, and he desires to take them chiefly, perhaps tlie latter size ; if carp, tench, and perch, then the former is best. Let him plumb the depth accurately, and having fixed upon a nice spot, iiear weeds, but quite clear of them at the bottom, let him fix his float so that the bait may just touch the bottom, not swim in mid-water. His hook should then be baited with a well-scoiu-ed red worm, and having thrown in a dozen or so of bits of broken worm round about the spot he is going to fish, let him drop his bait in softly, and having stuck a forked stick into the bank for his rod to rest on,' let him lay his rod down, and keep out of sight until he has a bite. Pond-fish always bite slowly, and before they move away with the bait give ample time to the angler to reach his rod and take it up. While his rod is, as it were, fishing for itself, he will do well to look out for another spot near his own ground, to which, by casting in a few odd broken worms or gentles from time to time, he can allure the fish, so that when he is tired of his present pitch, he can go to another already baited. Thus he will lose no time in his fishing, and will be enabled, by working from spot to spot like this, to fish over a good deal of ground advantageously. The above is the best general plan for the young angler to adopt. If, however, he intends angling for any par- ticular fish, he will find the method of doing so described under its special head in another part of this chapter. In Bottom-fishing upon streams there are various » If it be necessary for his rod to extend over the pond, by resting the part in front of the reel on the fork, and by pressing the part behind the reel down by means of a hooked stick forced into the ground, the rod can be kept in position and out of the water easily. CHOOSING A SWIM. 5 methods and tackles employed. In large rivers it is advisable to use a boat or punt, as there are many places which cannot be reached by fishing from the bank. Of punt-fishing, however, we shall treat hereafter ; at present we shall confine ourselves simply to bottom-fishing from the bank. The first point the angler should settle is the choice of a swim ; and having once decided upon this, and properly baited it, he should not be in a hurry to quit it for another. He must select a spot where there is the best appearance of fish. He may see the fish sailing about at the bottom, or in mid-water, or jumping about on the surface — in which case he will not have much dificulty in deciding ; but it may happen that the water is deep and quiet, and lie will not have this method of determining upon his fish- ing ground. Let him, then, if not too lazy, get up very early in the morning, and take a walk by the river-side ; and soon after daybreak, when all is yet quiet, he will see the fish begin to break the water, and roach,, dace, barbel, bream, and other fish will jump about, or put up their heads, as if to see what sort of a day it is to be. Let him then note where these rises are the thickest, and choose that place. The angler can do the same thing late in the evening ; but the fish do not as a general rule move nearly so freely then as in the morning. If he has no means of obtaining this information, and knows not whom to ask which are the recognised swims, let him walk along the banks of the river and note where the grass is well worn by the long dwelling or treading of muddy feet ; and let him look out for traces of clay, bran or other debris of ground-baits, which are usually sufficiently visible to point out the desired spot. If none of these serve, then he must rely upon his own judgment, choosing a swim neither too deep nor too shallow as regards the water, nor too swift nor sluggish for the stream. The 6 BAITING A SWIM. neighbourhood of good overhanging banks or large bushes, a bank of weeds, or a deep hole, to form harbours for the fish, is always desirable. The ground should also be as level and free from obstructions along the bottom as possible. Very much in the choice of a swim depends on the fish to be angled for. Dace, gudgeon, and barbel like rapid and moderately deep water. Roach, perch, and bream like deeper and quieter water. The shape of the bodies of the fish forms a very fair criterion to judge from in this respect. Deep, flat-made fish cannot hold the rapid streams so well as the sharper and more rounded ones, though good roach-fishing will at times be had in pretty heavy water. The angler, having decided upon his pitch, should, if he can manage it, bait it freely some twenty hours before he intends to fisli — not an hour less. Many a day's sport is spoilt by the swim being baited the very night before the angler is going to fish ; and when he comes, on the next morning, some ten hoiu-s after, the chances are that he finds the fish have only just done feeding upon the bait he threw in the night before. The fish are then full, quite indisposed to feed, and a tame, faint bite or two alone rewards him. To coax the fish on, he then puts in more bait, which extinguishes every shadow of a chance he might have had of fish on that day ; and after an hour or two with scarcely any sport, he goes away disgusted with his loss of time and absence of sport and waste of bait, when he ought only to blame his own lack of judgment. Suppose a swim well baited at nine over night, that swim ought not to be fished until the fish are qaite hungry again, and ready to feed, which will not be until about three or four o'clock on the ensuing afternoon ; and when the fishing is commenced a very few scraps of ground-bait will sufiBce to bring the fish on and to keep them on the feed. The angler should reflect that his object is not GROUND-BAIT. 7 merely to gorge the fish, but to keep them anxiously expecting food. On the Thames, for example, more ground-bait is often wasted and thrown away in one day than, judiciously applied, would suffice for a week's sport. If a little bait can be thrown in daily some days before fishing, of course the chance of sport will be improved. In ground-baiting a pitch overnight, the method de- pends upon the bait to be employed. If gentles are to be employed, the best plan is to enclose them in a ball of bran and clay mixed up. The same may be said of chopped worms. Greaves or scratchings should be scalded, broken small, and mixed up with the clay or not, according to the stream. Bran with bread, rice, boiled wheat, grains, and such baits, are best worked up with the clay for sharp streams, while cheese should be made up into small round balls, not larger than marbles. But for the baiting while fishing it is beat to cast in the worms, &c., loose without any clay, merely throwing them up above the swim, so far that they may find ground within it ; and here let the angler be very sure that he does this accurately, as much depends upon it, for it is useless to fish in one place when the ground-bait is in another. Cheese may also be so used, and gentles likewise, if the stream will admit of it, not otherwise. Bread, rice, pearl-barley, barley-meal, &c., should be worked up into small balls, about the size of an apple, upon a small stone, or wiih such other matter as shall cause them to hold together until they reach the bottom. If it be desired to use bran, grains, malt, boiled wheat, or such baits, they should, if the stream be at all swift, be worked up together with some of the above baits, in order to give the mass sufficient coherence to carry it un- broken to the bottom : meal will serve well for this purpose if it be well kneaded. On the Norfolk rivers a barley-meal bolus is the bait for roach, and boiled barley for bream. The aim while fishing should be to distribute and 8 PLUMBING THE DEPTH, disperse the bait as much and as soon as possible, that all may get a taste, but few a surfeit, which latter they easily do when the large adhesive clay balls are used. If it be not convenient to the angler to bait a swim overnight, he will do well, if possible, to pursue the same plan as is recommended in pond-fishing, viz. of baiting two or three pitches, stopping in each only so long as the fish continue biting ; then casting in a little bait and going on to the next, and to .each again in turn ; and thus he will most probably get the most sport possible at the least erpenditiu-e of time. The pitch having been properly baited, the tackle should be suited to it. The float should be proportioned to the depth and strength of the stream, and should be also so weighted as to sail steadily along, carrying the hook just touching the bottom without the float being sucked under by the whirl of the stream, and with about from one-half to three-quarters of an inch of the quill showing above water. To ascertain the depth of the water and suit the float to it, a leaden plummet is generally used by Thames fisher- men, though the Nottingham fishers eschew it, and have another method of ascertaining the depth, which I shall notice in the proper place. In Plate I. fig. 7, p. 1 1, will be seen cuts of two plummets, one of rolled sheet and the other of solid lead. Unroll the rolled one for a turn or two, hook the hook on to the bottom edge of the lead and roll it up so as to secure the hook within, or put the hook through the ring and hook it into a piece of cork fixed in the bottom of the solid one. Then having set the float at what you judge to be about the depth, drop the plummet into the water to the bottom, keeping a tight line, and lift it once or twice to see that all is clear. If the float goes under water, slip it up the line. If it does not reach the water but is above it, drop it down, and so on imtil it is adjusted, so that the hook shall just touch the HOW TO STRIKE. bottom while about an inch of the float is above the surface. Some fish require the bait to drag a little more than others, and for them, of course, a longer allowance of depth on the line must be made. Having ascertained the depth, take off the cap of the float, take a half-hitch of the line on the top to secure it, and replace the cap, which should fit pretty tightly to prevent any slipping or coming off". Then bait the hook, drop the tackle into the water, and let it go with the stream ; as it goes down follow it with the rod-point, keeping the point always as directly over the float as possible. If there be no disturbance of the float, but it swims serenely on, let it go on to the point which you have marked out as the end of the stream, or as far as the line allows ; and before withdrawing it, in punt- fishing, always strike; for fish will often take the bait just as it reaches the end of the swim as it begins to rise from the ground, owing to the tension of the line not per- mitting it to go further while the stream still carries it on : and as this is a sort of rimning away on the part of the bait, it is often attractive to fish that have been following it ; or it may be that it comes more prominently into view. However that may be, always strike at the end of the swim pretty sharply. But should the float in its progress dip suddenly down under the surface of the water, strike instantly. In punt-fishing this should be done from the elbow, because there is a good deal of slack line between the rod-point and float to be tightened, and tliere is a long angle to be brought into a straight line before the rod-point can be brought into direct action on the hook, and the further off the float is down the stream the more acute this angle is, and the more power is required to reduce things to a straight line again between the rod- point and the hook ; and this is the reason why it is neces- sary to strike harder towards the end of the swim than when the float is directly under the rod-point. In bank- 10 HOW TO LAND A FISH. fishing, however, there is no such angle, and the rod is always over the float, so that the slightest jerk of the wrist suffices to fix the hook in the fish. If the float only dips slighty, strike ; and at any suspicious behaviour on the part of the float, still strike. Different fish have very different ways of biting, and even the same fish seldom bite two days together in the same manner. A wee bleak or gudgeon will often bob the float down almost out of sight, so that a novice thinks he has a most important bite, while a two-pound roach will often barely move the float at all; sometimes the float will be thrown up or lift^ed, sometimes will sink almost gradually, as if the hook had touched the bottom ; and when this is the style of biting, it mostly proceeds from good fish well on the feed. I like to see it, as it nearly always heralds good sport. But all these peculiarities the novice must learn from long experience, for no book can teach him. The great thing to aim at is never to use more force in striking than is absolutely necessary to fix the hook, or damage or needless wear to tackle and hooks will result. Having hooked a fish, if possible coax him out of the swim that he may not disturb the others, and play him at your leisure in the nearest vacant space. Be not over-hasty to land your fish, or you may lose him ; but on the other hand waste no time over him. Experience, again, alone will teach ' what strain your tackle will bear. In landing a fish you may lift him in by the rod, weigh him in by the line, or handle him in by the gills or tail, or use a landing-net to him, or gaff" him. The first method you only adopt with very small fish, which will not perhaps strain the rod. The second you employ with fish that are doubtful in this respect. Having played your fish until it is nearly conquered, take hold of the line, draw the fish gently up to the bank or boat, care- fully judge the length to see all clear in lifting him, so that -' . • » . > FLATl LANDING NETS, ETC. 11 the fish may not come in contact with bank or boat and so be knocked off or induced to struggle in mid-air, which is almost certain loss ; and when the fish is for the mo- ment supine, lift him steadily, but quickly and without any jerking, over the bank or boat side into a place of safety. Handling a fish in is more often resorted to when the net or gafif happens to be left at home by accident, and is usually employed on large fish, as large trout, big pike, or salmon ; for example : Bring the fish up to the side, and when he is quiet slip the hand behind the gills and grip the fish firmly, lifting him out at the same time. Some persons put the finger and thumb into the eyeholes of the pike, and lift him out thus ; but they should remember the pike's sensations. Tailing a fish out is more often employed on salmon. The fish is brought to a shelv- ing bank of gravel, gripped suddenly, but cautiously and firmly, by the root of the tail, and run up over the gravel before he knows where he is. And now a word on landing- nets. Kings for landing-nets which either fold up or com- press may be had at the tackle-makers', and can be packed up and carried about with the rods or in cases. In punt-fishing, however, a fixed ring is all that is re- quired. There are various methods of attaching landing- nets to the person, so that they may be ready to the angler's hand when walking along the banks of a stream > and yet not in his way when fishing. I find a spring-hook fixed on the handle, and hung over the basket-strap on the left-hand side, as good as any ; but anglers can see various plans at the tackle-makers' and select for themselves. In handling a landing-net, some little skill is requisite : the netsman should never dash at the fish, but sinking it in the water, and keeping out of sight as well as he can, wait till the fish is brought round, and then moving the net 12 BAl^-FISHIls'G. softly, till the fish is within the ring, he should lift him smartly out. The gafif is a sharp-pointed steel hook used chiefly for landing salmon. In very sharp and shallow streams, the landing-net is often rather unwieldy, and the gaff is pre- ferable. The great thing in using the gaff is to keep as much out of sight as possible : wait till you are sure of your mark, extend the gaff beyond the fish, and then strike it suddenly in, drawing at the fish and weighing him up at the same time. But to return. In bank-fishing, the angler should never be without a clearing-ring (see Plate I. fig. 2, p. 11), or his remissness may result in his straining his line or losing it. He will do well, too, to have in his pocket one of those hook-knives which are descrilied further on, and may be seen at fig. 5, Plate I. p. 11. He may thus upon occasion cut a weed or twig to which his tackle may be hooked, and which otherwise might be out of reach and might necessitate a breakage. A drag with a coil of string is also serviceable (see Plate I. fig. 1, p. 11). These things are useful, and take up little room in carriage. A small triangular fold-up camp-stool is a very good thing too, and saves many an angler from rheumatism; for though a scrap of waterproof will keep off damp, it is no protection from cold. This stool also goes easily with the rod, and weighs but a trifle. In bank-fishing perfect quietude is very advisable ; and if the angler desires to stamp his feet, or run about, or indulge in any method of quickening his circulation, it is most desirable that he should retire at least fifteen or twenty yards from the bank, if he would not frighten and disturb the fish. On his first approaching the water he must be very cautious, as the bare sight of his figure sud- denly moving about on the bank will often serve to frighten away every fish within several yards; although THE NORFOLK STYLE. ]3 after a time, and if not too suddenly disturbed at first, they will become accustomed to and endure his presence if he remains still and quiet. It is always advisable to keep as much as possible out of sight, unless the water be thick from rain ; and the angler should bear in mind, that anything which comes between the. water and the sky frightens the fish instantly ; whereas if there is a high bank, a tree, or what not, at the angler's back, provided he does not make too violent motion so as to attract atten- tion, he may almost see the fish swallow the bait. When on the bank, too, he should remember to let his motions be as little lateral as possible. Punt or boat-fishing differs little from bank-fishing, as regards the means employed, and much of what has been set down as regards baiting will also apply to punt-fishing. A favourite pitch is sought out, and the punt or boat is usually moored across the stream by means of heavy poles, shod vvith sharp irons, these being thrust into the bed of the river, and the head and stem of the punt fastened thereto. Sometimes, however, and more particularly when the Nottingham style of fishing is employed, the pimt or boat is not moored across the stream, but is moored in a slanting direction at an angle of about 40° or 50° with the direction of tlie current. The boil and bubble created by the ob- struction which the punt causes when moored across is thus nearly avoided. The Nottingham style will be ex- plained hereafter. I have spoken of the Norfolk style of fishing, and it may not be out of place here to say a few words about it. The punt on the Norfolk rivers, instead of being moored across the stream as in the Thames, or in a slanting direction, as is more common when 'traveller' fishing in the Notting- ham style is practised, is moored up and down in a line with the current, so that there is little or no disturbance of the water. The swims are usually of considerable depth. 14 RODS FOR BOTTOM-FISHING. often from twelve to sixteen feet or more. The angler employs two rods which are longer than the Thames punt rod, sits sideways, and fishes over the side ; having also a spare rod with a well-weighted line with a float, which acts as a dead line beside him, while fishing with the other rod in the usual way. The fish caught are chiefly roach and bream ; for the first, barley-meal is the ground-bait, and for the second, boiled barley, the hook-baits being principally gentles and worms. Large takes are frequently made, and it is common to estimate the take by the stone weight. The rods used in bank and punt bottom-fishing with the float, differ considerably. In punt-fishing the rod should be light and handy, and from ten to twelve or thirteen feet in length. If longer than this, the constant striking through a long day's fishing tires the arm. Still it is always advisable for the angler to use as long a rod as he can conveniently manage, as it gives him not only a longer swim but more power over it. Bamboo is the material best to employ. Punt rods of solid wood are rather too heavy, and the white cane too light for the work, though many do use it. Some anglers, however, prefer rods made of solid wood, as they are supposed to stand heavy work better, though I have not found that they do so. The best rod to stand work I ever had was a single stick of bamboo without joint or ferrule of any kind, with merely a spliced top lashed to it of some eighten inches or two feet in length. I used this rod for twenty years, and it is as straight as ever it was. For bank-fishing the rod should be longer and larger, and it is seldom the custom to use a rod of less than fifteen or sixteen feet in length ; while on the Lea and elsewhere fishermen use rods of a prodigious and unwieldy length, sometimes up to twenty-two or twenty-three feet. These, of course from their great length, require to be LINES FOR BOTTOM-FISHING. 15 made of very light material, and the white East India cane is most commonly employed. As a general rule, the tackle used in bank-fishing is lighter, and the point of the rod being always just over the float, and usually scarcely a foot or so from it, there is no long length of loose line on the water to strike up, as there is in punt- fishing ; and the strike, therefore, when there is a bite, is, as I have said, much lighter, being a mere twitch ; while it is not necessary, as in punt-fishing, to strike at the end of every swim. The wear and tear, therefore, is nothing like so much in a bank as in a punt rod, and a lighter material can be employed. It is astonishing what a dif- ference in the wear and tear of rod-tops the addition or subtraction of a dozen or so of shot on the line makes. For example, suppose your dozen shot weigh only the eighth of an oimce. Suppose you only strike sixty times in an hour, which is very far under the mark, and suppose you fish a good day of, say, twelve hours. The addition or subtraction of these twelve shot will have given your fragile rod-top eighty-four ounces more to jerk up in the course of one day. It will be seen, then, that this' point of meting the weight of your tackle as near as possible to the requirements of the stream is worthy of much con- sideration. I have often seen roach and dace-fishers fish- ing in an easy stream with great heavy floats, carrying perhaps near half an ounce of shot, when they could have fished it with a porcupine quill. The. consequence is that the extra shot make a splash at every strike, and they are so thick and large that the fish can easily discern them, and thus they alarm one-half and all the best of their fish. I like upright rings to all my bottom rods, finding them safe and more convenient to the line. In general bottom-fishing a very fine gut foot line is preferable to single horsehair. By means of passing the strand of gut through a machine and so reducing it, 10 HAIR AND GUT LINES. tAckle-makers have been enabled to bring it down to almost any fineness. This is called drawn gut ; but if the angler can obtain the gut of sufficient fineness in its natural state, it is better in every respect, being much stronger and infinitely more durable ; as in drawing it the hard outside surface which protects the gut is slmved off, and nothing but the central and pithy part is left. Drawn gut can easily be distinguished from natural gut at the first glance. It is dull in colour instead of bright and shining, and when in the coil is far less springy and hard if bent. It soon frays away, and a very few times of using rots it ; whereas a really good sound undrawn gut line, if properly used, will last for months. It is not possible, however, always to get really fine undrawn gut lines of first quality ; and the drawn gut, which can be had of any fineness, is certainly far preferable to hair in point of strength. Many roach-fishers, however, still use single hair. Now, hair has this objection, viz. it is so elastic that whenever you strike a good fish the line will spring to such a degree that the hook often fails to fix itself properly. Added to which, from its lack of strength and liability to crack at knots, many good fish, hooks, and much time, are lost both in playing the fish and in repairing losses. Still, as I have said, many excellent fishers (for roach particularly) do employ it, and it cer- tainly is a very pretty bit of sport to kill a roach of a pound and a half in a nice eddy with a single hair. I generally use a fine gut line with a hair hook. Young fishermen should always go through a course of single-hair fishing. Nothing contributes to give them such a delicate touch and such an accurate perception of the exact amount of strain their rods and tackles will bear as fishing with single hair. And no bottom-fisher is worth the name who cannot {if his fish be well hooked and tackle Bound) kill a two-pound roach in a sharp stream with a GUT AND REELS. 17 single hair. Gut for bottom-fishing should be stained slightly to suit the water, and a very pale green or olive and light amber are the only colours ever required. It is the Qustom to stain gut of a deep ink blue, but this colour is far more discernible in the water than the plain undyed gut is. Gut is of two sorts, good and bad. Good gut can be easily told by either the eye or the touch ; it should be round, clear, bright, hard, even in size, and almost colourless. Bad gut is flat, greasy, dull, raffy, or rough and frayed, uneven in size, and of a green tinge ; indeed the greener it is the worse it is. This is the gut that is chiefly used for drawing purposes. Bad gut may often be had for a little money, but it is never cheap to the angler. When not using it, always as much as possible keep your gut from the light, for damp hardly rots it sooner than sunlight. The best reels for bottom-flshing are the plain reels with a light check. Do not have a multiplier, even at a gift. It is an abomination. In using hair from a punt, unless you hold the line loose in your hand, the check will be almost too much, and a plain winch is preferable. Your winch should hold forty or fifty yards of fine line! This running or reel line should be of very fine dressed silk ; undressed, it is apt, when wet, to cling about the rod and rings, and it also rots sooner. (In the Nottingham style undressed lines are required.) Never use any mixture of horsehair in your reel line, as it is so apt to knot and tangle that it is always catching in something. In using the long cane rods mentioned above, the Lea fishers do not often use a reel or running line at all but simply fasten their lines to the eye of the rod-top. When a good fish is hooked they play him for a time with the whole rod, which, from its length, enables them to follow the fish and keep over him almost anywhere he may choose to go. As he becomes more tractable they unscrew and 18 FLOATS ASD HOOKS. drop off a joint or two, until, having him almost supine, half the rod is thus dropped, and the fish is led in by a small light rod of some three or four joints, and of very manageable dimensions. Of floats for stream-fishing, I have before said they should be suited to the water. I may now say that there are several sorts, but I never use but two. P^or heavy streams cork floats of various weights, and tapering gradu- ally both ¥^ys to the ends (the longest taper below), and for light streams a porcupine quill. These two can be had of any size, to take fifty shot or five. Floats are also made of quills, tapered and fastened up in lengths, and heavily varnished, and also of reeds of various lengths, &c. ; but although they are very pretty to look at, they do not stand enough wear and tear for my money. (For floats various, see Plate II. p. 70) Hooks are of many sorts and sizes, and should be suited to the fish to be angled for. The best size for ordinary roach, dace, and barbel-fishing, whether from the bank or punt, is that which will carry one or two gentles well, and that is from No. 8 to 11. There are a great variety of hooks — the Limerick, the Kir by, the sneck bend, and the roimd bend. The first is sometimes used for bottom- fishing, but more often for fly-fishing. The barb is so rank, however, that it often takes some time to unhook the fish. Of the other patterns it is difficult to decide which is the best. Tastes vary so much that they all have their supporters. Some like the sneck bend, and some the round bend, and some like the old Kirby — some modifications of one or the other. I generally use a hook of not quite a round bend, but with the point deflected to the side a little (not too much), and bent inwards the least trifle in the world ; and, added to this, I do not hold with the shank being too short. It is a great fault. Having now given an account of general bottom-fish- GUDGEOX-PISHING. 19 ing, I shall proceed to treat in order of the various fish taken by this means with the plans and baits employed in capturing them, beginning with the easiest of the angler's pursuits, and so working my way through all grades until the proud position of M.A.-ship, or, as the old joke has it, of senior Angler, is reached. THE GUDGEON {Cyprinm ffobio, Linn.). The gudgeon is gregarious, and swims in large shoals. It is a lively little fish, and a very sharp biter ; and when the fish are feeding well, it is no very uncommon thing to take from five to six, or even seven dozen in one pitch. The gudgeon spawns on the gravel in shallows and rapids in May. The ova soon hatch, the young fry grow rapidly, and by August they have usually attained the length of an inch. A gudgeon of six inches is a good size, of seven of unusual size ; but they seldom attain to eight, though I have seen one or two of that size. Gudgeon bite best in clear water and warm weather in moderately rapid streams, where the water ranges from two to four or five feet in depth. In order to attract them it is necessary to rake up the gravel so as to cause a thick water. The gudgeon immediately flock to the spot to feed upon the small insects and worms which are thus exposed. For this purpose a heavy iron rake with a long handle is used. The angler then fishes over the raked spot, his bait just tripping over the bottom. A light cork float and a No. 10 hook are advisable. The gudgeon feeds upon gen- tles, or any small grubs, and worms ; but nothing can compare in point of attraction to a small fragment of red worm, or, as it is called on the Trent, the cockspur. This they keep on biting at imtil hardly a scrap is left, and often ten or a dozen fish may be taken with the same worm. So bold is the bite that the float plumps down c 2 90 GUDGEON FASCINATION. under water, and the fisherman has little more to do than to pull up, no matter how, to catch the fish ; though a sharp upward stroke of the rod, the wrist and forearm being suddenly jerked up to produce it, is desirable. The elbow should be kept close to the side, and the rod held lightly in the hand. For the reason that the fish require po little skill to take them, gudgeon-fishing has always been a favourite piu*8uit with the fair sex. I feel tliat I might be sarcastic here, and draw morals of divers kinds. But I refrain, for I have enjoyed many a day's gudgeon- fishing in the fairest of fair company, and I am grateful even for the recollection; and let me tell you, young fisherman, that it is a mighty dangerous occupation to your peace of mind. To the angler of maturer years, gudgeon-fishing on the bosom of old Thames with a chosen friend, who i« lively, philosophical, contemplative, or con- viWal as the humour changes, a cold pigeon-pie, a bottle of sparkling sherry, unlimited seltzer cooling in the well, a fine warm day, and a case of fragrant Cabanas, is not to despised by any means. But abler pens than mine have sung the praises of gudgeon -fishing ; and who that is an enthusiastic Thames fisher does not remember the greatest of our modem humourist's lyric, with its score of rhymes to ' Ditton ? ' But revenans a nos goujcms. When the fish begin t/> slacken in their biting, the rake must be used again, and they will renew their attentions; sometimes even a third raking will answer if the fish round the spot are very plentiful, but more often two applications of the rake will be found sufficient. Gudgeon, however, not only multiply in running streams; they thrive well in ponds. I once threw the contents of my bait-can into a dirty horse-pond, and the gudgeons bred in it and did well there, and lived in it for years, furnishing me with bait upon emergencies. Indeed, THE POPE AND THE BLEAK. 21 the water must be very foul indeed which a gudgeon will not be able to exist in. The gudgeon is a most agreeable acquaintance at the breakfast table. There is a crispness and piquancy about his discussion, when duly fried and neatly served, which is highly gratifying. While fishing for him, the young angler is apt to pull up a fish somewhat similar in appearance at the first glance ; and this is THE POPE OR RUFFE {Perca cemua). The pope is of the perch family, having the distinctive sharp spinous dorsal fin of the perch. It spawns in April, depositing its spawn among the roots and fibres of water- plants. It takes freely the same baits as the gudgeon, and should there be a deepish slack eddy by the side of your gudgeon swim, and near weeds or boughs, there you will most probably takiS pope. It is hardly worth notice for the table, but what little flesh there is on it is fully as sweet and palatable as that of the gudgeon. It bites quite as boldly as the gudgeon, and forms a desirable prey for the young angler. It is said to have been quite unknown to the ancients, and that it was first discovered in England by the learned Dr. Caius, the founder of Caius College, Cambridge, who flourished about the middle of the six- teenth century, being physician to Edward VI. and the Queens Mary and Elizabeth. This, however, can hardly be correct, because we find it mentioned by Dame Juliana berners in the Boke of St. Albans, which was written in the middle of the fifteenth century. She says that ' the ruf is right an holsome fysshe.' THE BLEAK {Cyprinus aOmmus) is a lively gregarious little fish, and is very delicate eating when cooked in the way in which sprats are commonly « THE ROACH. cooked, which fish it rather resembles in appearance. It abounds in many rivers, and, though not much of a quarry for the angler, may be taken by whipping with a gentle or a small fly on the top of the water, or by using a light quill float, with a scrap of worm or a gentle on a small hook, some ten or fifteen inches under the surface. The neighbourhood of an outflowing drain is always a favourite spot for bleak, and the more filth that exudes from it the more attractive it is. Quick striking must be the order of the day, as they are very sharp and active. The bleak, from its brightness, makes an attractive bait to spin with for trout and jack, but it is tender on the hooks, and soon wears out. The scales formerly fetched a high price from the artificial pearl-makers, for the nacre on them. It spawns usually in the month of May. It delights in warm summer weather, when the surface of the water is often dotted all over with their risings. In winter bleak do not show 80 much, but get nearer the bottbm, and are much less active. THE ROACH {Cyprinm rxUilus). The roach is a gregarious fish, abounding in most of our rivers, ponds, and lakes. It feeds upon weeds, worms, grubs, flies, and insects of various kinds ; while it will also feed greedily upon farinaceous matters, as bread, bran, pearl barley, boiled wheat, grains, &c. Roach spawn about the end of May, after which they shelter a good deal in deep holes, or in the thick weed, living upon the weed and the insects found among it, until the weeds begin to tiUTi sour with the earlier frosts of autumn, when they take rather more to the open streams. At this time, when, as it is termed, ' the weed is out of them,' they are in their very best condition, the slimy coat they wore among the weeds being off them, and their scales hard and bright as silver, and the fins clear and rosy. Roach seldom much SHYNESS OF THE ROACH. 23 exceed two pounds in weight in any of the waters about London. They have been taken of three pounds weight. One was taken of about that weight in the Ouse some two years since, and several have been taken since then approaching that weight elsewhere. Pennant mentions one of five pounds ; but a roach of two-and-a-half pounds would be held by any London angler — and they are the chief and best roach- fishers — to be a very unusual prize ; for what the trout is to the country gentleman the roach is to the Londoner ; and the Thames, Lea, and Colne are eagerly sought by shoals of roach-fishers every day in the week ; but in spite of this, after Christmas frosts and ice, there are large roach, and plenty of them, on any favourable day to be taken in all parts of the Thames ; they lie in the weeds all the summer and autumn, and never come out to feed in the open till the weeds are gone altogether. Indeed, fishing for big roach is the best in the year ; and I am of opinion that roach-fishing could on the Thames be extended through March not only without harm but with advantage. I am not in possession of any actual facts proven by experiment as regards the rate of growth of the roach, but I should conceive a half-pound roach, under a fair proportion of feeding, &c., to be a fourth year's fish ; and, in the interests of angling, none but half- pound fish or thereabouts should be taken. Roach-fishing is very pretty sport, requiring the exercise of much skill, patience, quickness of apprehension, and ingenuity, com- bined with a thorough knowledge of the habits of the fish. No greater mistake can be made than to fancy the roach is a simple fish. When he is half-starved, and seldom fished for, h6 is no doubt easy to capture. When about to spawn or just spent, he loses much of his caution and shyness ; but when he is well fed, in high condition, and sees many rods, he becomes amazingly shy of the hook. I am the tenant of a portion of a river in which thousands of splen- did roach may be seen in g^eat shoals. It was a long time fA ROACU-HOOKS. before I could get on terms with these roach. In summer and in clear water it was hopeless. If you could get a tree at your back, you might catch two or three, but that would be a signal for the rest to disperse. In coloured water, however, and more particularly in winter, I found at last that after three or four days baiting, and with single hair, I could give a good account of them, and I made some splendid takes, though they are still very capri- cious. Roach-fishing is certainly very enjoyable, and, seated on a stump, under the shade of an old pollard willow, by some deep quiet hole on the Lea or Colne, the fisherman may enjoy most agreeable spoit ; and while watching his float with a mundane eye to the main chance, may dream or moralise to his heart's content, as did dear old Father Izaak in days of yore. Here be the eddy he loved, and there the bunch of water-flags, and yonder the honeysuckle hedge ; and as I live, there are the gipsies, too, cheating one another as usual — all but little changed these two hundred years or so. The means usually pursued in roach-fishing have already been described in bank and punt-fishing. The rods and tackles requisite in the sport are such as are there set down. The hook, if the water be full and the fish biting freely, should be a No. 9, to carry two gentles. If the water be very clear, and the fish shy, a No. 10 or 11 hook, to take only one gentle, will be found preferable. Two dead gentles jammed together in the fashion in which the hook is usually baited, are not a common spectacle to the fish when the angler is using gentles as ground-bait, and they are therefore rather liable to challenge suspicion than otherwise. In fishing with paste or even pearl barley a larger hook may be used. In roach-fishing, it is very customary with some anglers to use the short-shanked hooks I have spoken of previously ; but they are bad hooks for striking, and do not strike true on the point of the hook. FINE TACKLE REQUISITE. 25 Let the angler take one, fix the point of the hook against any substance, and then pull the gut, and see what ensues. Let him note the angle formed by the hook and gut, and the very indirect action of the point, and he will recog- nise the justice of my remark. By lengthening the shank slightly the evil is mitigated. In fishing with gentles, it is very common to find the gentles blown by the fish up the shank of the hook, and often an inch or two up the gut. Now, when you are using very fine gut, to have to tear the gentle off it time after time is calculated to wear and fray the gut, which, as it is often drawn gut, is especially liable to such injury ; and when one is using two gentles, the one blown up is usually comparatively uninjured, and might be drawn back on the hook with advantage, the gentle at the point being the only one renewed. A good deal of trouble in re-baiting is thus often saved, which in very cold weather, and when the fish are biting rapidly, is very desirable, To facilitate the return of the gentle, it is advisable to have the shank of the hook reduced or filed down at the top slightly, and to take two or three turns of the tying silk on the gut above the shank, and this also preserves the gut at the very point it is most liable to injury. The constant wear and tear of the binding in roach-hooks, renders it necessary that the tying should be well var- nished, and that the hooks should be prepared some time before use, that the varnish may be thoroughly dry, hard, and impenetrable. Always use the very neatest tackle which you can afford for roach. Let your gut be of the finest, and delicately stained of a pale olive-green weed colour, your shot be as unobtrusive, and the float ^s light as possible. The best roach-fishers, however, prefer single hair ; and for the best roach in a swim, where you only expect roach, it certainly has an advantage. In slow eddies or in bank fishing, where you can keep over the float and » RINGING THE CHANGES. need no hard pulling, it is undoubtedly preferable at any rate for the hook; though from a pimt, where you may ex- pect barbel, or have to use a heavy tackle, I do not advise it. The best hair is that from a strong young horse ; it should be even, round, shiny and hard, not dull coloured or scurfy ; cream colour is the best colour, but is not easy to get ; next to that lightish brown or sorrel, and next to that white ; any dark colour is useless. "White hair may be dyed, but it does not stand dye well. I have often landed six-pound bream with single hair. The best hook-baits for roach are, as I have intimated, first, maggots, or gentles, as they are more commonly called by metropolitan anglers. Those blown on bullock's liver, which are shiny and yellow, are the best by far. When using them, the roach, not being hungry, often want a little coaxing or variety. When you think this is the case, instead of two gentles use one, and point your hook with a chrysalis. But you must strike lightly when fishing with chrysalis, or you will have to bait afresh every swim. It will frequently happen, too, when fishing with gentles, that the roach are shy, and will keep on biting and nib- bling; and a scene of pricking, scratching, losing, and abortive striking takes place, in which your two gentles become time after time mere transparent skins, and your fish do not come to hand. WTien this is the case, try a small No. 11 hook, just taking enough of the skin on the hook to attach the gentle to the hook without killing it (hook on by the thick skin at the but or thick end of the gentle), and then let it down the swim twirling about alive^ and you will often get ten or a dozen good fish if you do not lose one or two — before they find out their mistake ; perhaps then they will take to pulling yoiu* gentle off, or, as before, squeezing out the intestines, carefully avoiding the hook meanwhile. Then must you string the gentle on to the hook bodily, passing the hook into the thick end, HOW TO TEMPT THEM. 27 and the point coming out at the small end or head, and thu8 you may delude a few more. Ofttimes, too, when they find that the ground-bait is rather a dangerous neighbourhood, or when perhaps they may see the punt too clearly, they will remain below the ground-bait, catching the atoms as they sail by. The best fish nearly always do this, and rest quite at the end of the swim. Then cast your ground-bait a good way ofif down the swim. Let out a few yards extra of line and fish farther off, and you will often get sport in that way when the fish will scarcely bite at all close to the boat. All these dodges, and any more which may suggest themselves to the angler, should be employed when the fish are biting shyly. A change of bait will often procure a fish or two, and should never be neglected. In fact, a judicious changing back- wards and forwards in this respect will be found highly necessary to tickle the jaded appetites of the well-fed aldermanic roach, and by one means or the other some- thing like a take may generally be made, ^provided the Hah are there.^ Many of the above plans, it will be seen, are equally feasible in bank-fishing. The following plan is an ingenious one : it was communicated to me by an old roach-fisher, who declared it to be a great patent. I have never tried it myself, but the angler can do so if he chooses. It often happens that when the water is clear and low the fish are difficult to attract, whereas, if you could dis- colour the water a little, you would not only coax the fish to come to your swim, but would induce them to take well. The readiest means, it would seem, is a rake, but however ' Anyone can catch some roach when the big fellows are sucking down the float quietly at every swim, just under the rod-poiut, and when you have nothing to do but to strike and hook a fish ; but the artist in roach- fishing alone will make a fair bag on an indifferent day. The above hinta are, of course, unnecessary save for the tyro. S8 BLOWING THE TRUMPET. attractive this may be to small fry, it does not suit good roacb. Get a tube shaped like a trumpet or a post-bom, or get a common funnel with a large tube. Then get three or four lengths of zinc or tin pipe, which will fit into each other in joints like ferrules, of a foot or eighteen inches each in length : screw on a suflBcient number of these to reach the bottom of the water ; tie a stone or weight on to the small end, sufficient to sink it to the bottom, and keep it steady ; then thrust it overboard to the bottom of the water, the funnel remaining above the water, and handy to you. Have a tub near, in which mix up some clay or mould with bran and plenty of water. Stir it up until it becomes thick slush. Then take a half-pint mug full of this liquid and pour it into the funnel. This rises slowly from the lower end of the tube at the bottom of the water, and thickens it for two or three minutes, quite sufficiently to attract the fish and set them bi:ing, while it does not satisfy their hunger like ground-bait. Dropping your hook-bait into the muddy stream, let it follow it down, and you will be likely to get a bite or two. You can renew the colouring matter about every quarter of an hour, and, said my informant, ' no matter how low or bright the water, you will get sport when none of the boats or fishermen near you will perhaps be able to get any.' I never tried the plan myself, but I know that the author of it has made large takes of bream in clear water with the assistance of it. His name is Wright, a plumber, living at Twickenham, and one of the best bottom-fishers I know on the Thames. The next most favourite pabulum with roach are pearl-barley and then paste. Some prefer paste ; I prefer pearl-barley. Firstly, because when roach get the taste of it they like it better, and next because you do not miss nearly so many bites with it. The point of the hook being HOOK-BAITS FOR ROACH. 29 buried in the paste, it is so easy for the hook to slip out of the fish's mouth without fixing. The barley should be boiled for from one-and-a-half to two hours. It should be boiled indeed, until it has swelled out to the largest size it is capable of expanding to, but not longer, or it gets too soft to stay well on the hook. All sorts of recom- mendations are ofiered in the matter of paste. Some advise new bread, some stale ; I advise not bread at all, it is apt to harden too much on the hook ; plain flour and water is best. Take care it is well worked up and is not too wet. The juste milieu in point of consistency is difficult to hit, but it should be attained at all cost of trouble, as it makes a long difference to one's comfort. When made, keep your paste in a damp rag ; and if you happen to be smoking the short stump of a cigar, don't work up your paste with the same thumb and finger that you keep on manipulating your cigar with. Fish do not like the flavour of tobacco, and it is not difficult to com- municate it to paste ; verb sap, I once lost an hour or two's fishing in this way till I found out what was the matter, and now I always wipe my fingers on a wet cloth or work up the paste with the other hand. This is a trifle, perhaps, and yet it is no trifle if it spoils your day's sport. On the Trent creed-malt is a favourite roach bait, and else- where boiled wheat has the call. It must be boiled for a long time — until it cracks indeed ; which requires some two hours. Grreen wheat in the milky state is much used in some places ; it lasts but a short time, however. One of the most modern, and one of the best baits too, is the inner brown crust of a well-baked loaf, the outer hard crust being shaved ofi^ and the inner brown crust being cut into small bits of the size of peas. It is used a good deal, even on the Thames. The red worm is a tolerably good bait also for roach, particularly in thick water, where the fish may have been 80 SINKING AND DRAWING. feeding on worms, and the large roach will often in winter take the tail of a lob worm very ravenously. Caddis bait is also a favourite kiit with roach, but it is a bad substitute for gentles. The diminutive bloodworm, found in the muddy deposit at the bottom of stagnant waters, is held to be a great attraction for roach, but it requires a fine hook and great care to bait it well. Mr. Fennell speaks highly of the silk weed {coufet'va rivularis) as a bait for roach when they are vege- tably minded. This weed is rolled and lapped round the book, and, as he tells us, forms a very attractive bait ; and as the roach undeniably does feed on weed, tliis is per- haps almost the only way in which this object of its choice could be presented to it with a hook iu the midst. Mr. Fennell chronicles several good takes made with it. SINKING AND DRAWING. Sinking and drawing with a blow-fly on a small hook, and one large shot, is a killing way of fishing in warm weather. It is, too, a scientific way, as the angler has to trust a good deal to the sense of feeling for knowing when he has a bite, as no float is used and the bait is often several inches under water. The method is to let out some ten or twelve yards of light silk line, at the end of which is some six feet of fine gut with a small hook baited with a large blow-fly or a wasp-grub, or even a gentle may be used in the same manner ; about a foot above this is a shot or two, according to the strength of the stream. Let the bait sink almost to mid-water by dropping the point of the rod, and then draw it to the top by raising the point, and so keep on falUng and raising the point of the rod alternately, gradually following your bait down stream ; strike gently, but quickly, at the least sjnnptom of a bite or a touch. In this way you will also kill dace and FLY-FISHING FOR ROACH. 31 sometimes perch, and occasionally a trout. You may also take roach, and good ones, by fly-fishing. Indeed, in some waters, particularly where bottom-fishing is difficult to follow by reason of weeds, shallows, &c., excellent sport may be had with the artificial fly. An imitation of a bluebottle or a common red or black palmer, with a pair of wings of starling feather added to it, is a good fly. Dress it on a No. 8 hook. It will be all the more attractive if the hook be pointed with a gentle or a little bit of stringy bacon skin of the size of a gentle. In default of this, a smaU piece of white kid or wash-leather does well. As a rule, roach do not take fly well upon deep heavy waters like the Thames, though I have seen them at special times feeding voraciously on flies. One warm day, in October 1860, the ant fly was swarming in the air, and the water was thronged with it. I was fishing at Hampton, and every roach in the river was feeding most greedily on it, and on enquiry 1 found that the same thing had been noticed at Twickenham and elsewhere. As the method is exceptional, there are no rules for the choice of a fly, but if the roach are rising freely it will be desirable to find out what they are rising at, and to use that fly ; in default of this, the angler may whip with a gentle if the fish are inclined to rise well, and he will be pretty sure to get good sport. The ground-baits for roach are as various as the hook- baits, but in using ground-bait the angler should be care- ful not to over-bait the swim. There is no plan so absurd, so literally destructive of sport, as that pursued by the majority of Thames fishermen, with their huge piles of puddings of clay, bran, gentles, greaves, bread and what not ; when once the place has been baited, an occasional ball or two mixed up with cl^y, of about the size of an apple, is useful to keep the ground baited ; but this is a SS MY PLAN OP MIXING GROUND-BAIT. very different thin^ from casting in five or ten at a time, as bi^ as large oranges. For casting in loose, in eddies, either gentles, scalded greaves, or chopped worms, may be used ; but these baits are likely to attract barbel to the swim also ; pearl-barley and rice may also be thrown in loose. This is my plan for mixing ground-bait in a swim not too swift, I first get a three-quart basin, put into it refuse crusts broken up ; it goes against my grain to cut up good loaves. The basin should be somewhat more than half full to allow for swelling ; pour hot water in it sufficient to soak the whole thoroughly, cover it up with a plate to keep the steam in ; let it soak for two hours or more, then break it all up so that there be no lumps nor hard bits in it, as if these be not broken thoroughly, they come away and float up to the top of the water, and are wasted ; then put the mass into a strainer, and squeeze out as much water as you can; then boil about two-thirds of a pint of common broken rice, and let the water drain from that too ; put both into half a peck of fresh bran, and scatter over it about a large breakfast cup and a half of flour or meal, to make it more adherent ; work it all up together thoroughly. Then take a number of small stones, each about the size of grape shot, or say an inch in diameter, and on to each stone press and squeeze a good big handful or more of the compost, work- ing and squeezing it till the ball is quite tight and hard. The stone serves to sink the ball and to keep it on the bottom, and the ball breaks up gradually and disperses down the swim, a portion still remaining behind to keep the fish in the swim. If the bait is too moist, the balls will break in halves, and leaving the stone at the bottom come up to the surface and float away, or will break up and disperse too soon, and therefore the drier the bait is consistently with proper adherence the better. There is no ground-bait that ever I have tried that equals this. It NEVER USE STALE BAIT. 33 is some trouble to make bait for bank-fishiog, more parti- cularly in a regular roach swim it is not easy to beat. In addition, when I am using pearl-barley, I throw in a score or two of the corns now and then loose, so that they may ground in the swim, and being scattered about it they keep • the roach on the move, and searching about the swim ; I have made great takes of very fine roach with this bait. The quantities I have given will make about 20 balls almost the size of oranges, which is enough for any moderate day's fishing in the winter time, which is the best time for good roach-fishing. If, however, the angler prefers to use clay instead of stones, he can do so, as it is less trouble to mix, and holds in the swim longer, but it is a much dirtier operation. In this case, too, the flour or meal can be left out. Never keep your ground-bait on from one day to another, for though you may not always succeed in spoiling your own sport, you very often will, as bran, &c., ferments when once wet, and turns sour, and after that musty, and I do assure you that a ball or two of such bait will drive every roach out of your swim. I once told my man to mix me some bait; he mixed it with some bran that had stood under a drip from a tap for a time, and it was musty. I never found it out until the day was utterly spoilt. I had been having first-rate sport the day before, and could not understand why the fish would not bite, till accident gave me a whiff of the ground-bait, and then I went in and talked kindly to my wicked servant, who dodged me round comers, and kept out of my sight for the rest of the day. It is a hard thing to say, but an angler, before going out for a day's fishing, should see to everything himself and trust nothing to anyone else. See how even the wife of your bosom or the sister of your affections will persist in leaving: out the salt, or in filling your flask with rum instead of brandy, if you do not give an eye to it ; and in a matter of such tremendous D 84 THE RUDD. consideration as bait, my advice is, never mind what any one says, or promises, or does ; always see to it yourself. Before finishing with the roach, I would wish to say that there are few of the ordinary fresh-water fish so good for the table as a roach out of a gravelly stream from Christmas to the end of March. Nicely fried and carefully dissected, so as to avoid the bones, it is not only a good fish, but a most excellent one, and those who despise them do 80 in pure ignorance. Although roach are not supposed to be fish-eaters, I have often seen and heard of their nmning at and taking both a spinning-bait and a live minnow ; but I look upon such facts as mere aberrations. THE EUDD (Ofprinui erythrophthalmus) is a widely distributed fish, being found in many lakes, ponds, and rivers throughout the kingdom. The Norfolk Broads contain great quantities of them, as do some of the Irish lakes. I have taken large numbers in Osteriy Park, and they abound in Slapton Lea. They are a somewhat Bimiliar fish to the roach, though of a more coppery tinge, and of a rather deeper and shorter make ; and there are these two ine^'itable distinctions, the dorsal fin of the roach is almost opposite to the ventral fins. In the rudd it is much nearer to the tail then the ventrals. The roach, too, has a projecting upper lip, is overhung in fact; the rudd a projecting under lip, being underhung. They sometimes reach to a weight of close on four pounds, though I have never taken one over a pound and a half For all angling purposes, the directions given for roach answer for the rudd equally. They spawn in April, or early in May. J • THE DACE. 35 THE DACE (Ct/prinus leuciscus). The dace is an active and prolific little fish, slender and graceful in its proportions. It seldom exceeds a pound in weight, and in few rivers in England is it even taken up to that weight : in the Thames a dace of half a pound is unusually large, though I once remember taking thirteen that weighed seven pounds, my companion having pre- viously taken his share from the basket (which was the product of our joint efforts), which consisted of a like number as fine or finer ; all these fish were taken with the tail of the lob-worm when we had baited for barbel Never before or since, through many long years' experience, have I seen such a take of dace on the Thames, nor one at all approaching it for average size. In the Colne, and the Hampshire Avon, and the Usk, however, I have often seen dace that would weight full three quarters of a pound, and even more. The dace is gregarious, and spawns in May or June, and gets into fair condition again by the middle of July. By August, on the Thames, they get on the shallows, where they may be taken in large numbers, by whipping with almost any small fly, or even with a single gentle ; some people, to make the fly more attractive, point the hook with a gentle ; others, as I have recom- mended in roach-fishing, use a small shred of kid or wash- leather. I have found the inner rind of a scrap of stringy bacon answer the purpose better perhaps than either, being a kind of compromise between the two; that is, something to taste, and not liable to be whipped off. A short stiff rod (about eight feet long) is the best for this work. The line should not be too long, or it is not manageable, as quick striking is the order of the day with this very nimble fish. The flies should always be dressed upon as large hooks as the angler can afford to dress them D 2 38 FLY-FISHING FOR DACE. on, as the fish rising often in very sharp streams are apt to break off from any slight hold. In the eddies of a sharpish stream, over a shallow, by the side of a bank of* weeds, is a sure find for them. Choose for your sport a day that is cloudy and warm, and without much wind ; as if there be much wind you cannot see the rises, and when you feel them it is too late to strike dace, as they reject the fly with great quickness ; hence the use of the gentle, or bacon rind, to make them retain their hold. Tbey are very quick of sight, and on a too sunny day the angler will experience the disappointment of seeing fish after fish, and often two or three at a time, follow his fly for yards without taking it ; when this is the case, try a smaller fly and finer tackle, and don't forget the bacon or gentle. All the methods, and arts, and tackle, recommended for catching roach, are applicable to dace, and the hooks are of a similar size ; only as the dace is rather more carni- vorous, the angler will find worms, greaves, and gentles preferable to farinaceous food ; and although roach and dace for the most part bite in the same swims, yet, if the angler desires more particularly to fish for dace, he must choose a rather swift^er and heavier swim ; dace bite rathetf quicker and sharper than roach, and the slow suck-down, that 80 oft^n betrays a good roach, is not so common in dace-fishing. One good plan of attracting small dace is to rake the bottom, as in gudgeon-fishing, when little or no ground-bait will be needed. When fly-fishing for dace, be cautious and quiet, as they are easily alarmed, and a slight wave or unusual ripple on the water will instantly stop their rising. There is no bait so good for taking dace as a red worm, or the tail of a small lob-worm ; next to that, I give the prefer- ence to gentles and greaves. Dace are a troublesome fish to get into a trout stream, DACE m TROUT STREAMS. 37 as their habits and food being similar to that of the trout, they take much of the food from the trout ; and being a restless hardy fish, and, moreover, in the height of condi- tion when the trout are spawning, they pick up a vast quantity of the eggs shed by the trout, and owing to these and other causes they soon considerably outnumber and override the trout. The greatest number of dace I ever saw together was in the pools in the river Usk, a mile or two below Brecon. The pools were alive with them, ancj they ran very large ; I saw some nearly a pound in weight. They were, too, in this water, but bad risers, and were not much thinned by the fly; and bait-fishing not being allowed, they had it all their own way, and the trout evidently suffered in proportion to their increase. They are a fairly delicate fish to eat when in good order, and should be broiled dry, a slice of butter being then allowed to melt upon them. They make one of the most valuable spinning-baits for jack and trout which the angler can obtain, being bright and round, and reasonably tough on the hooks. The metropolitan angler finds excellent dace-fishing, particularly with the fly, on the various shallows between Isleworth and Teddington Lock. It will be found advis- able to pay some attention to the particular fly on the water ; though small red and black palmers will seldom fail to kill. Still there are times when other flies will kill better, and it is desirable to note this. I have had good sport with duns of all kinds, ant-flies, the water-cricket, the cinnamon, &c. THE CHUB (Cyprinus cephalus). The chub is a well-shaped, handsome-looking member of the carp tribe ; but his value for the table much belies his appearance, his flesh being watery, coarse, and 88 CHUB FARE. tasteless. The French are said to call him ' \m vilain,' from the difficulty they experience in rendering him toothsome ; and it seems reasonable that the fish, which even PVench cookery rejects as worthless, should be held by others in the very lowest estimation ; and yet he may be made eat- able. One of the best recipes for this purpose is the well- known one in Izaak Walton, Moreover, small chub of some half-pound weight, if crimped and fried dry, are by no means so bad as above represented, and will ' pleasure * others than ^poor bodies.' But I must reiterate that which he states with respect to chub, viz. that they must be cooked as soon as caught, for if kept even for the night they are worthless. The chub spawns early in May, and not uncommonly reaches the weight of six or seven pounds, though seldom taken over that weight. Yarrell says he cannot find one recorded over five pounds' weight, but I have seen them of six pounds in the Thames, and have heard of them of seven poimds. The chub is rather an omnivorous fish, and may be taken in almost any way ; he will rise freely at a fly, will run equally at a spinning-bait' or a live minnow ; at cockchafers, slugs, worms, snails, frogs, greaves, pastes, and particularly cheese, he is a perfect glutton. About June chub go upon the shallows to clean them- selves ; the tail of a pool, where there is a sharpish stream, ib a favourite place for them. Here they may be taken in some numbers with an artificial chafer, a good rough palmer, or alder-fly, provided the angler gives them a rest for every two or three fish which he takes, as they are a ' I hare frequently, when spinning for trout, taken chub of four pounds ▼eight and upwards, to my comdderable disgust and disappointment ; and how I have anathematised them for taking the salmon fly, just when some salmon has shown himself on the Wye, where they abound, I hardly like to recalL FLY-FISHING THE BOUGHS. 39 very shy fish, and easily alarmed. Later on, as the season gets warmer, they retire to deep holes, or under banks, large stumps, roots, old campshots, or beneath overhanging boughs ; these last are usually a sure find, for there they lie on the watch for any insect that may drop from the branches above into their ever-ready jaws ; and nothing living that is small enough comes amiss to them, for chub will take cockchafers, bumblebees, wasps, palmers, and caterpillars of all kinds — beetles, slugs, and snails most ravenously. Fly-fishing under the boughs for chub is one of the most delightful occupations to be had on the Thames ; with a good stiff boat and one person to row it, the angler drops down from reach to reach, often cover- ing eight or ten miles of the river in a day if he hnowa the houghs — for this is a considerable desideratum, since, unless he does, he may waste time over a place where no chub would think of lying, and he may, on the other hand, pass valuable casts. The place which chub like is a bank where there are old roots and overhanging boughs, with a gravelly (not a muddy) bottom, with a fair stream just outside, and about five or six feet of water. The over- hanging boughs are not always an indispensable necessity, for an upright clay bank with an eddy at the foot of it is almost always a sure find, though the big fellows like an umbrella too, as it serves to collect food as well ; but the chub does not care for a muddy bottom nor still water, for still water brings him no food. A range of old pol- lards, with five or six feet of water under them, and a gravelly bottom, with a good stream outside, is a chub paradise, and should never be missed by the angler if he knows the spot. Many a row of pollards will have deep water and a muddy bottom and no stream, and these will be found useless; and the angler may waste time over them, though it is quite possible that there may be a bit or two, even amongst them, where the circumstances are 40 THE FLIES FOR CHUB. different, and which may be worth notice. A very unpre- tending bush or two, also, if the stream below be right, may serve to hide two or three 3 or 4-pounder8. I know no kind of fishing which requires a better knowledge of the ground. It is so easy to pass good casts, and to fish likely looking ones which are not worth a rap. Hot, bright, and still weather is very favourable ; a cloudy day U abo good, if there be little wind ; but rough, boister- ous, or cold weather is bad for it. A good big fly, that flops into the water with a splash, 80 as to attract the notice of the chub, is desirable. An artificial cockchafer, or a beetle, or fat bumblebee,* are good, or a big palmer may be used for a change. The black with silver tinsel is best ; but the best fly for general work is a fly of grilse size, made with a body of silver tinsel, a furnace hackle (dark red with black centre) wrapped over it ; a few turns of black heron over that at the shoulder ; an imderwing of a few sprigs of emerald peacock herl, and an overwing of dark turkey. The tail should be made of a tag of white kid glove or wash- leather, which is very attractive. With this fly, using a grilse rod and stout cast of salmon gut, I have killed as much as a cwt. of large chub, running up to three and four pounds' weight, in a day on the Thames. The stout tackle is needed to provide against rushes, flags, and boughs, into which one constantly gets hung, when a sharp haul upon the tackle is necessary, to avoid spoiling the cast by bringing the boat into the boughs, as would be requisite with lighter tackle. Also is stout tackle required to haul a four-pound fish out from his shelter among the roots ; and if chub are on the feed, fine tackle is not needed for this work. Indeed, fine tackle would result in endless worry and breakage. One thing, however, is very important in this fishing, viz., perfect quiet : not only should your > See Plate IX. fig. 4. TWO OF A TRADE. 41 own boat ' gang warily,' but no other boat should go up or down just before you. Now-a-days, when there is so much rowing — and, far worse than all, ' launching ' — on the Thames, it is heart-breaking work for the chub-fisher who uses the fly. Just as you are coming to a good stretch of chub bank, some boat full of holiday-makers passes you, rowing erratically about, now out in mid-stream, now into the boughs ; up or down they go, laughing at your black looks, scaring every chub for a mile above or below you ; and you may wait at least an hour before the fish are ready to feed again, when perhaps another boat passes you. This is dreadfully trying work to the temper ; and as the best weather for you is also the best for the holiday folks, it happens only too frequently. As for steam launches, tney are fatal to you utterly, as they wash the chub out of their holes into the deep water altogether. With what fervency, too, do you hate a rival ! You come slipping down through the lock, thinking that you will just hit upon Streetly Pol- lards or Pangbourne Flags, or wherever it may be ; just as you open the reach a rod-flash catches your eye, and three parts down the coveted reach you see a boat witli some bungling beast walloping the boughs with his useless palmer, doing no good himself, but spoiling your sport. How you love him ! Never mind, row ashore and wait. But, perhaps, he isn't a bungling beast, but knows all about it as well as you do, even to the ' silver body ' and leather tail, when despair is your only portion. See ! his rod bends double over a four-pounder I Yah I confound the chub-fishing : you'll give it up for ever in future. These are the chances of war and fishing, and unhappily they increase every year, and assuredly I shall never catch a cwt. of chub in this way again on the Thames. But when everything is propitious, and you are first on the ground, it is delightful sport — dropping lazily on for miles, with constantly-changing scenery and pleasant chat you go, with now a pipe and then a pun. 4a LOB-CASTING. ' Tom, how will Culham Banks be ? * ' Water most too high for them, sir: but Clifton Sharps *11 be just in tune. They wants a little water, they does, and ToflFkin's Garden should give a good fish or two. Try the bush, sir ; there's always a good 'un there,* Flop ! * Ah, there lie is I and a good *un too ; that makes up the score ; * and so on. In this kind of fishing the further you can keep from the boughs or bank the better ; throw boldly in under them to the bit of open dimpling water where the lazy eddy curls over the old stump, with a straight line and a good flop of the fly, and a big boil or splash in the water will haply reward you ; looe no time, when your fish is hooked, in getting him out into the open, away from the old stumps and roots, but bag him as speedily as may. A good boat- man, who knows the water well, and can manage the boat to a nicety, is a jewel for this work, and worth any amount of the best backy and beer you can provide him. A bung- ler and know-nothing is an abomination, and worse than useless. Chub begin to get under the boughs in August, and before that it is of little use to go for them with the fly ; but whether they get there earlier or later, it is most desir- able to have the first turn at them before they have been much scared, so that a tip from a good man on the spot is most useful. Another plan is to use a stiff double- handed fly-rod and a single perch-hook ; on this stick the head of a lob-worm, or a lump of greaves, or a bunch of gentles, and cast it like a fly towards the boughs, bank, or campshot, and let it sink to mid-water, working it towards you, and at the slightest symptom of a touch strike smartly ; indeed, the bait should never be drawn out of the water to repeat the throw without a strike ; by this means both perch and trout may often be taken. It is a good plan for taking good chub, combined with exercise and motion, and is pleasanter than the practice of DAPIXG FOR CHUB. 43 daping or float-fishiDg. With regard to the former, no better instructions have ever been given than those of Tzaak Walton. My advice on this point is brief. Having found out the holes and spot where the chub are, and having decided how they can be fished,' let the angler first see that his rod and line are all in proper trim, and his hook carefully baited. The spot must then be approached with the utmost caution ; he must keep out of sight behind some bush or tree, on his hands and knees if need be. If he cannot accomplish this he must do the best he can, and having reached the spot he intends to fish from, he must try perfect quiet, and give the fish time to recover from the alarm he has thrown them into. Next, protruding his rod at an angle of 45° over the water, with as little flourish or disturbance as possible, he may allow the baited hook to fall from the hand in which he has held it, so that it may hang some six or eight inches from the water ; gradually and very gently he may move the point*of therod over the spot where the fish are thickest ; having arrived so far, he may drop his bait smartly on the surface of the water. If a chub rises and gobbles it down directly, as (if the angler has conducted his operations properly) will most likely be the case, he must not strike immediately, or the fish will splash upon the top of the water, and so disturb every chub within yards of the spot. But he must allow the fish to turn his head well down, and then give him a gentle pull (not a sharp strike), and put a strong persuasive drag on in ' Before the angler ever attempts to fish any special hole, swim, pitch, or cast, let him study the spot, and settle in his own mind how it can best be fished to advantage ; how this bough or that obstruction may be avoided ; how the wind acts with reference to them ; how an eddy may be used or avoided, and how the spot can be approached best without his being seen or heard. By so doing, in many cases, he will avoid the disappointment so often consequent upon hastiness; and the practice of such consideration will, in time, so improve his judgment and quickness, that this portion of his art will appear almost like intuition to the less considerate angler. 44 BAITS FOR DATING. order to lead him away from the spot, so that he may not by flying about all over the hole disturb the others ; for. if lie is permitted to do so, the angler will barely take another fish in the hole, whereas by conducting his measures pro- perly he may take three or four more. Having landed his fish with as little noise as possible, he must bait the hook, and swing it out over the hole again, and there let it hang for a few minutes previous to dropping it on the surface, in order that the chub may thoroughly recover their equa- nimity. When the fish become quite disturbed, the angler should leave the spot, casting in a handful of ground-bait ere be goes. No good will be done by his continuing to fish it, for the chub will not come on the feed again unless left to tbemselvcA for an hour or more, when he may come liack and renew his attentions with success. The lx»at baits for daping are cockchafer, bumblebee, ^[ra^sshopper, large flies of various kinds, and the young frog. Hies should be hooked on sideways through the thorax, and not from head to tail, and as little line as pos- sible should rest on the water when daping with them. Fishing with the young frog is a very killing method of fishing for chub. The following method I have from Mr. Rolfe, the well-known fish artist, and by this means almost any spot can easily and certainly be fished. The worst things one has to contend with in daping are the branches and foliage on the wooded spots where this kind of angling is chiefly followed ; the difficulty being to get the line and hook out over the water without entangling. To do this, various expedients have been adopted — twisting the line round the top of the rod, and then poking it through holes in the bushes over the water, and there imtwisting it by turning the rod round like a mop handle, the reverse way to the twist. But this is tedious, and not always certain. Mr. Rolfe's plan is far better. Use a long, light, and stiffish rod with upright rings ; a very fine FROG HOPPING. 45 soft silk Nottingham line ; have a perch hook on about a foot of fine gut for the line, and a bullet of sufficient weight made fast at the join between the foot of gut and the silk line. Take a small lively frog (you can get any number of them collected by country lads at the right period of the year). Hook a very little bit of the skin of the frog's back on the bend of the hook (just enough to secure without damaging him) ; as Izaak sayeth, 'Treat him as if you loved him,' though it may be a queer method of expressing one's sentiments. Now, having wound all the line up on your reel until the bullet touches the eye of the rod-top, check the line so as to keep it there. You have then but the foot of gut with the hook and frog hanging from the point, and there are very few holes amongst foliage, where you may desire to fish, through which this cannot very easily be passed without catching in any twigs. Having passed it through, and the rod-point being over the spot you want to fish, release the line, and the weight of the bullet will draw it out directly. As the frog glides down towards the surface, ease the line slowly, as it is not desirous to plump him or the bullet into the water, but to keep him on the siuface, so that not an inch of the line should touch the water, but the frog should just rest, as it were, upon the surface, the bullet being a foot above him and quite out of the water, of course. The moment the frog touches the water, he will begin to strike out, and in his ineffective attempts to swim away he will kick up such an attractive bobbery on the top of the water that all the chubs within reasonable range will come to see what the disturbance is, and to a certainty they will think it necessary to take the disturber of the peace into custody. Tastes differ. Some like frogs, and some cockchafers, and some bumblebees. I have another friend who is a very successful angler for chub on the Thames, and who vows that no respectable chub is seen out after the 46 THE ARTIFICIAL CHAFER. grey of tlie morning, and, indeed, thanks to the boats and launches, that is pretty general on the Thames now. He then goes out and rows very gently up stream as far away from the spot he intends to fish as possible, and drops down the river with the most intense caution, with muffled row- locks and carpet slippers, like a housebreaker, grasping his jemmy or fishing-rod, and with hardly a breath or motion. He knows the exact spots, calculates his distance nicely, and casts an artificial cockchafer into the holes, the hook being attractively garnished with two or three gentles, which give the cockchafer the savoury appearance of having had his intestines squeezed out, a state of things which he declares that no chub can resist ; and he cer- tainly does catch some very large chub where no one would expect them. The worst of the artificial cockchafer is that you miss so many rises with it. The usual arming of a single hook being very inefficient, I tried a plan of arming it which answered well last summer. I got a bit of wire twisted up with an eye at each end about the length of the cockchafer ; this was lashed on lengthwise under the belly, so that one eye was at the head and the other at the tail. The gut cast attached to the head eye, and on the tail eye hung a triangle also eyed and suited to the size of the chafer, so that the hooks could not catch over the casting gut. In a stream this caused the chafer to spin, and increased its attractiveness. One of the most common and general ways of fishing for chub is with float and ground-bait ; the best baits to use thus for chub are greaves and cheese. There is a coarse common kind of cheese made in the north and in Wales for about 2d, per pound which is suitable for this purpose. The greaves should be broken up and scalded ; the cheese cut to the size of gooselierries. On the Upper Thames the tail of a craw-fish is held to be a powerful incantation for the biggest chub. This should be parboiled. TRAVELLING FOR CHUB. 47 As chub are rather shy, the angler, particularly if he is in a punt or boat, must fish for them some distance from him ; and he must therefore, when throwing in his bait, calculate whereabouts it will ground or be dispersed on the bottom rather nicely, because over that part of the swim he must fish the most carefully. This should not be nearer to him than ten yards, and from twelve to twenty will be better. Use Nottingham tackle, which will be described presently. The float, of course, must suit the stream. The hook, if greaves or cheese be used, should be a small triangle, and the depth plumbed so that the bait may travel naturally along the bottom without dragging too much. The Nottingham tackle used in ' light cork- ing' will be about the tackle for tliis purpose. The tackle dropped in, and the swim commenced, the rod is held almost upright, the point inclining a little forward. If the weight of the stream does not take the line out fast enough, it must be handed oflf the reel. The great object is not to check the line, but to let the bait travel steadily onward. Presently the float disappears, and the angler must strike smartly and firmly (as he may have a good length of line to lift off the water) back over his right shoulder. If he has hooked his fish, he then winds steadily on him until he winds him up into the swim under the point of the rod, whenf if he has been brought up from any distance, he is usually fit for the landing-net. In this kind of fishing, which is called ' traveller ' fishing (the float being the traveller), a long swim is made if the bottom admits of it, and it is common enough to strike fish forty or even fifty yards off. Many sorts of fish are caught in this way, as I shall show. Many chub are taken in open winter weather by fishing down the edges of the boughs in this style. The bait being set to a little below mid-water and consisting of a lump of cheese or a bit of pith, bullock's marrow, fragments of brains — cheese being cast 48 CHUB -BAIT. in 88 ground-bait from time to time to attract the chub, though the angler is not necessarily confined to these two baits. Good takes of big fish are often thus made in fine open weather. Chub are often, too, caught when float -fishing in the ordinary roach and dace style, either from punt or bank ; mostly, however, at the extreme end of the swim ; and if there be a chub about, a swim of some five or ten yards extra will often be rewarded with a good one. Many trout and even salmon rivers abound in chub, as the Welsh Wye and Irvon, where they are a positive nuisance to the angler, and take the place and food of better fish. I once, when fishing the Wye with a very light eleven-foot trout rod, had two of thetie bnites on at the same time of above two pounds each, and no landing-net. I was fishing a very promising run of trout and grayling water, and, to my disgust, they quite spoiled all chance of sport in it. They are very abundant also in the Kennet, Windrush, and many other excellent trout streams, which suffer severely by their superabundance. The scales of chub, as well as those of bleak, were for- merly valuable for the nacre upon them to the artificial pearl-makers, but a better substitute has long rendered them valueless. It is but seldom the angler would either spin or use a live bait for chub, as their taking it is rather the exception than the rule, though they do take both spinning and live bait at times. Besides cheese and greaves for bottom baits, chub are very partial to various grubs and cater- pillars, to the black slug, to snails, gentles, and worms. The chub likes a large and fat mouthful, so that the hook may be well covered. I always look upon the chub with somewhat of venera- tion ; for was it not that historical chub, that chub Dagon in fact, with the white spot on his tail, that was the first THE BARBEL. 49 fish that introduced me to old Izaak ? I trow it was ; and well de I remember, although so many years have passed away, how from that chub I devoured the work to the end. THE BARBEL {Cyprinm barbus). So named from the barbs or wattles that depend from the sides of the mouth. It is a coarse, watery, flavourless, bony fish, and of little value for the table, unless it be used as stock for fish-soup. Albeit I have seen fishermen eat them, first, however, splitting them down the back and taking out the backbone. Barbel spawn in May or June, and get into condition about the end of July; before which time, therefore, they ought to be spared by the angler. Bottom-fishing commences on the Thames in Jvme, and numbers of barbel are often caught in that month in a gravid state. I have seen them captured at that time, when the spawn and milt was running from them at the slightest pressure. They ought not to be fished for, for another month at least. The barbel is gregarious, and is a widely distributed fish, being found in abundance in many of the Continental rivers. It abounds also in the Crimea. With us it is seldom found to reach above sixteen pounds in weight ; but one of twelve pounds, though not very uncommon, is not taken every day. The barbel, from the size of its fins and its powerful muscles, affords great sport, that sport being much enhanced by the very fine tackle which is often em- ployed in his capture ; and a day's good barbel-fishing with fine float tackle, when the barbel are biting freely, is not to be despised, for you may sometimes have fish of eight, ten, and even twelve pounds weight, upon the finest possible hook and tackle. There are two means employed for barbel-fishing — by float-fishing and by a stationary bait kept in its place by E 60 BARBEL HAUNTS. means of a plummet or otherwise ; and, firstly, I shall treat of float-fishing for barbel. The barbel's powerful fins enable him to frequent the strongest and heaviest streams ; and in these, if there be a ledge or a deep hole or eddy in which he can rest, he will be found, and usually with many friends in his company. Having discovered his whereabouts, the next thing is to decide upon the swim, and how to bait and fish it most advantageously. There are many places which l)arbel affect, and where the largest fish will often be found, which, owing to the turbulence of the water, can only be fished with ledger tackle ; but for the flo^^t choose a moderately sharp part of the stream, as near the supposed hole as may conveni- ently be. It should have a fairly level bottom without large stones or other obstructions, and be of tolerably equable depth, with a steady current and not too much eddy or boil. If the float on the first trial be drowned or sucked under, a heavier one, with a weighter set of tackle, should be chosen. Eight or ten B B shots as sinkers will fish most streams, but the lightest tackle which the stream will carry is the best, provided the float swims easily and steadily. It is advisable that the swim should not be less than five feet in depth, nor for the comfort and convenience of the angler should it be more than firom eight to ten, or the tackle will need to be heavy, and the depth will be unmanageable for comfortable fish- ing. Of course I am here referring to the choice of a swim, and to ordinarily clear water. There are plenty of cases where there is no choice, and the angler may be obliged at times to fish in fifteen or twenty feet of water, though the last is excessive and unusual. On the other hand, if the water be heavy and coloured much with rain, he will sometimes get good fishing in three or four feet. Having found out where there are barbel, and selected the swim, all that the angler has to do is to bait the stream CHOOSING A BARBEL-SWIM. 51 and fish it. If, however, he does not know where there are barbel, he should keep his eyes open, and mark where he sees a barbel jump ; for, as they are by no means a solitary fish, he will probably there find more of them. Barbel are a very restless fish, jumping out of the water all day long, differing in this from many fish which only show themselves so in the morning and evening. It is said that they jump thus to free themselves from parasites, to which they are very subject. If the angler cannot fix upon a swim in this way, he should choose a swim such as I have above described, and which ends in, or runs by the edge of, some deep hole or eddy ; or where there are old piles or roots, sunken boats, or rubbish of any kind which may afford harbours for the fish. This he should bait in such fashion that some of the bait shall find its way into the hole and amongst the rubbish, and so coax the fish from their holes to look for more, even though a hook should be concealed in some of it. Failing in all these methods, he must rove for them, and this after all is much the pleasantest way of fishing. Coming to the river's side, he chooses a swim which appears suitable^ and which he finds tolerably level. Here he breaks up two or three worms or other bait, and throws them loosely into the water, so that they shall find the bottom all about the swim he designs to fish. Then he takes half-a-dozen or a dozen swims. If he catches a fish, he throws in another worm or two. If the fish go on biting he keeps on fishing, now and then throwing in a worm or two to draw them together. If the place appears likely to show sport, he throws in perhaps half-a-dozen or a dozen worms broken up, and fishes the swim until the fish are exhausted or go off, when he seeks another swim. Should he, however, get no fish or bite in half-a-dozen swims, he continues onward down-stieam until he comes to the next most E 2 69 BAITING A BARBEL-SWIM. likely swim, when he tries that in like manner — never stopping longer in one swim than the fish bite. Xn this method of 6shing the angler must make as little disturbance on the bank as possible, or he will alarm every fish. Should he, however, know where a good store of barbel lie, having chose'^ the swim, he will proceed to bait it with about 1,000 fresh lob or dew-worms, coming to it at least twenty hours before he intends to fish it. He breaks each worm up into about three or four pieces, and casts the whole into the place he intends to fish. On the Thames, in order to keep the bait from straying too far, the worms are enclosed in huge balls of clay, and the fishermen bait the night before fishing ; so that when they come in the morning, less than twelve hours after, they find the fish collected together, doubtless, but gorged with the worms so profusely provided for them, and so close to the place where the punt-poles are to be driven in, and the punt or boat fixed, that the fish, startled, even if they are hungry, get shy of the boat and retire to a distance. This is the usual method of baiting; but the one which I have foimd to pay best is to bait for three nights in succession, using about 500 or 600 worms the first two nights, and half that number on the third, so as not to overdo them. By this means if there is any chance of sport the angler will be sure to get it, and if he chooses a good swim in the month of July or August when the water is just clearing from a flood he should get the best sport. On the Trent they do not put the bait into clay, but let it scatter down the stream ; and as they fish a long way from the stand or boat, as the case may be, the barbel are not alarmed by the proximity of the angler. Whether the angler fishes from a stand on the shore, or from a boat, the method is the same. The object is to let the hook-bait travel over the whole distance along which the ground-bait has been scattered, dragging, like the ground-bait, slowly along the THE FLOAT TACKLE. 53 bottom. (For barbel, wbich are a ground- routing fish, the bait should always touch the bottom.) Coming, then, to the spot which has been baited, and having determined the depth, so as to let the bait drag slightly, cast in some ten or a dozen broken worms, in order to set the fish biting again — taking care, of course, to keep the bait as much in a line as possible with the spot which you have taken the depth of. The float should be of the sort used by the Nottingham fishers, and described hereafter. The hook should be a straight round-bend worm-hook, of about No. 5 or 6, and tied upon fine but round stained gut. The nearest shot should be at least a foot or fifteen inches from the hook, or, if it be requisite that the bait should drag much, even more than that distance. The bait should be the tail of a bright-red well-scoured lob-worm, neatly threaded on the hook, with barely one-third of an inch of the tail off the point of the hook, which should always be thoroughly covered and concealed in the bait. Be sure that your hook-bait is always a part of the best and liveliest worm you can select. Having baited the hook, drop it into the water, and allow it to travel on- wards as described in Nottingham fishing. There is another method of fishing with a travelling bait, but this is only to be done with special tackle, and by a past master in the art. No float is used, but simply a single small pistol bullet, fixed some two or three feet above the bait. The rod should be light and slender, some- thing longer and stronger than an ordinary float-rod, so as to feel the lightest touch ; the rings must be upright to allow the line, which should be the finest possible dressed silk, to run freely, the gut and hook also as fine as cau be used. The hook a moderate sized round-bend, about 6 or 7, baited with half a lob-worm ; this should be dropped in and allowed to travel along the bottom throughout the gwim without a check, just enough line being paid out. At 64 THE STATIONARY BAIT. tbe least check or stop of the line the angler should strike, not too heavily, but with a drag to overcome any loose or bagged line ; and if the angler can manage to master this rather difficult method thoroughly, he will find that he will catch many more fish than he does with the float. But the tackle and appliances must all be of the finest, or they hold too much water. A Nottingham reel will be found most useful. Barbel are often taken with the lighter appliances used in roach-fishing, and excellent sport is thus enjoyed. Should the angler use greaves or cheese as a bait, no change in the style of fishing is needed, save that the cbeeee should not be permitted to drag on the ground, or it will come off the hook. In fishing vrith a stationary bait, three plans are also adopted. The first is by the use of the ledger, the second by the clay-ball, and the third by a fixed float, called on the Trent ' tight-corking.* The ledger is composed of a perforated lead, usually a good-sized bullet, or flat dia- mond-shaped lead if the stream is heavy and likely to roll the bullet over ; through this the line runs freely, a shot being fastened on the line, about two feet above the hook, to prevent the lead from sliding farther down to- wards the hook. (See Plate I. fig. 3, page 11.) The part of the tackle on which the lead plays should be served with silk, and three feet of gut should run between the lead and the hook. The hook for ledger-fishing is generally a size or so larger than that used for float- fishing. No. 5 or 6, and is baited with a clean and lively lob-worm ; though greaves and even gentles are sometimes used for a change, worms are the greatest stand-by. In baiting the hook, some people take oflf the head of the worm, if it be large, pre- ferring only to cover the hook well. I like a whole worm best, however; it lives longer, and is less likely to shift LEDGER-FISHING. 65 on the hook. As I have said, in baiting a barbel-hook generally, only the smallest portion of the tail of the worm should be allowed beyond the point of the hook. The tackle is then swung and pitched forward to the re- quisite distance — i, e. where the fish are supposed to be the most plentiful; and the lead is allowed to remain upon the bottom, a tight line being kept on it, so that the fisherman may just feel the lead, without lifting it at all from the bottom. The moment a bite occurs, the angler will feel it, as the line is not checked at all between the bullet and the point of the rod. At the first touch he should not strike, as the barbel nibbles a little at a stationary bait ; but when he feels two or three sharp tugs at the rod-point, he may strike upwards sharply, as he has to strike the lead from the bottom, as well as to stick the hook into the fish. For the first half-second he should hold the line firmly, so as to fix the hook securely in the fish's mouth : after which he may let him run, if he be a big one, and play him to the best of his ability ; the hold seldom gives if the hook be of fair size, as the mouth of a barbel is very leathery and tough. la ledger-fishing as in all barbel-fishing the tackle should always be as fine as the exigencies of the case will allow, and if you can hold the bottom with a moderate sized pistol-bullet, do not use a larger one ; if the line is fine, it will carry a much lighter lead than if it is coarse. The gut too, particularly the hook-link, should be fine, as the barbel is no fool, and with light tackle you must not use a coarse heavy rod or you will not feel the bullet on the bottom. Indeed the lighter you can fish the better. After catching a few fish, whether by float or ledger, if the fish go ofi* biting a little, throw in half-a-dozen broken worms to set them on the feed again ; but the angler must beware of overfeeding them while the fisli are biting, us many a day's sport is spoilt by this foolish 56 CLAY-BALL FISHING. habit. If, however, the fish remain shy, leave the swim for a couple of liours, when they will have regained both confidence and an appetite probably. To continue fishing and baiting is certain failure. The next stationary way of fishing is by what is called the clay-ball. This plan is used chiefly from a punt or boat, and is often successful in clear water ; it is employed too chiefly when gentles or greaves are used as a bait, about half-a-dozen gentles or a small piece of greaves being stuck on a perch-hook. About a foot or more above the hook, a little bit of stick, of about an inch in length, is fiistened cross-wise ; this is for the purpose of holding the ball on the line. A lump of stiff clay, of the size of an orange, is then taken, and some gentles being enclosed in it, it is worked up with bran over the piece of stick on to the line. The gut between the ball and the hook is then wound round the ball and drawn into the clay, which is squeezed and worked over it, so that only the hook shall protrude beyond the proper end of the ball, which is then dropped to the bottom — the hook with the gentles show- ing just outside the ball, in the most attractive way (see Plate II. figs. 8 and 9, p. 70). Soon the gentles in the clay force their way out, and the fish taking them from the ball, almost inevitably take those on the hook also ; the angler strikes when he feels a bite, which he does almost as easily as with the ledger, and the strike shakes and breaks off the clay ball, leaving the line free to play the fish. Some anglers, to make the lure more deceptive, enclose the hook in the clay ball, and let the fisli dig it out, but it is not necessary. A stoutish rod and tackle are required. This is a very killing plan, when the fish are biting shyly ; but it cannot, of course, be practised far from the boat or bank. The French fish somewhat in this style, using a short piece of whalebone or stick, of some eighteen 'inches long, TIGHT-CORKING. 57 instead of a rod, and playing the fish, when hooked, with the hands. The tackle they use is of course stout. They weld up horse-dung with the clay ball, which is supposed to render it more attractive. I have seen a Frenchman make some very good takes of barbel in this way, with about twelve feet of water-cord, and the half of an old umbrella rib. The slightest bite is felt very distinctly with this apparatus. Tight-corking, as pursued on the Trent, is simply using a heavyish float well shotted and plumbed some two feet too deep. The result of this is that the shot drags on the bottom, and the float is kept stationary, hanging down stream while the bait lies still on the ground, but imme- diately a fish bites at it the float g^ves warning. This method of fishing is often combined with a small clay ball, particularly by bank-anglers, who squeeze on above the hook a small clay ball as big as a plum, and leave the ball and bait to drag on the bottom, the float showing when the bait is taken almost as well as when it is in regular floating trim. This may be called a combination of tight-corking and clay-balling. Though cheese is often used in float-fishing, it is more often so used for chub (which are particularly fond of cheese) than barbel. The cheese used on the Trent and in the midland counties is made of skim-milk, and with- out salt ; it must be cut into small pieces, of the size of a small gooseberry. As at every strike or two the bait requires to be renewed, when other baits can be obtained it is not much in favour. Barbel also take greaves well, and likewise gentles ; both may be used either with float or ledger. Barbel, particularly the larger ones, may, in the spring of the year, often be taken with a spinning bait, when the angler is spinning for trout, in weir-pools and such rough water. I have known many large ones caught thus, and one of about fifteen pounds was taken years back tS8 TIME LOST WITH SINGLE HAIR. by poor old Bill Wisdom, at Hampton Court weir on the Thames. Still they cannot be called a predacious fish. Another bait which answers well for them is a piece of a lampem ; this is a killing bait in November, when the lampems are running — the ground-bait being the head, blood, and intestines of lamperns. I have with the ledger made some very fine takes with this bait, once taking many heavy fish, my first four being five, six, eight, and twelve pounds respectively. It is not often used, however, as the barbel retires to winter quarters at the first smart frost, and the lampems seldom run in any numbers until a frost or two has occurred. I have known many fine barbel taken with a bit of fat bacon, and raw beef or mutton is also often taken greedily. In the absence of worms there would be no difficulty in baiting with bacon or chopped beef. The coarsest would do. I have an idea that if one couldn't get worms a gallon of shrimps would prove very acceptable, but I never tried it. Fishing for barbel with fine roach tackle is, however, certainly productive of the most sport, though it is not the way to make a large bag ; for if tlie angler be using fine roach tackle, and hooks a good fish, he may waste an hour or an hour and a half over him, and then loose him after all, as I have done scores of times. I always fished vrith tangle hair formerly, when float-fishing from a punt, and have killed very many barbel of four and five pounds weight with it ; but so much time and so many fish were lost at it, that I have long discontinued it. I once re- member, many years since, hooking an apparently large fish on single hair, about five o'clock one November after- noon. I played him for a long time imtii my arm grew tired, when I handed the rod to a friend who was with me. He tired, and handed the rod to Wisdom, who in turn gave it back to me. They both despaired of our ever killing the fish, and set his weight at a dozen pounds A LONG FIGHT. 59 at least. « He'll take you all night, sir,' said Wisdom. ' Then I'll stop with him all night, if he does not break me, for I never have been able to kill one of these big ones with a single hair,' was my reply. I had often on the same spot hooked three or four of these monsters in a morning, but I never could kill one of them. They always got away, for not far below us was a large deep hole, full of snags, old roots, and rubbish ; and sooner or later they always remembered their hole there, and dashed into it headlong. Even stout ledger-tackle would hardly have held them, and that they were very shy at, preferring the single hair greatly. This hole was about fifty yards below us, and I constantly expected the fish would make for it. However, though he made constant runs, he never cared to go above half the distance, but sheered about, now out in the stream and now in towards the campshot.* It had long been dark, and he showed no symtoms of tiring, though he had in turn tired all of us. Playing a fish in the dark is awkward work, so we hailed some men, several of whom, attracted by the report of our having hooked ' a big 'un,' were standing on the bank, to bring us a couple of Ian thorns and some hot brandy and water, for it was bitterly cold : and with the aid of the lanthoms we at length managed to get the net under the fish and lifted him oat. It was half-past eight when he was landed, so that I had had him on three and a half hours. And now what does the reader think he weighed ? I was disgusted to find that he was only a six-and-a-half pound fish ; had I known it, I would have broken from him hours before ; but it turned out that he was hooked by the back-fin, and his head being perfectly free, of course he played as heavily as a fish of double the size ; and even » • The campshot,' as it is termed on the Thames, is the wooden board- ing and piling that keeps up the bank of the river. In places where it gets old and broken, it makes a famous harbour for fish. 60 SIZE OF BARBEL. now, remembering what the stream was, I wonder how I did succeed in landing him, as a fish so hooked, having his broadside opposed to the water, has great power of resist- ance. Indeed I consider that the accomplishment was equal to killing a fish of double the weight, ii fairly hooked. The feat may sound incredible — three hours and a half with only a single horsehair, a fin-hooked fisli, and a heavy stream — nevertheless it is strictly true. Had tlie hold been in the mouth instead of the hard, tough fin, it would probably have cut out in half the time. Now I give this piece of advice to all anglers who may be fishing from a punt with roach tackle, and who chance to hook a big one — and it is a wrinkle worth remembering. Let the punt go from the poles and get below him if you can, before he knows what he is about, so as to lead him down stream as far from his hold (and big fish always have one) as possible. For if you continue to play him about the spot where you hooked him, sooner or later he will make a bolt to his hold, when you .may wish him good- bye. Therefore get him, if possible, to travel into a strange country, when, if the bottom be fairly clear and the grip good, you may easily reduce it to a question of patience. The largest barbel I ever took or saw taken weighed a little over twelve pounds, and was taken on the ledger with lam pern bait, as noted above. NOTTINGHAM ANGLING. 61 CHAPTER IL BOTTOM-FISHING— continued. NOTTINGHAM ANOLINO — CASTING FHOM THB REEL— DACEXNO — LIGHT COBKINa THB SLIDBB, ETC. Haying spoken of the Nottingham style of fishing, it may be as well here to g^ve some idea of its method and the means and appliances required for it. In the first place, then, as to tackle, Nottingham reels differ widely from those commonly employed ; they are usually made of wood and in two pieces, the barrel of the reel upon which the line is wound turning on a spindle fixed in the centre of the portion which forms the immovable part of the reel. This is contrived so that the barrel shall run with the utmost freedom at the lightest touch. These reels were invented chiefly for bank-fishing, where it is required to cast out a long line. In the fashion pursued by the fishermen who require to cast a long line on the Thames, for ledgering or spinning more particularly, the line is drawn off the reel and laid loosely in coils at the fislier- man's feet, unless he be dexterous enough to gather it up in the palm of the left hand as some do, and such a practice would not do where the angler is walking along the bank of a river, or fishing haply from a withy or reed bed, for his line would be constantly catching in twigs, thorns, or particles of rubbish, and a tangle at the rings would be inevitable at every cast. Added to this, the Nottingham style of float-fishing absolutely requires the finest and eS THE NOTTINGHAM ROD. « lightest silk running^line made, and the line used for float- fishing is of Derby twist, scarcely coarser than common netting-silk. This would, if laid in coils, or gathered in the hand, tangle up into inextricable knots ; consequently it is required to run off the reel and with the utmost ex- emption from friction — for if there were much friction it would not run at all. Indeed, such is the freedom of these reels, that more often than not, in throwing a he^vy tackle or letting out a long line, it is requisite to moderate their pace. As the right hand is engaged in holding the rod, this is effected by the pressure of the fore-finger of the left hand on the edge or circumference of the revolving reel, according as the pace is required to be regulated, while by increasing the pressure the nm of the line may be stopped altogether. If this precaution be not taken the reel, when in full impetus, turns round so much faster than the line runs out through the rings, that it is apt to overrun the line, and a sad tangle is the result. This part of the operation requires practice — and a good deal of practice. Indeed, the whole system is much more difficult than the one in ordinary use on the Thames ; but to compensate for this it is much neater, and more deadly when once acquired. The equipment of the Nottingham roach and dace- fisher will be as follows : Rod, light and springy, more flexible than a Thames punt-rod, but not so flexible as a fly-rod — almost midway between the two — about twelve or thirteen feet long, and not too heavy foi* one hand, and with small upright rings ; a wooden reel with seventy or eighty yards of the finest Derby twist on it ; a tackle of very fine gut of about four or five feet in length. The hook used is usually of the straight round-bend pattern, as the worm is more often used than any other bait ; the size of course will be proportioned to the fish — that for dace, roach, &c., being of the round-bend pattern shown in TACKLE FOR DACE-FISHING. 63 Plate XIV. at Xos. 10, 11, and 12. The float is composed solely of some eight inches of a good sound goose-quill, the top of which is painted to make it watertight, the bottom having a ring whipped on to it for the line to pass through. The float has no caps, as being usually attached to the run- ning-line (instead of to the tackle, as in the Thames fishing), it is fastened on with two half hitches. This float carries about from four to six No. 1 shot, the lowest of which is a good foot ?bove the hook, so as to allow the bait to drag for some inches on the bottom without catching; the others are placed at intervals of six inches or so up the tackle. This is far betfer and less visible, and the line swims straighter and less wavily in the water, than in the Thames plan, where the shot are all crowded together at one spot (some six or eight inches above the hook). With this tackle Trent anglers fish for roach, dace, perch, gudgeon, chub, and bream, and in a light or slow water occasionally for barbel ; though for regular barbel-fishing, in the heavy streams, they have a set of heavier apparatus altogether, which is called ' light corking tackle,' because they use for it their lightest cork float ; the one above described being but a quill. The barbel float has an elongated cork body, more or less bulky, supplemented over it. Now one of the chief objects of a Nottingham fisher- man is, not to let the fish see or hear him, and therefore he fishes as far from them as he reasonably can. Walking along the bank of a river, if he has not already selected a swim, he fixes upon a spot that looks likely to yield sport. He decides to fish at a certain distance from the shore where the stream is steady and not too strong, and the water apparently of the right depth. The first thing is to ascertain how deep it really is. A London angler would drop in a lump of lead and work it about up and down all over the swim, thereby scaring the fish, to commence with. 61 TRYING THE DEPTH. But the Nottingham man avoids this ; he adjusts his float at wliat he supposes to be about the right deptli, casts liis tackle out to the exact distance from the shore at which he intends to fish, and allows his float to drift down the stream. If it floats in quite an upright position without the slightest symptom of dragging, the line is too short, and the depth below the float must be increased. If the float bob under, the shots are on the ground, and the line most be shortened below the float, and so on. Thus after four or five swims are tried, he hits by judgment the right depth, which is for the worm to trip or drag slightly over the bottom without the shot coming in contact with it, for if the worm be properly hooked, and the bottom not foul, the tackle will nearly always carry the worm witli it ; should it hang, the slightest raising of the rod-point will loosen it. Having foimd the depth of the water opposite to him, he proceeds to try it for the whole length of the swim — for a Nottingham angler's swim is often from a dozen to twenty yards in length; sometimes it does not com- mence until the float is almost that distance from him, the intermediate water being a cautionary compliment to the fish's sharpness of sight and sensation. Of course, having taken up the position or line of swim, if I may so express it, which he means his float to travel over, it is expedient to keep in that line, and it is there his ground- bait will be cast, and a few feet outside or inside of it will be 80 far from the fish. Considerable nicety of judgment is required to keep to this. Having now to try the swim the whole length, and having pitched his tackle out to the requisite distance, he lowers the point of the rod until it slightly inclines from the thigh towards the surface of the water, and follows the float (with neither too free nor too tight a line) with the point of the rod until the float has all the line he can give from the rod-point i SELECTING A SWIM. 65 ■with it down-stream. Now comes the nicer part of the operation, and that is to give off line from the reel so lightly and continuously that it shall run freely through the rings, and never check the swim of the float. This is done by keeping the reel turning fast or slow in exact accordance with the requirements of the stream, working it by quick, short touches from a left-hand finger on the edge or circumference of the wheel. If, in going down the swim, the angler finds that it deepens off very much, or that there is too much of a rise or hill, or that the bottom is foul, he has nothing for it but to choose another swim. Supposing that he has at length found a swim suffi- ciently level throughout and to his mind, he then breaks up four or five worms into very small pieces and throws them in well above the swim, calculating carefully where- abouts they are likely to groimd; and here, again, is a point that requires practice and judgment, because if thrown in too high up the stream the bait grounds too soon, and the fish are drawn up out of the swim. If too low, then the reverse happens. The gpreat object is to fish over your ground-bait ; and for this purpose you must observe not only the latitude of the swim but the longitude also. There is a great deal more in this than many suppose ; and many an indifferent day's sport has no doubt been ascribed to any other cause Imt the right one, in conse- quence of neglect or miscalculation of this important point. Having ascertained that the bottom of the swim is tolerably clear of obstruction, and thrown in bait, &c., the angler commences his swim; but first it may happen that the swim he has selected is some two rods' length from the shore (roach and dace-swims are seldom more, though barbel of course will lie in the heavier streams, more towards the centre of the river). Now, suppose the angler's swim to be, let us say, twenty feet from the spot 66 ROVING FOR B.UIBEL. he stands od ; the length of his rod being twelve or thir- teen feet, he may take nine or ten feet for the rod, or perhaps a little less ; the depth of the water is five feet ; 80 that supposing his bait to hang at the full length of the rod — which is as much line as he will be able to swing out, and probably more— his float will be some half-way up the rod, and there will be but five feet of line to add to the ten feet allowed for the rod ; but he wants to get the float five or six feet farther out — how is it to be done ? The tackle is dace tackle, and is therefore too light to cast from the reel, for with such a light weight the reel would not revolve ; he cannot place any line on the grass at bis feet, nor allow any to hang loose from the reel, because a line so light as the fine Derby twist would inevitably twist up and tangle, and it would catch at the first ring ; so, to overcome all these difficulties, he with the left hand takes hold of the running line above the first rod-ring, draws as much as he requires ofif the reel, and holds it away from his left side (farther from or nearer to his body as the case may require), thus keeping the spare line that is to run through the rings straight and tight, so that it cannot tangle. WJiile doing this he will find it necessary to handle his rod close to the reel, so that the hand which holds it may be pressed against the disc of the reel to prevent it from turning round and loosening the line. Then poising the rod clear of his body on the right side, he gives his bait and tackle the requisite swing to- wards the point he desires to reach ; as he makes the swing he relinquishes his hold on the line in his left hand, and the spare line goes clear and fairly through the rings with- out tangle or catch. (See Plate VIII. fig. 1.) By extending his left hand farther out, and away from his side, he can increase the quantity of spare line up to a certain point. Should he require more still, he will have to take hold of the line above the second ring instead of HOW TO FISH A DACE-SWIM. 67 the first, or even if need be the third or fourth, and so on, and thus he will be able to get out sufficient line safely to enable him to cast his tackle without catch or tangle to almost any reasonable distance he may require for roach and dace-fishing.^ We will suppose that the float is cast to its destination, which should be a little up-stream from where the angler is standing, with the point of the rod raised always if possible above or up-stream of the float, and just so much as to keep a moderately tight line, not sufficient to lift or check the float (for if this happens the float is drawn inwards towards the bank, and probably out of the swim), but sufficiently to enable the angler to strike the instant he perceives a bite, and without having any bagged or slack line. Following the float witli the point of the rod, and lowering the point until all the line he can give is out, the angler then applies his left hand to the reel and turns it gently as before described, giving off line as it is required, but not faster, nor yet so slowly as to check the float. The instant he sees a bite he strikes sharply, but not i too heavily, up-stream, and having hooked his fish, winds ' on him with the reel until he gets him well under the rod-point. Failing in getting a bite, he allows the float to travel down- stream fifteen, twenty, or even more, yards until he is sure that he has completely covered the space where the ground bait is likely to be — when he strikes, winds up the spare line, poises the rod, draws off" the requisite quantity, and repeats his cast. If he has half-a- dozen full swims without a bite he usually considers there are no fish there, and goes on to another spot. But if the place looks so favourable as to tempt him further, he may perhaps try the experiment of two or three more worms broken up. Usually, however, he is not induced to com- ' This style of casting the bait will be found most useful to the trout- fisher when wading and spinning a minnow or casting a worm, F 2 68 LIGHT CORKING. mit such extravagance. If he gets a fish or two, or a bite or two, he then breaks up a few more worms at the first pause in the biting and keeps to his swim, only repeating the dose when the fish begin to slacken in their biting. A dozen worms will often be all the ground-bait he will use in a pitch which may give him as many or even double as many fish. The hook-bait in this kind of fishing is usually a small red worm, though scratching (as they term greaves on the Trent) is used when worms are not to be had. One great point the Nottingham angler pays the utmost attention to is, that all the worms shall be thoroughly sweet and scoured, and as lively as possible. Having now described this method of fishing, it will be seen that a fine line is of the first necessity to it. It does not sink in the water, but lies lightly on the surface, so that the strike is not impeded in any way. It sucks up very little water, too, and soon dries ; and beyond this it runs off the reel much more freely than a thicker line woidd. So far there is every advantage in favour of it ; but if it rains, and the line, rod, and rings get wet, it becomes very difficult to get the b'ght line to run, even by the most assiduous wiping ; and if there be a strong con- trary wind, it is difficult to fish satisfactorily. If he goes for barbel-fishing, the angler generally uses a rod and tackle a trifle heavier and larger. This is called * light corking,' because the float used is a light cork one. This will carry sufficient weight to enable the tackle to be cast off the reel.* It will be evident that the angler has • This ca«t, however, is by no means easy to acquire. Even the old Thames spinner or ledger-fisher will find it no certainty, and at the com- mencement will very often find his float round his head, or his rod, perhaps, or anywhere but where he wants it to be; but patience, practice, and perse- verance do much ; and the chief direction to be borne in mind is, to avoid anything like a jerk : a smooth regular sweep is that which has to be prac- tised in the delivMy or casting of the tackle. Having gently swung the ROVING FOR B.VRBEL. 69 here no need to draw off line in the left hand as in dace- fishing. In roving for barbel the process is similar to that for roach and dace, but larger worms are used, and the tail of a nice lively lob is placed upon a hook some two or three sizes larger. Roving for barbel is not often resorted to if the angler can manage to bait a pitch the day before. Indeed, in order to increase the chance of sport, it is not unusual to bait two or three days before and to repeat the baitings at some twenty or twenty-four hom-s' interval two or three times. It will often happen that the hole or swim to be fished is some distance from the shore, and is deeper than can be conveniently cast from the rod — deeper, perhaps, than the length of the rod. When this is the case a float called ' a slider ' is used. The slider, as may be supposed from its name, is not a fixed float ; it has a ring at the top and another at the bottom, standing out sideways so that the line may travel freely through them. To use this float it is slipped on the line through both rings, and finds its resting-place upon the uppermost shot of the sinkers. When it is dropped into the water it floats in its proper position, but the sinkers carry the bait to the bottom, drawing line enough for that purpose with them down through the float-rings. Now, the depth having been carefully plumbed previously, is marked on the line by the tying on' of a little fragment of indiarubber elastic, which offers just enough resistance to prevent the line running any farther than is requisite through the small float-rings, upon which therefore the bit of indiarubber rests, keeping the bait at the required depth below. Should a fish bite, tackle backwards, bring it forward again with a steady regular sweep, and release your hold of the line without any abrupt action, and keep the little finger close to the circumference of the reel so as to be able to put on pres- sure to prevent overrunning of the line or to stop it altogether, as may be desired. 70 THE SLIDER. of course the check of the indarubber allows the float to be pulled down in the usual way, but it does not offer sufl&cient resistance to prevent either its being wound up, or sent through the rod-rings when cast. The hole to be fished may be thirty feet deep and twenty feet from the shore, and the rod but twelve feet long, yet by the aid of the slider it can easily be fished. (See Plate II. fig. 1, page 70.) The plider is now a good deal used by Thames fishermen for traveller-fishing in deepish water, because in playing a good fish with a fixed float, the float often comes up to the rod-point and prevents any more line from being wound in ; and if the line below the float be much longer than the rod, there is much difficulty in landing a big fish, whereas the slider slips down to the uppermost shot if necessary, and always accommodates itself to the depth of the water ; besides which, if the bait or tackle hangs for a moment on the bottom, the raising of the rod-point brings a direct action on the line and tackle, and clears it without sud- denly checking and altering the position of the float, or making a splash with it which would startle the sharp-eyed fish. Indeed, the slider possesses all the qualifications of ordinary floats, and some which are peculiarly its own, and which the others are devoid of. In adapting the Nottinjg- ham fashion to Thames punt or traveller-fishing, the slider is not necessaTily used, but a somewhat longer rod than the Nottingham bank- fisher employs is used, as tlie Thames punt-fisher is closer down to the water and has often a longer stretch of line to lift off" the surface, for he frequently lets out fifty or sixty yards of line and strikes his fish at times a long way off". In this kind of fishing the rod is held and the tackle employed in the way that is described in chub-fishing.' • I have been told, since the first edition of my book was published, that my drawing and apprehension of the action of the slider as respects the PLATE 2. BAITS FOR NOTTINGHAM ANGLING; 71 In gi'ound-baitiDg a pitch, the Nottingham fishermen seldom use clay or any substance of that kind, but break up the worms and cast them in loose. The number used runs from eight to twelve or even fourteen hundred, as the case may require. They are not distributed too widely, but kept within the limits it is desired to fish, and twenty hours at least are allowed for the groimd-bait to be con- sumed. Having baited their pitch, if the water be low and clear, they take care, when they approach to fish, not to come too close to their swim or to make any dis- turbance ; but they stand well above the place where they expect to find the fish, often fifteen or twenty yards above it, striking thirty or even forty yards off. Thus they do not alarm the fish, but often manage to get good sport position of the bait is wrong ; that the float is so checked that the bait instead of dragging slightly somewhat behind it, acquires precisely the roverse position, bending just as much in front of the float as I have shown it behind. Now I do not hesitate to say that this is simply impossible, for no bait and float could continue to travel so. If the bait touches the bottom at all, the line must bulge or project slightly over in front of the hook and bait, however slightly ; and if the float be held back so tightly that the line is kept back, and the bait travels before the line, then I aver that the liait must absolutely be swept oflF the bottom altogether, and that it would be impossible to keep up such a constant nicety of alternate tension and giving off of line as should keep the bait to the bottom, and yet h^orre the line and float. Besides, so mucli tension woiild draw the float and bait nearer to the bank, and therefore out of the swim in most cases. The whole of this theory is founded upon a considerable misapprehension as to the manner in which a fish takes a bait. The idea is, that as the line projects rather in front of the bait, it would come in contact with the flsh's nose before the bait did, and scare him. Now that is supposing that every bait comes straight down the stream directly upon the fish's nose. Let anyone stand upon a bridge and look down at fish feeding, and he will see that nine baits out of ten are taken sideways, the fish making a side dart either to one side or the other, as he sees a worm, grub, &c., passing him, and con- sequently, save once now and then, his nose would not need to come in contact with the line at all. The float should be checked so that only the bait should drag, to achieve perfection ; but as to the bait curving down- stream and drifting along the lx)ttom before the float, it is easier to imagine it than to practise it I feel sure. — F. F. 72 BAITS FOR NOTTINGHAM ANGLING. in a water and at a time where and when a Thames angler would seldom think of fishing at all. The principal baits they use are worms, scratching or greaves, cheese, and creed-malt. In all float-fishing their practice is superior to that of the Thames, and this appears to be so much recognised now, that Nottingham tackle and that style of fishing are very commonly adopted, but only in punt-fishing. The much more workmanlike, scientific, and deadly method pursued by the accomplished Nottingham bank-fisher is almost unknown to the gene- rality of Thames anglers, yet it is quite high art in float- fishing from the bank, and is not at all easy to perform well. I strongly recommend anglers who can afford it to take a turn on the Trent, and put themselves under the tuition of a Nottingham adept ; it will be money saved, as they will be thereafter very independent of punts and puntsmen, and will enjoy the active exertion of walking the river's bank in preference to the too often passively apoplectic operation of sitting in an arm-chair witli a pipe and a bottle of stout as a solatium for want of sport. THE BREAM. 78 CHAPTER III. BOTTOM- FISHIN G^continued. THE BREAM — THE CARP — THB TBKCH — THB EBL — THB PERCH — PATERIV08TERIN0, ETC. THE BREAM (Ct/prinus branui). Of this lubberly carp there are two kinds known to anglers — the carp or golden bream and the bream-flat or silver bream. The former is by far the best fish both for size and quality, the latter being of no particular value for the table, and not reaching any great size, seldom ex- ceeding one poimd. The bream is very widely distributed, and is found alike in rivers, ponds, and lakes. In rivers it prefers quiet, deep holes, with a loamy or sandy bottom. The deepest holes in ponds are likewise those preferred. The bream spawns about the latter end of May, and takes some time to recover condition. Bream are gregarious, swimming in large shoals, and, when inclined to feed, vast numbers of them may be taken ; as, although somewhat of a nibbler, yet if time is given to him, the bream will almost always take the bait in the end. If the angler does not know, but is desirous to find out the whereabouts of a bream haunt in the river, let him watch the likely spots early and late, and he will see one every now and then prime or rise up like a large roach ; but, from some peculiarity, the bream, when it does this, almost always leaves a large bubble on the surface, which the roach does 74 TACKLE FOR BREAM-FISHING. not do. When the angler notes a bubble or two of this sort left after the priming of large fish, let him watch the spot narrowly, and he may soon perhaps satisfy his doubts as to whether there be bream there or no. Bream have very roving habits, often disappearing without any apparent reason from a haunt they have affected for two or three years, and taking to some other hole or eddy. In my river (the Crane) I see this pecu- liarity often ej^emplified, for they will be in one hole in a large shoal on one day, and on another perhaps half a mile off. Having chosen a swim, the angler should ground-bait and fish it after the same method as that directed for barbel ; and with bream, as with barbel, worms are the best bait, though they will take gentles and other grubs. The hook used should be a size or two smaller than that employed for barbel, as the bream likes a smaller bait ; but in other respects the tackle and method are similar. Bream may often by baiting be drawn out of their deep holes into the more manageable barbel-swims, and when this is the case both may be taken together ; but if the holes can be fished by any means, the take will be both larger and more certain. To fish them properly, however, is often difficidt ; and when ledger-fishing under these circumstances it is advisable to fasten the hook on the ledger-gut about six inches above the lead, so that there may be one hook on the bottom for the barbel and one just off it for the bream, as the latter is scarcely such a ground-router as the former. One of the best bream-fishers I know on the Thames is George Hone, the fisherman at Waltx)n. He ledgers them with the finest possible tackle, a small No. 7 Carlisle round-bend hook extra fine in the wire, and for a sinker a pistol bullet, rod and lines to match, as set forth in barbelling. He hook baits with red worms, and baits largely with brandlings. These small LOCALITIES WHERE BREAM ARE FOUXD. 75 worms are especially favoured by the bream ; and if the angler can get the reversion of an old hotbed and secure a gallon or two of them, he may be pretty sure, if the water suits and the bream are ' there,' to get his share of them. The finer the angler can fish for bream the better. Indeed, whether for bream or barbel, his tackle never should be a shot heavier than the stream requires to ride the float well and steadily. In ponds, or in still quiet eddies, the angler will often find that the bream will lift and throw the float flat upon the water. The reason of this, I imagine, is that the bream is a round-shaped, round-bellied fish, and when it picks up the bait and then assumes its natural position to eat it, although the belly of the fish may touch the gpround, the head and tail are some distance off it, and hence the shots and sinkers are lifted, and the float, instead of being pulled down, is thrown up. When hooked in still deep water, the bream has a disagreeable knack of boring head down, and rubbing and chafing the line with its side and tail, so that the line often comes up for a foot above the hook covered with slime. When hooked in a stream, after the first rush it soon turns on its side and comes in comparatively easily. Bream run to a good weight, six or seven pounds being not very uncommon, while occasionally they have been caught of fourteen or fifteen pounds weight. In some of our Lakes, particularly in Ireland, as Loughs Neagh, Conn, Corrib, and Erne (especially the latter), the abundance of bream exceeds all belief, many cartloads being often taken in one sweep of the nets. Bream bite pretty well during the summer, more particularly in the morning and evening, but as a rule they take more freely towards autumn. Bream ofif a clean gravelly or sandy bot- tom in the winter, when the weed is out of them, are by no means bad eating. I was doubtful of this once, having tried them too early in the summer. Since then I have 76 THE CARP. renewed the experiment, and am willing to admit that they are by no means bad fareing. I do not think, how- ever, even French cookery could find anything worth eulo- gising in a pond-bream, which is for the most part the bream-flat or silver bream. Many spots on the Thames — as Walton, Weybridge, Chertsey, Shepperton, Hampton, Kingston, Teddington, &c. — are or have been famous for bream, and the Colne, Wey and Mole abound in them in parts. The East India Docks, too, formerly held very fine bream, and many of the waters around London have abundance of them. The midland counties' rivers, as the Trent, Ouse, and the Norfolk streams, are also well stocked with them. THE CARP (O/prtnus carpio). This cunning member of the carp tribe requires all the angler's skill to delude him. Dear old Dame Juliana says * he is an euyll (evil) fysshe to take,' and she is not far wrong; but she adds that ' there ben but fewe in Englande,' so that in her day they had not long been introduced. She calls him ' deyntous' too, in which I cannot coincide. It will often happen that even after the angler has exhausted his patience and ingenuity, our leathern- mouthed friend will altogether fail to come to hand, or rather to net. Small carp, under and up to two pounds, are not so diflficult to take ; but when the angler essays his skill upon the wily old veterans of the pond, it is quite another matter. It is difficult to get carp to look at the bait at all, and when they do they will more often nibble and suck at it, and leave only half of it on the hook, than take it fairly. It is wonderful, too, how soon even small carp get shy if they are much fished for. I remember two ponds in which, as a boy, I always could take large numbers of carp. In one I once took one of THE TACKLE FOR CARP-FISHING. 77 four pounds, though usually they seldom exceeded two or two and a half pounds ; but fish of from one to two pounds I could generally catch in considerable numbers. In the other pond I have taken in one afternoon four that weighed over twenty-two pounds, and could usually catch ten or a dozen or more in one afternoon ; but some years after, when the ponds became more popular and fisher- men more plentiful, I have visited them and fished them in vain, although the carp were still in them in abundance, and might be seen rolling and grubbing all ai'ound the book. Carp, owing to their cautiorf, often live to reach a very large size, growing to between twenty and thirty pounds in weight ; fifteen or sixteen pounds, however, is more often the limit of their increase. A large carp, too, is not only cunning before he takes your bait, but he quite appreciates the value of large masses of weeds to help him in getting rid of it ; and as the angler is compelled to fish as finely as possible, and with not too large a hook nor too coarse gut, the wary old fellow will sometimes give you the slip even after he has been well hooked. The usual method of fishing for carp is to employ a small light float and fine tackle, and to fish in the method recommended for 'Pond-fishing generally.' The hook should not be above No. 7, or 6 at the outside ; the shot fine and some distance from the float, as the mere gravity of the hook and worm will carry them to the bottom ; the gut fine, round, and olive or weed-coloured ; and the bait, a small red worm or a bit of paste. The depth should be plumbed so that the bait may rest on the bottom. It is not natural to see the bait hanging in the water barely touching the bottom, and that the carp know well enough. In this position, the gut ascends directly from the worm to the float, and the unnatiural attitude of the bait challenges the carp's attention to this ' new thing in baits.' 78 GROUXD-BAITING FOR CARP. Mods. Carp then catches sight of the shot, and, lastly, in all probability, of the float above. All this is of course strange and unusual, and he proceeds to investigate the bait with all due care, nibbling and picking at it, like the female ghoul in the Arabian Nights, who ate rice with a bodkin ; he cannot make up his mind to take it, and yet he cannot make up his mind to leave it, so he nibbles and nibbles, and at last you think he must have got the bait, and you strike. Now, it is not customary for baits to dash off in that frantic fashion ; and therefore, while your bait dashes off one way, Master Carp dashes off the other. It is best to take your depth the evening before you intend to fish, so that you need not disturb the spot when you come in the morning, and the earlier you can come in the morning, before the water has been disturbed, the better. A longish bamboo rod will be found useful for this kind of angling, as it is advisable to swing your float as far off from the shore as possible. If it be not possible to select and bait your pitch be- forehand, it will be only necessary to follow the directions for Pond-fishing given at the commencement of this work. If, however, you can manage to bait your pitch, then select, say, two places. Let the bottom be clear of weeds and the spot be near rushes, or in some spot where you see carp usually feeding. Then, go in the morning (if there are eels in the pond) and throw in a few handfuls of broken worms, gentles, or any other ground-bait you may select; for if you are fishing with worms and there be eels in the pond, in all probability (as they are unusually busy at night) they will gobble up all the worms before the carp can get a chance ; and this is one of the miseries you have to endure in carp-fishing when using worms, viz. that when you expect a bite from some noble carp, which is cruising coyly round your hook, some wretched little HOOK-BAITS FOR CARP. 79 eel comes and takes your worm, and the hauling of the little brute out is siu:e to scare the carp. It is better, perhaps — if they will take paste or any of the many vege- table or mealy baits recommended for them in the water you are going to fish — to ground-bait with them. In some places and at some seasons the worm is preferred, at others paste. Having baited your pitch once or twice, or if you like oftener, come to the water with your rod all ready, your hook baited (and take care to see that it is well covered) ; pitch your float as quieUy as you can out to the requisite distance, lay down the rod in the fork mentioned in Pond-fishing, and flip a few bits of ground-bait in round about your float. When you see a nibble do not be in a hurry, for at the bcFt the carp is a slow biter, and the float will often bob and wriggle about for half a minute or so before the bite is confirmed ; get the rod carefully and cautiously in hand without disturbing the line or float, and when the float goes under and sails majestically away, arul not till then, you may raise the point smartly, and in all probability a desperate rush (if the fish is a good one) will answer the strike ; play him as firmly as the tackle will stand, for the hook seldom breaks out of his tough mouth, and get him into the net as soon as you can, and with as little disturbance as possible. Then throw in a handful of bait and proceed to your other baited pitch, and do like- wise, allowing the disturbance at the first to subside before you return to it. By working the two pitches alternately in this way, you may get far more sport from either of them than you would if you had only one baited. I have spoken of other baits, and there are an infinite variety which carp are said to take. For paste, both plain and honey paste, see ' Bait Table.' I have heard of anglers employing paste coloured red, but have no faith in it ; paste mixed up with gin or with brandy is also said to be irresistible, but I cannot say that I have found it so, 80 LEDGERING FOR CARP. although assured of large takes made with it by friends : perhaps the carp I offered it to ' had taken the pledge.* A green-pea is a noted bait for carp. One carp-fisher I know of swears by boiled beans, the large yellow haricots, or the smaller broad-bean for the hook, ground-baiting with boiled barley. Others get good results from knobs of potato about the size of a gooseberry. The late Mr. Goodwin, of Hampton Court, assured me that he made some wonderful takes of very large carp, up to fourteen or fifteen pounds weight each, with potato, in the canal in the park there. His method was as follows : choosing a clear place where there were no weeds at the bottom, he would every evening for some days throw in two or three handfuls of chopped potatoes (the red potatoes are sup- posed to be preferable, but that may be only a whim). Then, when about to fish, he would take, not a float, but a rod with ledger tackle, with tolerably stout gut, and baiting the hook with a piece of potato, he would throw in the tackle in the usual way, and allow the lead to rest on the bottom, slackening the" running line. In time a bite would ensue ; the fish would carry away the potato, and as he went ofif for two or three feet, the line would be yielded to him easily and without check, and would run freely through the bullet, when the strike brought matters to an explanation ; and as the gut was pretty stout, he was not allowed, even though a big fish, to have everything his own way. The potato should be parboiled just suffici- ently to make it stick well on the hook. In this way Mr. Goodwin assured me that he used to take two or three large carp whenever he went to fish for them, the evening being the preferable time. Stout tackle can be used thus, because the gut rests On the bottom, and the carp cannot see it as he can when it runs directly from the bait up through the water. It is for this reason that I always recommend, in carp-fishing, that the bait should rest on CAKP IX RIVERS. 81 the bottom, and some inches of the line likewise ; for, though the carp will detect the finest gut, as I have said, when the bait is pendent, yet he will not notice the coarsest tackle if it rests on the bottom. Indeed, I once took a seven pound carp on an eel line with coarse string- snooded hooks, in a pond where no one had ever been able by ordinary float and line-fishing to catch the carp at all, though they abound in the pond, and are of large size. In using paste baits, the angler will find it to his account, if instead of using a single hook he employs a small brazed triangle, or three hooks brazed together back to back, such as are used on spinning tackles. This holds the paste on far more firmly, thus resisting the carp's ' power of suc- tion,' and gives the angler a better chance of hooking him. The hooks must be completely buiied in the paste, and the bait should be the size of a moderate gooseberry. As I have said, various pastes are recommended for carp ; I believe that sweet paste is preferred to plain by carp, having found them take it well if sugared. One of the Kemps at Teddington, who was very successful with the carp, used to make his paste of pound cake, as I have heard. I have no doubt it would answer well too. Some anglers in fishing a pond employ various devices to hide themselves from the sharp eyes of the fish, and stick in bushes by the margin, or even hurdles, to shelter them. I never found this particularly desirable, though there can be no harm in it ; but it is most needful that the angler should move with perfect caution, and should not stump about on the bank — a very few steps of an Irish jig, for example, on the bank, would be fatal to all hopes of sport for an hour or two. The angler need never be afraid to lay down his rod, as the bite is always so slow that he has ample time to regain it before striking time ; but when he takes it up he must take it up carefully, and not jerk the line. 82 A FISH DTNNEK. In rivers carp bite more boldly than they do in ponds ; at any rate such is the case in the Thames, where they are often taken when the angler is roach or barbel-fishing in some parts. The favourite method of fishing for them there is by a very light ledger with a pistol-bidlet, and a lump of paste, the foundation of which is, I am told, new pound-cake, from which point of view doubtless the carp may be called ' deyntous/ I do not, however, think the carp is native to the Thames. Some years ago a good many were turned in at Teddington, and there they cer- tainly have thriven, and in the eddies by the weir (a somewhat strange place for them to affect) they frequently take the worm boldly, and show good sport ; no doubt they might easily be increased in the Thames, and would form an agreeable diversion if more general. The worst of the carp is that you must be content with your sport ; for when you have caught him (in England at any rate, as far as my experience goes) he is not worth eating, being a muddy, bony, woolly beast, on whom any sauce or condiment is simply wasted. I shall never forget a scene which occurred several years ago. My old friend James Lowe, formerly editor of the ' Critic,' and known to readers of the ' Field ' in those days as ' the Chronicler,' and myself, caught by accident a fine carp of 7 lbs. weight. Jenmiy was a g^eat gourmet ; we would have a great dinner on this carp. Invitations were issued for a stately festival. The fish was taken to host Cooper of the Albion, near Drury Lane, and directions given to spare no expense in the preparation. Jemmy made many pilgrim- ages to the perfidious tavern, and displayed great taste in selecting choice vintages to accompany the regal delicacy. The day came, and James, Mr. Crockford, the former manager of the ' Field,' myself, and three others sat down in a private room in g^eat tate. THE TENCH. 83 Bring forth the carp ! The carp was brought. In truth it was a noble fish, And looked splendacious in the dish. Decked with capers and lemon, and smelling savoury of spices and sauces, we all allowed that it looked good to eat. James helped us all to a good round morsel each. Every fork was plunged into the delicacy, every mouth received its mouthful with tender anxious expectation. Every eye was beaming at one moment with calm delight — the next, you never saw such an alteration of feature : agony, horror, dismay ! I dropped my mouthful again in the plate. It was beyond any capability I possessed to swallow it ; others got rid of it as best they could ; one or two swallowed it and gasped for ' brandy and water.* Never was anything so filthy. If you can imagine a stale musty bed flock out of some old hospital dipped in strong sewage you have some idea of it. Every man pushed his chair back and cried ' Take it away.' At this moment Ponsford ' the ready ' entered. ' In case you shouldn't like it, sir, I ordered the turbot to be handy ; ' and he marshalled in a splendid turbot, so after a time we dined on the turbot, and I have never tasted carp since. In many places carp are tamed so that they will come and feed out of their keeper's hand, and will even come to his whistle or any other accustomed signal. THE TENCH {Cyprinus tinea). The tench is a better fish for the table than the carp, and if caught in a tolerably well kept pond, is not a bad fish to eat, the skin being thick and gelatinous, and the flesh white, firm, and sweet. The method which I have described in fishing for carp with the worm and float answers equally well for the tench, save that the bait need o 2 84 UNOBTRUSIVENESS OP TENCH. not rest quite so much on the ground ; but the depth may be phimbed, so that the bait may just touch the bottom in the usual way. The tench is a very curious fish in his habits. You may see a pond which is stocked with good tench, and look over it narrowly, and even do so many times, without having the slightest idea that there is a fish in it. I have known ponds which have been supposed to be fish less for years, by the merest accident to be discovered to contain large numbers of fine tench in them. In many places tench are very peculiar also in their times of feed- ing ; on some days they will feed well, while at other times you will not manage to get a fish in a week ; and though this is not always the case, they are yet usually more or less capricious. As an illustration of the above, I may state that I once knew a little pond in Hampshire, which was not perhaps more than about thirty yards square. I had many times seen it, but never saw a fish in it, when one day the person to whom it belonged, knowing that I was fond of fishing, asked me if I would not like to catch some of the tench in the pond. I had no idea there were any in it, but as he assured me there were, and as I had nothing else to do one afternoon, I got a bag of worms and walked down to the pond with my rod. I put up a small light cork float, and a couple of hooks, one four or five inches above the other, baited with red worms, threw in some broken worms, and waited. Presently I caught a little eel ; then another ; then a little tench of less than half a pound weight ; then one or two more eels ; and although I kept on throwing in the broken worms I did no more, and finally I threw in the rest of my worms and went away disgusted, not having seen another fish move. Still the proprietor assured me there were good tench in the pond, and urged me to try again ; and the next after- noon, being inclined for a lazy hour or two, I took my rod, a book, and my pipe, and walked down to the pond. I UNEXPECTED SPORT. 85 pitched in my float as usual, and sat down behind a bush, lighted my pipe, and began to read, when on looking up I found that my float had disappeared, and was ' making tracks ' for the middle of the pond. Thinking it was only a small eel, I got up lazily, :ook up the rod and struck, when, to my surprise, I found that I had hold of some- thing a good deal larger than I bargained for, and after a tolerable tussle, I got out a fine tench of a pound and a half. The book was at once consigned to oblivion, and I set to work carefully, and barely was my float settled when ' wriggle, wriggle, wriggle,' it went, and after the usual preliminary gyrations and bobs which the tench generally communicates to it, off it went ; I struck again, and g:ot another fine tench of nearly two pounds : after this the fun grew fast and furious. Unfortimately, I did not keep score of the fish I caught, as, finding I was having such great sport, I was afraid of clearing the pond out, so I put most of them in again, merely keeping three brace of two pounders ; but I should imagine that I must have captured about thirty fine tench, not one of which would be under a pound and a quarter, and many of them topped two pounds and a half. Where all these large fish could have packed themselves in this mite of a pond without ever attracting notice, I could not imagine. Tired of pulling them out, I left off in the evening while the fish were yet biting freely. I went there again the next day, and caught one tench of three-quarters of a pound ; but, though I fished there many times since, / never caught a tench afterwards. Tench at times feed freely enough all day ; but the favourite feeding time is at sunrise and dusk, when you can barely see your float ; then they will take if they take at all. Moderately fine tackle is desirable, but though the tench is a slow, niggling, tedious biter, he is not so wary as the carp. Oftentimes, however, he will play with and 86 TENACITY OP LIFE IN TENCH. nibble at the bait, and will leave it after all. When the biting has been going on in this fashion I have found it a capital plan to expedite matters by very gently drawing the worm away a few inches, when Dr. Tench, thinking that he is going to lose his fee, usually comes after it and takes it well. This is a peculiar speciality in tench-fish- ing, which the angler will do well to remember, as it will often stand him in good stead. Two or three shots will be quite enough to sink the bait, and the hook should be about No. 7, not larger. Tench will feed on gentles and grubs, but the best bait by far is the red worm ; broken worms to be used for ground-bait, and a handful or two thrown in for one or two days before fishing, will no doubt serve as an aid to sport. Tench are fonder of weedy ponds than carp, and a space of a few square yards in the middle of banks of weeds is oflen a favourite find for them. When once hooked, there is little fear of losing your tench, though he makes a strong fight for his life. Tench are not unfrequently seen up to 5 and 6 lbs. weight. I have seen many of that size in the water belonging to Sir J. Gibbons, near Staines, and I have he^ird of them reaching even a larger size. The tenacity of life in the tench is very remarkable. I once carried one in the midst of a basket of other fish 100 miles — it was five hours at least out of the water. It was at Christmas time, and though, at the end of the journey all the other fish were dead and stifi", the tench was alive; I put him into a bucket of water, and he swam about as if he had only just been taken out of the punt's well. My friends thought him imcanny and would not eat him, so I determined the next day to make my supper off him. I took him out of his bucket, gave' him a tap on the head, rolled him up in a handkerchief, and put him into my portmanteau amidst coats, trousers, &c. I journeyed home again, and about five hours after I took THE EEL. 87 out my tench to give him to the cook, when lo! he gasped ; I put him into water, and he actually appeared none the worse for all he had gone through. Thinking then that he had earned his life, I gave him his liberty, and turned him into a small pond, and a twelvemonth after, when we were netting it, we got him out, and he had grown about half a pound. I have seen some tench„ however, that have died in a much shorter time, though generally they have tough lives. What truth there may be in the old story of the medical powers of the tench, I cannot pretend to say. He is rather slimy as to his skin, and if, like the bream, he can part with his slime freely, it might prove efficacious, like ' parmaceti for an inward bruise ' probably ; but I can assume no other way in which he could be at all service- able as a member of the finny faculty (unless his skin possesses electrical powers). THE EEL {Mur