PRICE TWO SHILLINGS. 
 
 The Nottingham 
 
 ^^TYLE of Float Fishing 
 ^ Spinning. ^^^vertOtteiD 
 
 4 mm 
 
 m 
 
 
 Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 188, Fleet St., E C. 
 
^/ V y\) 
 
 OUR P. O. ALBUM OF ANGLERS. 
 
 No. 14 (New Series). 
 
 Mr. J. W. MARTIN. 
 
 Mr. J. W. Martin was born In the year ; but no, 
 
 I must not give a brother angler away. In spite of the 
 vicissitudes of a life which include such varied occupations . 
 as canal-boat horse-driver, bricklayer's labourer, and' 
 blacksmith, Mr. Martin, the sole support of a widowed 
 mother (hats ofE to him !), managed to keep alive the keen 
 love of angling which was born in him, and certainly no 
 one ever was more careful not to miss an opportunity of 
 "wetting a line." His book, "The Nottingham Style," 
 published by Sampson Low and Co., was his first 
 literary effort, under the nom de plume of " Trent 
 Otter." A good start truly, but since that time he has 
 others, '* Roach, Rudd, and Bream Fishing," which shows 
 the practical angler on every page. His last book, 
 *' Pike and Perch i'ishing," is noticed in another column, 
 but now that Mr. Martin has started as a tackle maker in 
 London, having taken the old-established business of Mrs. 
 Price, of Seymour-street, Euston-road, the indisputable 
 evidence his books give of his practical experience should 
 help him in his newer venture, in which I, for one, wish 
 him the best of success, 
 
 > » » ^ / - 
 
FLOAT FISHING AND SPINNING 
 
 NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
LONDON : 
 PRINTED BY GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, LIMITED, 
 
 ST. John's square. 
 
vi: 
 
 :/ 
 
 / 
 
 ('. Angler's right hand holding rod just above the reel. 
 
 h. Angler's left hand pulling down line in order to make a cast with light tackle in 
 Nottingham style. Page 34. 
 
 J 
 
 a. Angler's right hand ho'' ding rod just above the reel. 
 
 0. Left hand pulling down two leng'ths of line in order to make extra long cast. 
 
 Page 34. 
 
FLOAT FISHING AND SPINNING 
 
 IN THE 
 
 NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 BEING A TREATISE ON THE SO-CALLED COARSE 
 
 FISHES, WITH INSTRUCTIONS FOR 
 
 THEIR CAPTURE. 
 
 INCLUDING 
 
 A CHAPTER ON PIKE FISHING. 
 
 By >^.; W. -MAETIN, 
 
 ' ' THE "iKFNT dl^Ei.f": ' 
 
 " Ye who stand behind the counter. 
 Or grow pallid at the loom, 
 Leave the measure and the shuttle. 
 To the rippling stream come, come " 
 
 The Invitation. 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 HonUon : 
 SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON 
 
 CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET. 
 
 1882. 
 \All rights reserved.'] 
 
BIOLOGT 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 G 
 
 feiOiCKrY, llflRARY 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Will you, my dear brother angler, oblige me by reading this 
 preface before you proceed to dip into and pick out pieces 
 in the various chapters, for in the preface the writer generally 
 explains the reason for his work. Some may say that there 
 is no valid reason for another book on fishing, there being so 
 many already, but I would explain in justification that there 
 is a vast army of bottom fishers in the kingdom, and the 
 great majority of them are working men who can only get a 
 day's fishing occasionally, and that it is to these working men 
 anglers I am more particularly addressing the remarks con- 
 tained in this little volume. I myself am a working man, 
 but I have had very considerable experience in Trent angling 
 when I could spare the time from my work. 
 
 The large books upon angling treat so fully of salmon, 
 trout, and grayling, that they do not do justice to the so-called 
 " coarse " fish, and these books, moreover, cost so much that a 
 working man, as a rule, cannot afford to buy them, I must 
 confess, being a working man, I am in the same swim as my 
 fellows in regard to these, and I have a notion that a book 
 which contains the whole art of bottom fishing would be 
 gladly welcomed by those to whom I have referred, or by the 
 would-be anglers generally, if it could be published in a cheap 
 form. Now I am confident enough to hope that this volume 
 will meet the requirements of such persons. 
 
 The instructions given here are the results of carefully 
 conned experience, and as the Trent angler is supposed to be 
 the most scientific of bottom fishermen in the kingdom, I 
 trust the tyro will derive some profit from the principles I lay 
 down. I have expended a good deal of time in the prepara- 
 
 899596 
 
YX PREFACE. 
 
 tion of this work, but this has been given willingly, the 
 whole task in fact having been a " labour of love." I have 
 added a chapter on " Pike Fishing," under the impression that 
 it also may be interesting. 
 
 The extent of the pocket of the working man angler has 
 been constantly before me when describing his outfit, and 
 there is nothing mentioned that cannot be bought or made 
 cheaply. Perhaps, also, the bettor class anglers may derive 
 some instruction from this little book. The plainest possible 
 language has been used, so that the veriest novice can under- 
 stand what I mean, and I have been very particular in my 
 description of the tackle, baits, &c., &c. I respectfully 
 request the reader to carefully read Chapter II., for in that 
 will be found a full description of the outfit of a Nottingham 
 angler ; how to make his tackle, and how to use it, and some 
 recipes that are very valuable to the fisherman. Chapter I. 
 contains some facts connected with the history of fishing, 
 both ancient and modern, and also some notes on the natural 
 history of the fish. I am indebted to various sources for the 
 latter, but principally to cuttings from various papers, &c. I 
 regret I cannot give the source in all cases from whence these 
 were taken, but 1 hope I shall be pardoned where I have 
 quoted without an acknowledgment, as the fault must be 
 set down to inadvertence rather than design. However, I 
 have mostly gone by my own experience in the matter, and 
 shall say no more by way of an apology, allowing my little 
 work to stand on its merits. Please Mr. Critic, remember, 
 nevertheless, that I am only a poor working man, with a very 
 moderate education. 
 
 John Wm. Martin. 
 
 Newark, May, 1882. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introductory Eemarks I 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Trent Fishing 18 
 
 ^ CHAPTER III. 
 The Chub . 38 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The Barbel 59 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The Roach 77 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 The Pike 98 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 The Perch 115 
 
VIU CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Bream 123 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 The Carp and Tench 127 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 The Dace 133 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 Eels and Flounders 136 
 
 CHAPTER XIL 
 The Bleak, Gudgeon, Rufee, and Minnow . . . 144 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 Freshwater Fisheries Act, 1878 .... 149 
 
BOTTOM FISHING IN THE 
 NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 An old fisherman tells me that thirty years ago, yon might 
 count the anglers of my native place on the fingers of one 
 hand, while at the present moment they may be counted by 
 hundreds ; and the same may be said of the other towns and 
 districts in the kingdom. We may safely say that anglers 
 have increased a thousandfold during the last half-century ; 
 and there is no other branch of sport or pastime that has 
 made such rapid strides in the same time, and 'tis well that 
 it is so. Civilization in its onward strides has not even 
 spared the fish ; and they, as time has rolled on, have become 
 cunning and crafty, and so craft and cunning has now to be 
 resorted to in order to capture them. Fifty years ago it was 
 comparatively easy to make a good bag of fish ; but now in 
 such well-fished rivers as the Trent and Thames, it is only an 
 artist in the craft that can do so. Then, an angler was a 
 rarity, met only occasionally, and looked upon as a sort of 
 rara-avis ; now we see him upon every length and reach, 
 from the youngster with his cheap rod and primitive tackle, to 
 the grey-haired patriarch who sits silently ledgering for 
 roach, and yet the vast army of British anglers are steadily 
 
 B 
 
2 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 increasing, as is shown by the ever-growing demand for rods, 
 lines, hooks, and gut. 
 
 The great majority of our anglers belong to the working 
 class. Thousands who toil in our workshops and factories 
 stand by the flaming forge, or busy shuttle, and are slowly 
 poisoned by the foul, smoke-polluted air, are glad to get away 
 to the river side, and breathe the pure breath of heaven. 
 These are the men who feel the blessings of the river side, 
 and there is no wonder at it, after being " cabin'd, cribb'd, 
 confined " in unhealthy workshops in the heart of our large 
 towns. These men see the beauty of the country in their 
 brief sojourn by the water* side, where country-bred people 
 would fail to observe it. Probably they often wondered why 
 the poet priest wrote — 
 
 " Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood 
 Are clad in living green," 
 
 when there are such beautiful fields, and sweet scenes in this 
 vale of tears, without having to cross the mysterious border- 
 land to find them. What health and vigour again have they 
 not drawn into their lungs, and how invigorated do they not 
 feel ! and how much better can they not cope with the cares 
 of the world, when they go back to its duties after a day's 
 fishing ! These are the men, I say, who feel the benefits of 
 the water-side, and it is to these thousands of my fellow 
 working-men anglers to whom I am more particularly writing. 
 I am one of yourselves, only my lines have been cast in 
 pleasant places, and a splendid river flows as it were past my 
 door, so that I have had every facility for following my 
 favourite pastime, and I am willing to convey a little of this 
 knowledge to my less fortunate brethren ; in fact, it will be 
 their own faults if they do not know as much as I do after 
 following me carefully through these pages. 
 
 Most works upon angling, I have heard, are nothing but 
 
INTJiODUOTORY EEMAEKS. 8 
 
 learned discussions on the natural history of the fish (which are 
 all very well in their way), and when our tyro has read them 
 carefully, he does not know then the best way of taking the 
 various fish. Moreover, most works upon angling, as I have 
 before hinted in my preface, treat so fully of salmon, trout, 
 and grayling, that they don't do justice to the so-called 
 coarse fish. Salmon, trout, and grayling are utterly 
 beyond the reach of thousands of our humbler anglers. Let my 
 readers bear in mind that I shall avoid mention of either salmon, 
 trout, or grayling in these pages, but that the so-called coarse fish 
 will be dealt with in a most complete manner. Little things 
 connected with the natural history of the various fish will be 
 referred to, and they will, I think, instruct and interest the 
 tyro, so that he may be able to know the habits and haunts, and 
 also recognize the fish when he sees it. I would also have him 
 bear in mind that the instructions laid down here are the 
 results of careful experience, from which, perhaps, the better 
 class of anglers who only get an occasional day by the river 
 side may also derive profit. 
 
 We will look for a few minutes at Shefiield, as I believe it 
 will be interesting to many anglers at that town, which is 
 the very stronghold of bottom fishers, and it is necessary to 
 go back twenty years or so. A busy and clever community 
 of nearly 200,000 souls existed then, which had made its 
 home in a position of unrivalled healthiness and natural 
 beauty ; hill and valley gave Sheffield a variety of surface, 
 which lends its aid to sanitary arrangements, the rivers Don 
 and Sheaf meet here and mingle their waters, the town was 
 then not crowded, it spreads itself over twenty thousand acres 
 of ground, stretching ten miles in one direction and four miles 
 in the other. There was then actually an inhabited house 
 for every five inhabitants of the town. Add to this the fact 
 that Sheffield possessed even then a public supply of pure 
 water, unequalled in quality by any other town in England ; 
 
 B 2 
 
4 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 and any one would have said at that time, " Surely here is the 
 place where the working man may enjoy life, uncankered by 
 disease, and stretching out to its natural length," yet, what 
 was the state of affairs then ? There was a death-rate of 
 thirty-four in the thousand, ten or twelve per thousand more 
 than London with all its overcrowding, and double that of 
 the percentage of country districts throughout England ; two 
 or three thousand souls were killed annually in Sheffield by 
 imsanitary conditions, as certainly as though that number 
 had been gathered once a year in some horrid "black hole," 
 and suffocated in their own poisoning exhalations. One 
 could see the alleys from which reeking and undrained cess- 
 pools spread the pestilence which walks by night, and rests 
 not by day from its mysterious work of destruction. We 
 heard of young men growing prematurely old, with dirty 
 white and sallow faces, with " dropped wrists," with an ever 
 present feeling of illness, strange blue lines encircling their 
 teeth, shortness of breath, stooping and bent frames, and of 
 consumption and paralysis. We heard of children driven to 
 the " hulls " to learn to work before they had time to learn 
 to play ; we heard of death in certain trades when the workers 
 reached thirty or thirty-five, and in others though they lived 
 somewhat longer, they were robbed of twenty or twenty-five 
 years of natural life. All these things make such a picture 
 that we never forget it, and we have or seem to have a vivid 
 conception of the strange results of British freedom and civi- 
 lization, and we could seem to see then baby faces in the 
 agonies of premature death ; sixty-one poor innocents out of a 
 hundred under five years of age dying in one year in Sheffield 
 was a ghastly chorus to the song of that empire on which 
 the sun never sets. But now we find a great change has 
 come over Sheffield, though there is still room for improve- 
 ment. We cannot wonder that the men of Sheffield with 
 such a picture as I have described tlirust before their faces, 
 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 5 
 
 should try by every means in their power to better their con- 
 dition, physically speaking, and we cannot wonder that they 
 should take to fishing to counteract the evils I have just 
 spoken of. But great difficulties lay in the way of the 
 Sheffield anglers. There was no stream near that place in 
 which they could ply, or that fish could live in, and so they 
 had to go further afield, and a vast majority chose the Trent 
 and the Witham as their hunting-ground. In spite, how- 
 ever, of all the difficulties they had to contend with, perhaps 
 in no other town in England has angling and its attendant 
 associations made such rapid progress as in Sheffield, we hear 
 that there are over two hundred and twenty angling clubs 
 there, and that the anglers themselves have been estimated at 
 nearly ten thousand. This fact alone speaks volumes for the 
 popularity of angling ; the social and sanitary condition of 
 Sheffield have altered for the better since the time of the 
 gloomy picture I have drawn, and one of the brightest signs 
 pf the social elevation of the workers of Sheffield are these 
 numbers of angling clubs that have sprung up in all direc- 
 tions, in which they can tell one another of their various 
 exploits, and plan some fresh adventure. Now as I pointed 
 out further back the vast majority of these anglers are bottom 
 fishers, and some of them are considered to be the best roach 
 and dace fishermen in the country, and they spend a lot of 
 time in their avocation. But by far the greater number are 
 those who can only steal a day occasionally, and with these a 
 visit to the river side is like the visit of an angel, remarkably 
 infrequent. 
 
 Not only Sheffield boasts of this, but most other populous 
 towns share in the general advancement, from "John 
 o' Groat's " to Land's End, and from the coast of Lincolnshire 
 to the Isle of Man. 
 
 I am afraid I have made a terrible digression, but my 
 readers must forgive me, for I could not help alluding to the 
 
6 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM! STYLE. 
 
 social condition of Sheffield and its connexion with the 
 angling world. 
 
 The history of angling seems to go a long way back, and 
 to be nearly lost in the mists of antiquity, for we read of it 
 in the earlier sections of the Bible, and in the records of 
 ancient Egypt and Assyria, the seat of powerful empires 
 and a civilized people. The story of Antony and Cleopatra 
 is of course known to most anglers, wherein Cleopatra sent 
 her own diver down to hang a dried fish on Antony's hook, 
 which he pulled up to his utter confusion. Shakespeare, it 
 wall be remembered, immortalizes this incident in his play, 
 " Antony and Cleopatra." I have read also somewhere that 
 the Chinese practise this plan habitually. The rocks and stones 
 at the bottom of the sea on the Chinese coast, it appears, are 
 covered with small shell fish ; two men go out to fish — one 
 holds a line, attached 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 cracking 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 above pulls it up. 
 
 It seems to be difficult to determine when angling really 
 did not exist, for in the Book of Job we read, " Canst thou 
 draw out leviathan with a hook "? or his tongue with a cord 
 which thou lettest down ? Canst thou put an hook into his 
 nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn?" (By this 
 last word we should presume that hooks were then made of 
 hard wood, or at least some of them.) In the prophet 
 Habakkuk also we find fish being taken " with the angle, " 
 and in Isaiah of " those that cast the hook into the 
 river." 
 
 The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans certainly were 
 anglers, for passages from the writings of some of the most 
 ancient authors indicate the fact. Homer tells us 
 
INTEODUCTOEY EEMAEKS. / 
 
 " Of beetling rocks that overhang the flood, 
 Where silent anglers cast insidious food, 
 With fraudful care await the finny prize, 
 And sudden life it quivering to the skies." 
 
 It would thus appear that the tackle used in those days was 
 very strong, or it would not have stood this sudden strain 
 which the lines quoted above would give us to understand 
 occurred. 
 
 (It is of course a familiar sight to see youths just beginning 
 their fishing career, when they have hooked a small fish, 
 heave it out as though their very lives depended on sending 
 it flying into the next meadow.) 
 
 Oppian says also, — 
 
 ** A bite ! hurrah ! the length'ning line extends, 
 Above the tugging fish the arch'd reed bends, 
 He struggles hard, and noble sport will yield, 
 ( My liege, ere wearied out he quits the field." 
 
 And the ancients, too, were fly-fishers as well as bottom 
 fishers, as the following interesting passage from ^lian 
 shows : — 
 
 " The Macedonians who live on the banks of the Eiver 
 Astreus are in the habit of catching a particular fish in that 
 river by means of a fly called hippurus. A very singular 
 insect it is ; bold and troublesome like all its kind, in size a 
 hornet, marked like a wasp, and buzzing like a bee. These 
 flies are the prey of certain speckled fish, which no sooner 
 see them settling on the water than they glide gently beneath, 
 and before the hippurus is aware, snap at and carry him as 
 suddenly under the stream as an eagle will seize and bear 
 aloft a goose from a farm-yard, or a wolf take a sheep from 
 its fold. The predilection of these speckled fish for their 
 prey, though familiarly known to all who inhabit the dis- 
 trict, does not induce the angler to attempt their capture by 
 
8 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 impaling the living insect, which is of so delicate a nature 
 that the least handling would spoil its colour and appearance, 
 and render it unfit as a lure. But adepts in the sport have 
 contrived a taking device to circumvent them; for which 
 purpose they invest the body of the hook with purple wool, 
 and having adjusted two wings of a waxy colour, so as to 
 form an exact imitation of the hippurus, they drop these 
 abstruse cheats gently down the stream. The scaly pursuers, 
 who hastily rise and expect nothing less than a dainty bait, 
 snap the decoy, and are immediately fixed to the hook." 
 Indeed, hundreds of years before Antony and Cleopatra 
 amused themselves by angling, the craft was practised in 
 different countries, for representations of fish and fishing 
 have been found upon some of the oldest temples, and most 
 venerable remains. In savage and uncivilized countries also 
 instruments of angling are found very rude, but still effective 
 for the wants of those employing them, thus showing that 
 the various arts used in fishing must have had a primitive 
 and almost universal invention. Enough has been said about 
 ancient angling, and I will now therefore turn to a more 
 modern period. Angling can claim the distinction of being 
 one of the first subjects treated of in a printed book, for 
 within ten years of the first book printed in England by 
 Caxton there appeared the famous " Boke of St. Albans," 
 attributed to Dame Juliana Berners, or Baines, Prioress of 
 Sopwell, near St. Albans. It was published by Wynkyn de 
 Worde in a.d. 1486, and contained chapters on hunting, 
 hawking, horses, and coat -armour, and also one on fishing, 
 which was thus introduced,— " Here begynnyth the treatyse 
 of fysshynge wyth an Angle." This was the first contribution 
 to angling literature ; and I believe it was not until an in- 
 terval of a himdred years that any other work made its 
 appearance, which came then in the shape of Leonard 
 Mascall's " Booke of Fishing with Hooke and Line," about 
 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 9 
 
 the year 1590. A few more writers of more or less note 
 followed Mascall, until the year 1653, when the well-known 
 work of Izaak Walton was first published under the title of 
 " The Compleat Angler, or the Contemplative Man's Kecrea- 
 tion." During Walton's lifetime five editions of his book 
 were published. (A few years ago, at a public sale, these 
 five editions, the five copies being perfect and in good pre- 
 servation, realized 100/.) Since Walton's time his book has 
 run through a vast number of editions, and is still printed 
 at intervals, and I suppose will be ; for we must take it for 
 granted that the " Compleat Angler" is likely to remain a 
 standard and popular work among Englishmen as long as 
 will the works of Dickens or Scott. 
 
 And now, after the fifth edition of Walton had been pub- 
 lished, v^ry few works on angling made their appearance 
 until another hundred years had passed away ; although 
 Walton's book during that period progressed to the four- 
 teenth edition. After that time writers of angling literature 
 came thicker and faster, volume after volume coming in 
 quick succession, and continuing up to the present time ; and 
 I read that there are something like 600 difi'erent works on 
 angling in existence ; and the literature of angling is one of 
 the richest branches of literature in England at the present 
 time. As the writers have increased, each one adding his 
 quota to the common stock, so has the art progressed towards 
 perfection, until we almost wonder that there should be any 
 fish left in our rivers, lakes, and ponds. As, however, the 
 fishermen have become learned, nature or instinct has or- 
 dained that the fish should become learned too, and so rods, 
 reels, lines, gut, hooks, and baits have been robbed of part of 
 their destructiveness ; and our old friend and father Izaak, 
 could he revisit this earth, would perhaps find it very con- 
 siderably more difficult to fill his creel with fish (using the 
 same tackle now as he used while on his earthly pilgrimage), 
 
10 BOTTOM PISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 for the purpose of awarding its contents to "pleasure some 
 poor body." 
 
 It is not absolutely necessary that an angler should be a 
 naturalist, but still the more he knows of fish, and the more 
 he studies their natural history, the more pleasure he will 
 get out of his intercourse with the river side. He will find 
 himself amply rewarded for his trouble in acquiring this 
 knowledge, and his studies will show him that fish are among 
 the most interesting of all the classes of the animal world. 
 
 Fish belong to the great vertebrate division of the animal 
 kingdom, and comprise one of its classes. Some naturalists 
 divide the vertebrate division into six, while others divide it 
 into nine, or even more classes. Our business just now, 
 however, lies with one of these classes, viz. fish ; and this 
 has been divided and subdivided into numerous ojders and 
 sub- orders, families and sub-families. Various, too, have 
 been the principles on which fish have been divided and 
 subdivided, some dividing them according to their bones and 
 some according to their scales, viz. flat-scaled, polished-scaled, 
 tooth-scaled, and circular-scaled ; but it is only in the two 
 last that we are particularly interested just now, for to the 
 tooth-scaled class belong the pike, the perch, and the ruff ; 
 while to the circular-scaled belong the chub, the barbel, the 
 carp, the roach, the dace, &c., &c. It is also said that the 
 age of fish may be ascertained from their scales when exa- 
 mined under a powerful microscope. Many valuable cha- 
 racteristics of fish may also be ascertained from the formation 
 and disposition of their teeth, which are respectively situated 
 upon the jaws, the palate, the tongue, and in the throat, and 
 constructed for prehension, cutting, or crushing, thus indi- 
 cating the character of food mostly taken by the several 
 species. 
 
 Of the different fish that are treated of in this little book, 
 it will be sufficient to divide them into two orders, viz. 
 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 11 
 
 " spiny or prickly-finned," and " soft-finned " fish ; to the 
 former belong the perch and the ruff, and to the latter belong 
 the chub, the carp, the roach, &c., &c. Under these two 
 orders we must range the respective " families " of fish ; 
 there are many, but only three concern us here, namely, the 
 Percidse family, to which belong the perch and the ruff,; 
 the Esocidae family, to which belongs the pike ; and the 
 Cyprinidae, or carp family, to which belong the carp, the 
 barbel, the chub, the roach, the dace, the tench, the bream, 
 the gudgeon, the bleak, and the minnow. 
 
 The structure of fish and their animal organization present 
 endless subjects of interest ; though they live in the water, 
 yet air is as necessary for them as it is for mankind. Says 
 one writer, " Just as our warm red blood is purified and 
 restored to its vital and arterial qualities by air passing 
 through our lungs, so is the cold red blood of fish by passing 
 through their gills ; and as by the process of breathing we 
 extract the oxygen and so vitiate the air, in like manner do 
 fish, taking the water in at their mouths, extract from it the 
 air held in suspension, and pass it out under the gill-covers 
 in a vitiated state. A man submerged in water cannot ex- 
 tract air enough from it ; a fish submerged in distilled water, 
 which is water minus air, can get none at all, and the result 
 is the same in both cases ; and as most anglers know, or 
 should know, a fish drawn down stream is simply drowned, 
 because the water is thus prevented entering its mouth in 
 the usual way and escaping through the gill-covers." This 
 is the reason then, I should suppose, that fish making their 
 way down stream for any distance travel tail first. How 
 admirably, too, are fish formed — their elongate, smooth bodies 
 suiting them exactly to the element in which they live ; and 
 observe the fins, how well they are suited for their various 
 purposes. 
 
 I will just describe these fins, for an angler, or would-be 
 
12 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTCNGHAM STYLE. 
 
 angler, ought to know at least their names : there are the 
 two pectoral, or breast fins ; the dorsal, or back fins (some 
 fish have one and some two back fins) ; the ventral, or belly 
 fins ; the anal fin, situated between the belly fins and the 
 tail ; and the caudal fin, that is the tail itself. These fins 
 give the fish their different movements in the water ; the 
 caudal fin gives them their chief means of getting along ; 
 the dorsal and anal fins effect their lateral movements ; the 
 pectoral fins promote their elevation and depression, while 
 their suspension in the water is caused by the ventral fins. 
 Perhaps I ought also to say that the air bladder, which is 
 capable of compression or expansion according to the will of 
 the fish, is their chief means of raising or depressing them- 
 selves without any apparent use of the fins at all. 
 
 There are many questions connected- with the natural 
 history of fish, that would be very interesting to the observ- 
 ing working man angler ; I have often heard questions like 
 the following raised by some one in a party of anglers : Are 
 the fish very quick-sighted? Can they see objects at a great 
 distance ? Is their hearing very acute 1 Do they go to sleep 1 
 Can they feel pain when hooked ? &c., &c. On all these 
 questions interesting discussions might be raised, but it will 
 be sufficient for our purpose if we only just give them a 
 passing glance. First then as to their sight, some naturalists 
 say that the eye of a fish is very perfect, and of all the senses 
 they possess, that of sight is the most acute of them all, and 
 that a shadow, or a rod flash on the water is sufficient to 
 scare them ; while on the other hand, others aver that fish 
 are remarkably near-sighted, and cannot behold any object 
 distinctly, however large, unless within the range of a few 
 yards, so it will be seen that on this question there is a great 
 difference of opinion. I, personally, have a strong conviction 
 that fish must have a keen vision, for I know that chub will 
 take an artificial white moth, when night fishing, when it 
 
INTEODUCTOET EEMARKS. 13 
 
 has been so dark, that you could scarcely see the rod you held 
 in your hand, much less the fly on the water ; therefore I 
 advise anglers when fishing to keep as much out of sight as 
 possible. There seems to be a doubt on this subject, and so 
 we will give the fish the benefit of the doubt, and say that 
 their vision is comparatively perfect. There seems to be a 
 great difference of opinion also as to the sense of hearing in 
 fish : one says he has repeatedly tried the experiment of firing 
 a gun near fish, when only a few inches under water, without 
 any effect on them whatever, from which we should almost 
 fancy that fish could not hear at all ; in fact, another writer 
 says, "They have no sense of hearing whatsoever." On the 
 other hand, some naturalists say that fish have a most acute 
 sense of hearing. I have also read that fish in a pond may 
 be trained to come to a person when called by the sound of a 
 bell, or of the human voice ; here is a great difference of 
 opinion on an important question to anglers ; still I think 
 anglers when fishing, need not fear indulging in a little 
 friendly chat. What they want to particularly observe is 
 this : Don't stamp about on the bank close to the water 
 where you are fishing; that operation is fatal to a roach swim. 
 Can the fish hear the noise 1 or does it cause a vibration in 
 the water ? perhaps the latter, but one thing is certain, roach 
 will forsake a swim, if the angler indulges in an impromptu 
 Irish jig on the water's edge. Can fish sleep ? or do they go 
 to sleep 1 is perhaps more correct 1 I have had this question 
 asked me by various anglers ; my answer has been, " I don't 
 know for certain, but I should suppose they do ; sleep is 
 necessary to man and animals, and why not to fish? " No one, 
 as the song says, " ever caught a weasel asleep," and I think 
 nobody ever caught a fish asleep. I have been by the water 
 side all night during the summer, and I could hear fish rising 
 till nearly midnight, and then for a couple of hours or so, or 
 till nearly daybreak, they ceased ; and no fish except eels 
 
14 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 were to be taken during that time, so I should suppose that 
 was the time they enjoyed their nap. 
 
 Can a fish feel pain when hooked ? is another question 
 that has often been discussed by anglers and writers. Fish 
 certainly seem to feel no pain from hooks stuck in their 
 mouths, for I have caught the shy and cautious chub with a 
 hook and little bit of gut attached to their mouths that 
 looked as though some one had hooked and broken off only 
 a few hours before. We have often heard of jack being 
 hooked, played, and lost, and yet take a bait again on the 
 same day. Cold-blooded animals do not feel pain in the 
 same manner that warm-blooded ones do, and the lower the 
 animal organization the less sensibility to pain it has. I once 
 read two or three lines which ought to be set down as a com- 
 plete untruth : — 
 
 " The poor beetle which we tread upon, 
 In corporal sufferance feels a pang 
 As great as when a giant dies." 
 
 That is a tale that won't wash with me ; when a fish is 
 hooked, and is bolting about, and struggling for his liberty, 
 perhaps the only feeling he has at that time is a feeling 
 of indignation at having his liberty interfered with. What 
 the sensations of a fish are when he is jumping about on 
 the grass, after being drawn out of the water, 'we cannot tell ; 
 not very pleasant perhaps, and it would be as well for the 
 thoughtful angler just to give him a tap on the head directly 
 on landing him, and so, as the old saw goes, " put him out of 
 his misery." 
 
 Are fish gifted with the senses of taste and smell? is 
 another question which is often asked. We must presume 
 that they are, although some naturalists aver they cannot 
 smell at all, while others say, " they can smell their food at 
 a singular distance, and will track it for many yards." Eonalds 
 
INTEODUCTORY EEMAEKS. 15 
 
 speaks of trout that took dead-house flies when plastered over 
 with cayenne and mustard. This would tell us that their 
 senses of smell and taste were not very acute, but then on 
 the other hand, I know that fish can be attracted by scented 
 pastes, and chemically flavoured worms. Some fish also are 
 attracted long distances by salmon roe, prepared in a peculiar 
 manner. I am inclined to the opinion that fish can both 
 taste and smell ; for a chub will take a piece of high-smelling 
 cheese, when he will take nothing else, and the more it smells 
 the better he likes it. 
 
 Enough, however, has perhaps been said on the different 
 senses of fish, and now just a few more remarks, and I must 
 bring this introductory chapter to a close; it has already 
 drawn itself out to a much longer length than I had in- 
 tended, though I think I have mentioned nothing that 
 will not interest and perchance instruct the working man 
 angler. 
 
 We in England cannot boast of having such strange and 
 queer fish as are found in some countries, such as the " flour 
 fish " of China, or the strange variety of carps, or the " crying 
 fish," or the " tree-climbing perch " of that country, but it is 
 said we have a one-eyed fish in the Carnarvonshire lakes, 
 and a peculiar "blue roach" in a pond on the marshes of 
 Kent. 
 
 I have read, too, of the " booming" of the bearded drum- 
 fish, of the " noisy maigre," and of the " grunt fish " of the 
 Gulf of Mexico, which " can express discontent and pain, 
 and when touched with a knife, fairly shrieks, and when 
 dying makes moans and sobs disagreeably human." We have 
 nothing as I have said like these in England, although in 
 Wales they have a peculiar " croaking trout," which is found 
 in the Carraclwddy pools, and which when taken utters a sound 
 something like a " croak." 
 
 Some fish are very tenacious of life, such as pike, perch 
 
16 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 tench, &c., and will live a long time out of water ; indeed I 
 have had chub that have been six hours out of the water jump 
 from a shelf on to the pantry floor. There are fish in India 
 that will remain some days out of water, during which time 
 they travel overland in search of more suitable lodgings, when 
 their own rivers are " drying up." I have heard that eels in 
 our country will travel overland from one pond or river to 
 another, but though I have been by the river side at all 
 hours, I have not yet met an eel on his journey, nor seen 
 anybody who has. Eish, too, suffer a good deal from 
 parasites, both internally, and externally ; " thorn-headed 
 worms " are very common in the intestines of roach, and 
 tape-worms are found in most fresh- water fish. Specimens 
 of these tape-worms are sometimes found as long as the fish 
 from which they are taken, and barbel are very much troubled 
 with an external parasite. Fish, too, are able to live a long 
 time without food. I have read that a herring, no matter 
 where it is caught, has nothing in its stomach, and gold fish 
 in a globe will live for weeks without any food being given 
 them. Still, however, they do eat, and that most greedily at 
 times, as any one may soon see, who takes the trouble to open 
 some of the fish he catches. 
 
 The digestion of fish is very good and quick, and the 
 gastric juice of the jack is very powerful. Solid food is 
 reduced to a pulp soon after being taken, and I have read 
 that it has been proved by experiment that carp, chub, 
 bream, &c., can digest food given to them in metal tubes. 
 The strength of fish, too, is very gTeat, and writers agree in 
 saying that they are, for their size, the strongest of all verte- 
 brate animals, indeed one of them says that the screw of a 
 modern steamship is but a toy compared with the caudal fin 
 of a barbel, taking them size for size. 
 
 In closing this chapter I hope I have not wearied my 
 readers with the many details it contains, and I trust they 
 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 17 
 
 will study out the subject for themselves, for there is endless 
 amusement in the natural history of fish. I shall be amply 
 repaid if some of them take up the study, for I am sure their 
 pleasures would be all the greater and their angling excur- 
 sions all the brighter, for an extended knowledge of this 
 branch of the Great Creator's works. 
 
18 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 TRENT FISHING. 
 
 At the outset of this chapter, we will suppose that all 
 anglers, no matter where they hail from, are sportsmen tried 
 and true, from those who wave the long rod over the great 
 salmon streams of Scotland and Ireland, or capture the dashing 
 trout in mountain stream or Scotch loch, to the more humble 
 follower of old Izaak, who must needs be content to follow 
 his avocation by the side of the less pretentious stream or 
 canal, and who thinks himself well rewarded if he only 
 succeeds in capturing half a dozen roach and dace. I am 
 aware there are black sheep in every flock, and there are 
 some — well, shall I call them anglers ? — who are not particular 
 to snaring or snatching a jack, or netting a few barbel and 
 chub out of the weeds during scouring time ; but we will 
 say that ninety-nine out of a hundred are sportsmen in very 
 truth, each one of them having his own peculiar notion or 
 means of capturing his finny prey. A Thames angler thinks 
 his style is the style jpar excellence ; and some of them 
 would be apt to look on any other style with supreme con- 
 tempt ; but I have read that the introduction of the Trent, 
 or ^Nottingham style of angling on the Thames marked a 
 new era in the history of that river and its fishing. Before, 
 however, I proceed to describe the rods, reels, lines, and 
 tackle of a Nottingham bottom fisher, and the method of 
 using them, perhaps a slight digression, in the shape of a few 
 
TRENT FISHING. 19 
 
 words on a style that was practised in a remote country 
 district will be interesting, as bearing on my present object, 
 A remote village in the Fens of Lincolnshire, where the 
 country round was intersected with canals and a few drains 
 was the place of my nativity, and where the earlier portion 
 of my life was spent. These canals and drains abounded 
 with small roach and perch, with a fair sprinkling of large 
 ones, and some good jack. There were not above two or 
 three rod fishermen in the whole district, and it was from 
 one of these that I received my first lessons in angling. The 
 tackle used was of a very rude and primitive character. The 
 rod was a willow stick cut from the nearest tree ; line, a fev/ 
 yards of whipcord (the ropemaker's apprentice next door 
 spun my line from shoemaker's flax, with the same wheel 
 and bobbins with which he spun cart- ropes and clothes' 
 lines) ; but oh ! the strength and thickness ; it would do for 
 the cord of a drag hook. The float was made out of a piece 
 of wood, and was of a very rude and original shape, and 
 took nearly an ounce of window lead to balance it, which 
 latter article was wrapped round a foot of coarse gimp, from 
 the end of which was suspended a hook, on which was stuck 
 a worm just dug out of the ground. Scouring worms was 
 unknown there ; and as for jointed rods, reels, fine silk lines, 
 quill floats, gut, and horsehair, my wildest dreams never 
 imagined such things. Nevertheless we could and did catch 
 fish with the rude tackle mentioned above. I have often 
 wondered if I were to revisit those scenes for a few days 
 with my improved tackle and baits, what sort of a havoc I 
 could make among those uneducated fish. Perhaps, how- 
 ever, civilization in its onward march has crept down to that 
 remote district, and the natives have got wise in their gene- 
 ration, and Nottingham rods and tackle are as well known 
 to them as they are to me. 
 
 London anglers are proud, and justly so, of their grand 
 c 2 
 
20 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 old river, " Father Thames," and never fail to expatiate upon 
 its natural beauty whenever or wherever occasion offers itself. 
 It may have more capabilities than our Midland river, the 
 Trent, I will allow, but still the Trent is a splendid river, 
 and has a good supply of all fresh-water fish. As the Lon- 
 doners love the Thames, so do I love the Trent. Sitting in 
 my den here at home, thinking of our grand old river, what 
 a host of pleasant memories rise up before my mental vision. 
 In fancy I seem to see it winding through the pleasant 
 meadows, and each pool and gravelly shallow has some plea- 
 sant episode connected with it on which my mind loves to 
 dwell : and if perchance some old friend drops in to have a 
 chat on matters piscatorial, how eagerly we fight our battles 
 o'er again, how we recall that splendid day's sport among 
 the barbel, or that one we had with the chub, or bream, or 
 roach ; or how in fancy we again fight that big pike we had 
 gone after time after time, and which would not be seduced 
 by our most alluring bait tiU one lucky day, which will 
 always stand on our calendar as a red-letter day. Did we 
 not spin a tempting gudgeon that proved too seductive for 
 his lordship to resist, and after a struggle, the remembrance 
 of which even now makes our fingers tingle, bear him 
 home in triumph 1 " Once an angler, always an angler," I 
 believe to be a true saying, whether we are of Thames, 
 Trent, or any other river ; and the impressions we receive 
 from our fishing excursions are never effaced from our memo- 
 ries. "Whether we have good sport or not the chances are 
 that we shall go again at the first opportunity. Xo bottom 
 fisher perhaps has a better field for his sport than those who 
 live, as it were, on the banks of the Trent, for the great 
 majority of the fishing is bottom fishing, and the river 
 abounds with fish. 
 
 The Trent takes its rise from the north-west part of the 
 county of Staffordshire, about ten miles north of ISTewcastle- 
 
II. 
 
 Angler's left hand holding the rod close to reel, with finger on the edge, to 
 stop the bait. 
 
 Angler's right hand holding rod, for making cast from the reel in Nottingham 
 style ; rod point brought behind at an angle of 45°, and then brought 
 smartly over the water ; as soon as bait strikes the water, the finger is 
 pressed tightly to the edge of reel, and butt of rod pressed closely to the 
 body. Page 108. 
 
TRENT FISHING. ^ 21 
 
 under-Line. At first it makes a circular turn towards the 
 south-east, bending to the south, as far as within ten miles 
 of Tamworth, where it receives the Tame, flowing through 
 that town. Afterwards the Trent runs north-east, towards 
 Burton-upon-Trent, a little beyond which it is enlarged by 
 the waters of the Dove, which flow from a north-west direc- 
 tion. After this the Trent receives the Derwent, which 
 descends from the mountainous parts of Derbyshire, and the 
 whole of these waters collectively flow towards the north by 
 Nottingham and Newark to the Humber. The Trent has 
 an entire course of two hundred and fifty . miles, and is 
 navigable for one hundred and seventy miles from the 
 Humber, and, by means of canals, has a communication with 
 many of the most important rivers of the kingdom. This 
 long river flows through a country rich in natural beauty and 
 splendid scenes. None but a contemplative angler can tho- 
 roughly enjoy the beauties of its landscapes, and the river 
 itself, flowing along in its silent majesty, except where it 
 tumbles and boils over some weir, or dashes along over the 
 stones of the shallows, suggests to the mind of the angler 
 some of those delicious trains of thought which all who have 
 practised this glorious art experience. 
 
 How the Trent obtained its name has been a question 
 that has been discussed many times, and never, I think, 
 satisfactorily explained. The origin of the name seems to 
 me to be a long way back, and to be nearly, if not quite, 
 lost in the mists of antiquity. An old legend connects the 
 name Trent with " Trente," meaning thirty ; and perhaps 
 that solution of the question may be the correct one ; for we 
 are told that " thirty streams flow down the Trent ; " that 
 " thirty abbeys used to stand upon the banks," and that 
 *' thirty different fish are found in its waters;" and perhaps 
 with these thirties staring us in the face we may come to 
 the conclusion that it really does mean "thirty." I will not, 
 
22 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 however, commit myself on this subject, but leave it an 
 open question- 
 
 As this little book more particularly relates to the Not- 
 tingham style of fishing, it may be as well here to describe 
 the method and the various appliances required for its suc- 
 cessful practice. In the first place we will take the rod. 
 Now, a Nottingham bottom fisher's rod is an article on which 
 he very much prides himself. It has to be tapered, from 
 the butt to the point, to a nicety, and be as light as possible, 
 with a spring in it that will hook a roach by a single turn of 
 the wrist. No hea^'y clumsy rod is found in the hands of a 
 first-rate Nottingham fisher ; it has to be nicely balanced, or 
 else he discards it at once and selects another. My favourite 
 rod was made expressly for me, so if I explain its construction 
 you will see at once the sort of rod used by a Nottingham bottom 
 fisher. It is made in three joints ; the butt is of the best 
 red deal, the middle piece of the same wood and lancewood, 
 spliced together about one-third the distance from the top 
 ferrule, and the top piece is made entirely of lancewood. It 
 is a little over twelve feet in length, and it combines light- 
 ness, with strength and balance, to a remarkable degree. It 
 win hook roach in a moment by a single turn of the wrist, 
 and the most powerful barbel and chub have been brought to 
 bank by it, and even the lordly salmon has succumbed to its 
 spring. The reel fittings are placed nine inches from the butt 
 end, and there the rod is 1 J in. in diameter, the ferrule on the 
 top of the bottom piece is five-eighths of an inch in diameter 
 inside, and the one on the middle piece is five-sixteenths of an 
 inch inside. The rings on the rod are placed in the following 
 order : — The first ring is immediately under the ferrule on the 
 bottom piece ; and the others measuring from that ring are 
 at the following distances from each other: — 17 in., 17 in., 
 14| in., 10 in., 10 in., 9 in., 8 in., 6^ in., and 6 in. The ring 
 or loop at the extreme point of the rod is made of steel. If 
 
TRENT FISHING. 23 
 
 this were not so the line would cut it, to say nothing of the 
 Hne being chafed in turn through the ring being worn rough. 
 The rod I have just described weighs eighteen ounces. Not- 
 tingham rods are made in two, three, four, five, or six pieces, 
 according to fancy ; but I prefer a three-piece one. I can 
 most cordially recommend this rod as the bottom fisher's rod 
 par excellence; and as I am more particularly writing to 
 working-men anglers, to whom money is an object, the price 
 will just suit them : it is only 85. 6cZ., partition-bag and all, 
 and will be found just the kind for barbel, chub, bream, 
 roach, and dace, &c. For those anglers who fish for roach 
 and dace only, a rod a little lighter than the one just de- 
 scribed would do. I have recently had a sweet roach rod 
 made; it only weighs* ten ounces, and is beautifully finished 
 and balanced, and the price the same as the other. 
 
 I shall probably touch upon this question again in the 
 chapter on roach ; but one thing I will say to the young 
 angler, don't buy a common, cheap rod ; they are a delusion 
 and a snare, for you may be in the midst of a good day's 
 fishing, and the fish biting nicely, when suddenly, from some 
 cause or other, your cheap rod snaps under the ferrule or 
 elsewhere. You then have to sit down on the bank, and 
 spoil your pocket-knife in trying to extract the piece of 
 wood out of the ferrule, and find after an hour's work that 
 this is impossible, only thereafter to have to pack up and go 
 home in a not very amiable frame of mind at your fine bar- 
 gain of a rod The best plan in such a case would be to 
 throw the pieces in the river, and go to the tackle-maker, 
 and buy a good one. These are the cheapest in the end ; 
 tell him what you want, pay a fair price, and leave the 
 matter in his hands, and ten to one you will be suited 
 nicely. 
 
 Nottingham reels are usually made of wood, and are in 
 two pieces ; the barrel of the reel upon which the Hne is 
 
24 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STILE. 
 
 wound turning on a spindle, fixed in the centre of the por- 
 tion which forms the immovable part of the reel ; and this 
 is contrived so that the barrel shall spin round with the 
 utmost freedom at the slightest touch. These reels are made 
 in all sizes, and nearly at all prices. I should prefer a good 
 stout reel made of hard wood, with what is called a solid 
 cross-back to it. One that is about four inches in diameter 
 will be found the very best for general work, as you can pay 
 out line with it more rapidly when fishing a swift stream, 
 where a small one would be apt to check the float and bait. 
 The two parts of the reel are joined together by a small 
 brass nut on the front, which can be easily unscrewed for 
 the purpose of oiling the spindle. The nut and screw have 
 been improved by the introduction of what is called the 
 " centre pin " reel, which merely requires the touching of a 
 spring to part the two pieces of the reel. These centre pin 
 reels are as true as a hair, and run very smoothly and quickly 
 at the lightest touch ; they are dearer than the ordinary reel. 
 The Nottingham reels I have described are admirably adapted 
 for throwing out a long line with only a very light float and 
 tackle. 
 
 In the fashion pursued by the Thames fishermen, the line 
 is dra^vn off the reel, and laid loosely in coils at his feet, 
 unless he happens to be skilful enough to gather it up in the 
 palm of the left hand as some do. Suppose the angler to be 
 fishing from a reed bed, or an osier holt, and his line to be 
 coiled at his feet, it would be constantly catching in twigs, 
 or pieces of rubbish, and a tangle at the rings of the rod 
 would be inevitable at every cast. If we add to this the 
 fact that the I^ottingham style requires the very finest and 
 lightest of silk running lines, made of what is called Derby 
 twist, and scarcely thicker than cotton, it is manifest that if 
 it were laid in coils or gathered in the palm of the hand, it 
 would tangle up into inextricable knots. Hence my reader 
 
TEENT FISHING. 25 
 
 will see it is necessary that the line should be able to run off 
 the reel with the greatest freedom, and that there should be 
 a minimum of friction. Indeed, it not unfrequently happens 
 when throwing out a long line, or a heavy tackle, that the 
 reel runs with too great a freedom. It spins round quicker 
 than the line can run through the rings, and if this happens, 
 a sad tangle will be the result. This difficulty can easily be 
 obviated by a slight pressure on the edge of the reel, with 
 the forefinger of the hand that grasps the rod close to the 
 reel. A little practice will soon make one master of this 
 operation. It is said that the whole system is more difficult 
 than the one in ordinary use on the Thames ; but then it is 
 very much neater, and more deadly when once acquired. 
 
 The line that I should recommend for general bottom 
 fishing would be one of medium strength and thickness ; the 
 very fine roach and dace lines would be scarcely strong 
 enough for barbel, chub, or bream. The next gauge would 
 be the best. I like one of "Walter Well's (of Nottingham) 
 chub lines ; they are fine but strong, and are capable of 
 killing barbel, chub, or bream, while they are not too coarse 
 for roach and dace, and are very reasonable in price. I only 
 gave Is. 3d. for mine, and it is eighty yards long. Be careful 
 when purchasing these lines to examine them closely ; for, 
 remember, there are lines and lines ; buy those that feel 
 nice and soft to the fingers, and are not too tightly twisted. 
 Don't have those that feel sharply rough to the fingers and 
 are twisted very tight, for they rot with the action of the 
 water a deal sooner than the others; and remember also 
 when you come home from fishing, and your line is very wet, 
 to dry it carefully and gradually in front of the fire. A piece 
 of cardboard, about a foot square, is the best for this. Un- 
 wind as much line from the reel as is wet, and wrap it 
 around the cardboard, and set it upright on something, about 
 a yard from the fire, and turn it about until it is dry on both 
 
26 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 sides. Don't, in short, put a line away wet, for that rots 
 them sooner than anything else. 
 
 And now having glanced at the rod, reel, and line of a 
 Nottingham bottom fisher, we will just look at his floats. 
 These are for the most part composed of good sound goose, 
 j)elican, and swan quills, with a cork float or two of different 
 sizes for fishing in a heavy stream for barbel. A ring is 
 whipped to the bottom of either sort for the line to pass 
 through, and a cap made of quill is put on the top, which 
 said cap must fit tight to the float, to hold the line firmly at 
 the right depth where you first place it. If the cap were 
 loose, the float would slip up and down the line, and as the 
 float is fixed to the line, in order that the bait should be at 
 the exact depth required, the float slipping up or down the 
 line would counteract that arrangement. Some anglers do 
 not use a cap to their floats, but simply fasten the line to it 
 by two half-hitches. This is a very good plan, but I like a 
 cap better. These floats are in all sizes, from the smallest 
 goose quill that will only carry five or six small split shots, 
 to the pelican or swan quill, which will carry a dozen large 
 ones, or the big cork float to carry even more ; but the angler 
 must regulate the size of his float according to the strength 
 of the stream, the depth he has to fish, or the distance he 
 has to throw. 
 
 The angler has now got his rod, reel, line, and float, and 
 so we will now look at another very important article, 
 namely, the bottom tackle, and this he can either make him- 
 self or buy ready made. If the former, when he buys the 
 gut he should see that it is round and smooth drawn, and 
 perfectly level from end to end ; the gut that is flat in places 
 and unequal is useless for a good tackle. He should have 
 his gut in various degrees of strength ; the finest for roach 
 and dace tackle, and some a bit stronger for chub, barbel, or 
 bream. I advise him not to buy coarse, common stuff. I 
 
TRENT FISHING. 27 
 
 should recommend him to buy the finest he can find, for he 
 will be surprised at the strength there is in fine, smooth, 
 round drawn gut. When he proceeds to make his tackle, he 
 draws from his hank of gut as many lengths as he requires, 
 and cuts off the waste or fag ends : steep it next in lukewarm 
 water, or it will be too brittle and will not tie ; half an hour 
 or so will be quite sufficient to steep it. If the gut presents 
 a bright and glossy appearance, it will be necessary to stain 
 it slightly, and for this purpose common writing ink mixed 
 with a little water and warmed will be one good thing, — a 
 little in a teacup will do. The gut should be moistened in 
 lukewarm water, and then put in the mixture for a few 
 minutes ; when you take it out, dip it in clean water a time 
 or two, and it is then ready for use : this will give it a bluish 
 tinge. Strong coffee lees, in which a bit of alum has been 
 dissolved, will give it a sort of brown or peat colour ; these 
 will be found to answer every purpose. Having steeped the 
 gut, and got it to the required pliability, the tyro next pro- 
 ceeds to tie it into lengths to suit his requirements, and there 
 are various ways of tying a knot, so that it should be firm 
 and strong, without any danger of the joints slipping asunder. 
 The best knot that I know of is called the "fisher's" knot ; 
 it is very easily made. At the end of the gut you, as it 
 were, tie a single knot without drawing it tight ; you then 
 take another length of gut, and put one end through the 
 small loop thus made on the other piece, and then the 
 straight piece that you have just put through you put round 
 the other, and tie a single knot the same as before, both 
 knots can then be drawn tight, and pulled together. The 
 short ends should then be clipped off, all except about the 
 eight of an inch or so. This is a capital knot, and will be 
 found to be all that is required in tackle-making, it cannot 
 pull asunder, it wiU break sooner than come undone. 
 
 When you make your tackle be sure and have the stoutest 
 
28 BOTTOM PISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 lengths of gut for the top, and the finest for the bottom 
 length whereto the hook is whipped. Tie then a loop on the 
 topmost piece of gut for the line to be fastened to, and now 
 you want a hook. I think the best are the straight round 
 bend bright Carlisle hooks. You will require an assortment, 
 in sizes from four to twelve, to suit the various fish and tackle. 
 These hooks must be whipped to the gut with slightly waxed 
 silk. Some anglers use shoemaker's wax for this purpose, 
 but I don't like it, for no matter what colour your silk is, the 
 shoemaker's wax turns it nearly black, and when your hook 
 is whipped on, it looks as though it were put on with dark 
 silk, and a dark whipping does not look well with a white 
 bait. 
 
 Now, the drapers sell small spools of fine silk in different 
 colours, at one penny a spool. I should recommend the 
 angler to buy four of these diff'erent coloured silks, white, 
 pink, yellow, and green ; the white for paste, pith, &c., the 
 pink for woims, the yellow for maggots or gentles, &c., and 
 the gTcen in case you should meet with some fish that are 
 vegetarians ; but more of this anon as I proceed with the 
 diff'erent sorts of fish. For these different coloured silks you 
 will, of course, require some colourless wax, and a very 
 useful, hard, and tenacious wax may be made for a trifle 
 in this wise : — Take two ounces of the best resin and one 
 quarter of an ounce of beeswax, simmer them together in a 
 small pipkin for ten minutes ; then add one quarter of an 
 ounce of tallow, and simmer again for a quarter of an hour ; 
 then pour the mass out into a vessel of water, and work it 
 up with the fingers until perfectly pliable. The ball should 
 then be put for several hours in a bucket of cold water ; and 
 when you take it out put it in a tin, and keep it in a cool 
 place out of the air or sun ; it will last an angler two or three 
 years. When he goes fishing he will require to take a small 
 piece with him, and a little flat tin-tack box will be just the 
 
TEENT FISHING. 29 
 
 thing to put it in. It will take up very little room in his 
 tackle pocket. The small spools of silk could also be kept in 
 that pocket, and also his loose hooks and hanks of gut, for 
 such things are all the better for being kept out of the damp, 
 the sun, or the air ; and as for the wax I should not take 
 much of that out at once. A bit a little larger than a hazel 
 nut, in the small box just mentioned, would be amply suffi- 
 cient ; keep the larger lump at home in a dry cool place, 
 out of the air. I have just mentioned the tackle pocket, 
 and this is an important article in an angler's outfit. These 
 are made in various designs, and may be bought at any 
 tackle shop ; I, however, prefer a home-made one, about nine 
 inches long and six wide is a very useful size, the cover of 
 brown leather, and opening like a book. It should have in 
 it numerous pockets, for the purpose of keeping everything 
 separate and snug ; I don't like to see gut, loose hooks, wax, 
 silk, thread, needles, floats, &c., &c., all mixed up in con- 
 fusion in one pocket. " A place for everything, and every- 
 thing in its place," ought to be an angler's motto. This 
 book ought to contain a long leaf of thin leather, or water- 
 proof cloth, with a couple of strips of parchment stitched 
 lengthways down it, for the purpose of holding a dozen 
 floats, a pair of scissors, a disgorger, &c. (which latter useful 
 little article I might say can be made out of a little bit of 
 thin wood or bone, about four or five inches long, and about 
 a quarter of an inch thick, with a small forked slit cut in 
 the end ; it is used for extricating the hook from the throat 
 of a fish, the fork being put in the bend of the hook and 
 pushed down, and then both hook and disgorger drawn up 
 together). This latter article saves the disagreeable process 
 of opening the fish when the hook is rather further down 
 than it should be. The tackle pouch should also contain a spe- 
 cial pocket to hold a frame to wind your bottom tackles upon ; 
 this frame should be made of thin hard wood. There should 
 
30 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 be three pieces of flat wood, about half an inch broad, fas- 
 tened about an inch and a half from each other by thin 
 round pieces ; this, when finished, should be about five 
 inches long and three wide. It is a very useful article for 
 keeping the tackle straight ; hang the hook upon one of the 
 thin cross-pieces, and wind the tackle round the entire con- 
 cern. When the whole of that tackle is wound on, hang 
 another hook in the loop of the first, and go on again until 
 the whole of your tackle is wound on. By this means you 
 can keep the different sorts of tackle separate ; roach, chub, 
 or barbel having a separate coil to themselves. This plan is 
 a deal better than coiling them up separate and stowing them 
 in envelopes. The long leaf of the book, with the floats, &c., 
 on, can be folded up inside the covers, and then closed and 
 fastened with either a tongue and loop, or a buckle and 
 strap. The angler will also require a cocoa-nut shell and a 
 pair of scissors for the purpose of clipping up worms for 
 ground bait, a drag-hook and cord, and a clearing-ring will 
 also be very useful articles ; this latter is used in clearing 
 the tackle and hook from weeds, roots, sticks, or any encum- 
 brances occasionally found in the bed of the river. It is 
 made of iron, and need not weigh more than an ounce or so ; 
 there is an eye at the top end for the cord to be knotted to, 
 and it is bent in a circular shape until it nearly touches the 
 other side, leaving only a small nick for the line to pass 
 through ; it need not be above two inches and a half inside. 
 "With the cord this is guided down the line, over the float, 
 and down to the obstruction, when by pulling the cord the 
 hook and tackle may be saved. A landing-net is also re- 
 quired in the outfit of a Nottingham angler, and the frame 
 of this should be made of jointed brass, so that it can be 
 folded up and the net itself wrapped around it, that it may 
 lie snugly in the basket when not in use. It should be 
 made to screw into a brass socket, which latter is fitted on 
 
TRENT FISHING. 31 
 
 the end of a staff, or handle, about four feet long. The 
 angler can please himself as to whether he has a wicker 
 basket or a mat one, or whether he has a waterproof haver- 
 sack ; all three sorts are found in the outfit of a Nottingham 
 angler ; he also has bags for his worms, tin boxes for his 
 gentles, bags for his fish, &c., and a pair of flat-nosed pliers 
 will also be found a useful article. 
 
 And now having described a Nottingham bottom fisher's 
 outfit, it is time to hark back to where the angler has made 
 his gut " tackle," and got it ready for the hook. Supposing 
 this to be done, he now takes a piece of the coloured silk, 
 and waxes it slightly, and, taking his hook in one hand, he 
 winds the waxed silk two or three times round the shank ; 
 he then draws the end of the gut through his teeth to flatten 
 it slightly, and lays it on the shank, and binds it tightly and 
 closely as far up the shank as he requires. This operation 
 should be done as neatly and as closely as possible, or you 
 may have a difficulty in threading on a fine worm or gentle, 
 to say nothing of the curious spectacle you would present to 
 the fish. The split shots are now put on the tackle, the 
 bottom one not less than a foot or so from the hook ; the 
 others are placed on up the tackle, at distances of five or six 
 inches from each other, till you get as many on as you 
 require. This plan is a deal neater than that sometimes 
 practised on the Thames, where all the shots are crowded 
 together in one place, about six inches from the hook. "With 
 a fine line, quill float, and thin tackle weighted with some 
 half dozen split shots, the Trent or Is ottingham anglers fish 
 for roach, dace, chub, bream, and sometimes for barbel, 
 although we have a set of heavier apparatus, called " light 
 corking tackle," for fishing in a heavier stream. 
 
 I think I have made it pretty clear to the tyro, or the 
 would-be angler in the Nottingham style, the kind of the 
 various appliances required for its practice. A very formid 
 
32 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 able list of articles is sometimes given as being necessary for 
 an angler's outfit, which would suggest the necessity of having 
 a room to itself, in which to store and label the several items, 
 but they, or at least very many of them, are not required. 
 I have given what will be sufficient for every purpose of the 
 bottom fisher. 
 
 Angling, we are told, is becoming more and more a science 
 every day ; fiSh are becoming more scarce, and more difficult 
 to catch, while the sport is becoming more and more popular ; 
 new lines, new hooks, new baits, and tackle are being so con- 
 stantly invented, that they puzzle the most practised angler to 
 become acquainted with them, much more the fish, cunning as 
 they are ; but the fisherman may have one consolation amid 
 all these new inventions, the old skill and the old appliances 
 have not yet lost their charm, but will secure a basket of fish 
 when some of the modern inventions are completely at fault. 
 I have seen good sport obtained with a willow rod, a yard or 
 two of string for a line, and a bit of stick for a float, when 
 the most expensive outfit was useless for the purposes of 
 sport ; attention to minute details are of more value than an 
 expensive outfit. Skill is of a deal more importance than 
 costly tools, and even theory itself is not of much value with- 
 out experience. 
 
 Having now given the outfit of a Nottingham bottom- 
 fisher, it wiU be as well to give some idea as to the method of 
 using it. Now the tyro must bear in mind that the motto of 
 a Nottingham angler is " fine and far off," the chief object 
 being not to let the fish see or hear him if he can help it. If 
 he has not already selected a swim, he walks along the banl^ 
 until he sees a spot that looks likely to yield sport, where the 
 stream is steady and not too strong and which looks about 
 the right depth. The first thing he does is to ascertain how 
 deep it reaUy is. Now, a London angler would drop in a 
 lump of lead, and work it up and down all over the swim, 
 
TRENT FISBING. ^ 33 
 
 and scare the fish to begin with. A I^ottingham fisherman, 
 however, adjusts his float at what he thinks to be about the 
 right depth, and casts his tackle out to the exact distance 
 from the bank at which he intends to fish, and allows his 
 float to travel down the stream. If it floats in an upright 
 position without either dragging or bobbing, he is not deep 
 enough, and so he loosens the cap on the float and increases 
 the length below it. If now the float bobs under, the shots 
 are on the ground, and the line must be shortened under the 
 float. After he has had a swim or two, he can by this means 
 hit the proper distance between hook and float, which allows 
 • the bait to trip along the bottom without any of the 
 shots coming in contact with it. Should the bait during its 
 passage down the swim at any time hang, the raising of the 
 rod point will loosen it. 
 
 Now, having found the exact depth and had a swim or two 
 down the entire length he intends to fish (for a Nottingham 
 angler's swim is very often twenty or twenty-five yards in 
 length), our fisherman throws in his ground bait so that it is 
 distributed over the swim. Considerable judgment is re- 
 quired for this, according to the strength or set of the stream, 
 for it is necessary to fish over your ground bait, and you must 
 calculate carefully whereabouts your ground bait is likely to 
 fall. If it is thrown up the stream too high it will ground 
 too soon, or if too low, it grounds out of your reach below 
 the swim. There is a good deal in this, and many a bad day's 
 sport has been ascribed to any other cause but the right one 
 in consequence of a miscalculation on this important point. 
 We will now suppose the swim the angler has selected is from 
 twenty to thirty feet from the bank, and he is fishing with 
 very light tackle, too light to be cast from the reel (for the 
 reel would not revolve sufficiently for casting with such a 
 light weight), and that he cannot coil it on the grass at his 
 feet, nor allow any to hang loose from the reel ; the fine line 
 
 D 
 
34 BOTTOM FISHING M THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 he is using would twist and tangle up. He cannot reach the 
 swim with the rod, and what line there is is hanging from the 
 point. What is to be done 1 A Nottingham angler holds 
 the rod in his right hand, and with his left takes hold of the 
 line as high up the rod between the rings as he can reach, 
 and draws down as much line as he requires. He then has 
 some four or five yards of line in his left hand, and with 
 what is hanging from the point of the rod, he can then throw 
 the distance he requires, which he does by bringing the rod 
 away from the river at about an angle of 45°. He then sends 
 the point of the rod smartly over the river, at the same time 
 time letting go of the line he held in his left hand, the line 
 wiU now go fair and neatly to its destination without tangle 
 or catch. Some Nottingham anglers, when they want to cast 
 extra long distances, draw down two lengths of line from the 
 rod, the rings of course parting them, and throw in the same 
 way as before. By these means, after a little practice, one 
 can throw to nearly any distance he likes. 
 
 Now that the float is cast to its destination, the angler 
 changes his rod to the left hand, and with the finger and 
 thumb of his right he takes hold of the line close to the reel, 
 and pays it off gently and continuously so that it shall run 
 freely through the rings and never check the swim of the 
 float. By this means the line between the float and the rod 
 point is tight (but not too much so, or the float would lay 
 nearly flat on the water), and enables him to strike the very 
 moment he perceives a bite. Failing in getting a bite, he 
 allows the float to travel down stream until he has completely 
 covered the space where he supposes the ground bait to be, 
 when he winds up the line and repeats the cast. Sometimes 
 the hole to be fished is from twelve to twenty, or even more, 
 feet in depth ; and when this is the case, it is difficult to fish 
 it with the ordinary floats, and for this purpose a float called 
 a "traveller," " slider," or '-running float " is used. As may 
 
TRENT FISHING. 35 
 
 be supposed from its name, this float slides or runs up and 
 down the line, and can be easily made from one of the 
 ordinary swan quill or cork floats. A small upright rod ring 
 is whipped about half an inch or so from the top, and a very 
 small ring about an inch from the bottom. This ring can be 
 made out of a piece of very thin copper or brass wire, as 
 follows : — Wind the wire two or three times round a small 
 knitting or stocking needle, and then draw it off ; cut off 
 each end to within three-eights of an inch, which must be 
 left for the purpose of whipping it to the quill ; this small 
 ring will just allow for the passage of the line. Thread the 
 line through the rings on the float, and when you have got 
 the exact depth, knot a little bit of line or wood or straw in 
 the line above the float. When the float is out of the water it 
 drops down to the loop of the tackle, and when it is thrown in 
 the water, the shots or sinkers carry the line through the 
 float rings until it is stopped by the little bit of wood, &c., 
 mentioned above. If the Nottingham bottom fisher uses a 
 cork float and a heavier tackle, he mostly throws his bait 
 from the reel, that is in a manner somewhat similar to that 
 of jack spinning. He winds up the line until the float 
 nearly touches the top ring of his rod, and then gives it the 
 desired swing over the river. I have seen baits cast by this 
 means thirty, or even more, yards. This plan is chiefly used 
 in barbel fishing, and the swim is a good distance from the 
 bank, and I shall touch upon it, as well as on ledgering and 
 plumbing in the chapter on Barbel. I ought to just men- 
 tion that when the slider float is used, the little piece of 
 line that is knotted in the line should be so contrived 
 that it will run with freedom through the rings of the 
 rod, so that when winding up or playing a fish, it does not 
 catch. The different baits used in bottom fishing, when and 
 how to use them, wiU be fully explained in the chapters on 
 the different fish. 
 
 r. 9 
 
36 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 I have now, I believe, described the outfit and the general 
 modus operandi of the Nottingham bottom fisher. He is 
 not beholden to punts and puntsmen for his sport ; he can 
 wander along the banks, select his swims, and fish them in 
 the deadly and scientific style I have been attempting to 
 portray. He pursues his avocation amid scenes of natural 
 beauty ; he follows the windings of the river, and becomes 
 acquainted with its course. He knows the solitude of its 
 silent depths and the brilliancy of its shallows ; he is con- 
 fined to no seasons ; he salutes Nature with the budding 
 spring, the rustling leaves make music in his ear before the 
 mist has rolled from the water, or the dew been kissed from 
 the grass by the rays of the sun. He throws his line when 
 ruddy autumn, with its wealth of fruit, hangs heavy on the 
 bough, or the corn-fields wave in golden abundance on the 
 slopes of the uplands, the storm and the tempest scarcely 
 checks him, and he can pursue his sport when winter's winds 
 blow cold over the meadows, and the trees glitter like dia- 
 monds, with a wealth of hoar frost. If he is an ardent 
 sportsman, he cares not for the rude blasts of winter, for 
 now is the time for pike and chub ; he can tramp over the 
 snow to his sport with as much zest as though the meadows 
 were clad in the gayest garb, and when the big pike seizes 
 the glittering spinning bait, and when the thin, tapering 
 wand is bending double from his powerful rushes, the angler 
 forgets that the day is cold, and that there is snow under his 
 feet. Let none say this sport is ignoble. " Ignoble," in- 
 deed. Let him answer who has felt the powerful rush of a 
 ten-pound barbel on the fine tackle of a Nottingham bottom 
 fisher. What hopes and fears he has had, what a time of 
 pleasurable enjoyment until, wearied out, the grand fish lies 
 in the landing-net. Such, then, is the tackle and sport of a 
 Nottingham bottom fisher. I wish to initiate the tyro into 
 
TRENT FISHING. 37 
 
 this beautiful art ; and although, it is impossible to teach it 
 thoroughly in a book, yet much may be learned this way ; 
 and as I am more particularly writing to working-men 
 anglers, I have used the plainest possible language, so that 
 the veriest tyro shaU have no difficulty in understanding 
 what I say. 
 
38 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE CHUB. 
 
 Before the would-be angler in the Nottingham style pro- 
 ceeds to read the following chapters on the different fish, he 
 would do well to carefully study the preceding one. Minute 
 details, as I have before remarked, are very important, and 
 should be regarded with strict attention. No one can expect 
 to be a very successful angler unless these small matters are 
 observed, and there is nothing recommended but what I have 
 proved by experience. 
 
 I approach the subject of the chub with feelings of very 
 great respect, if not of actual veneration, for the chub with 
 the white spot on his tail was the first fish that our "father" 
 Izaak introduced to us. I remember how after I had, meta- 
 phorically speaking, swallowed that chub, how eagerly I 
 swallowed the rest of his grand old book ; and then, like 
 Alexander, who mourned because he had no more worlds 
 to conquer, I mourned because there was no more to 
 swallow ! 
 
 Although the chub does not enjoy a very good reputation 
 from a culinary point of view, yet he is a tolerably hand- 
 some-looking fish, and when he is in good condition and 
 hooked, he will fight hard for his liberty. When we con- 
 sider that it is absolutely necessary to fish for him with fine 
 tackle, he is just the fellow to try an angler's patience and 
 the strength of his tackle, especially if the fish happens to be 
 
TQE CHUB. 39 
 
 a good-sized one. The chub is found in most of the rivers 
 of England, and likes deep, quiet holes, under overhanging 
 banks, or willow bushes, the foundations of old walls, re- 
 tired nooks, or where old piles and posts stick up out of the 
 water, providing the water is tolerably deep, though he is 
 not confined exclusively to such places as those. He will be 
 found in strong rushing streams, and contending with the 
 most rapid waters ; and during very hot weather they may 
 be seen basking on the surface of the water, over some deep 
 hole, sometimes in considerable numbers. The moment they 
 become sensible that some one is looking at them, down they 
 sink to the bottom in an instant, being perhaps, with scarcely 
 any exception, the shyest of all fish. They spawn about the 
 first or second week in May, and deposit their eggs on the 
 gravel in very shallow water, and the operation is supposed 
 to occupy them about ten days. The chub is a gross feeder, 
 and will take kindly to almost anything in the shape of a 
 bait, if it is only delicately offered him. He will swallow 
 worms by the hundred, devour any amount of scratchings, 
 gobble up all your ground bait, and still wish for more, even 
 if that same bait happens to be rotten cheese ; and I have 
 read that the French fish for them with a i?ipe cherry. He 
 will take almost anything, from a fly to a small frog, or from 
 a grain of creed wheat to a bunch of lob-worms ; and I have 
 known him even to dash at a spoon bait when pike fishing ; 
 but whether this is done in sheer greediness or not I cannot 
 say. His bill of fare is a very lengthy one ; nothing seems 
 to come amiss if he is only in a biting humour. He will 
 take the artificial fly or natural insect on the surface ; a 
 bunch of lob- worms from the bottom, or gentles and grubs 
 from midwater ; while the black slug, a small frog, cheese, 
 pith, paste, or scratchings, all come to swell the list of at- 
 tractions for our leather-mouthed friend the chub. At 
 nearly all seasons he will bite ; hot weather or cold makes no 
 
40 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 difference to him ; he can be taken by anglers knowing his 
 habits and haunts in the winter months as well as in the 
 summer, spring, or autumn ; only he seems to me to be a bit 
 of an epicure, for the bait that he will take one month he 
 utterly ignores during the next. I don't mean this in regard 
 to all baits, but in some particular instances. For example, 
 he will revel in the luxury of a nice bunch of gentles, 
 and then perhaps one may go a few days after, and the 
 fish will have none of them, but just drop a wasp grub 
 over Master Chub's nose, and your float will disappear with a 
 rush. 
 
 In England the chub seldom exceeds the weight of six 
 pounds, though odd ones of seven or eight pounds' weight 
 may exist. I question, however, if there are a score of fish 
 of the latter weights in the whole of the five hundred miles 
 of the Trent and the Thames. Indeed, if an angler is for- 
 tunate enough to capture a chub of six pounds, supposing he 
 can afford it, I should say by all means have it preserved. 
 It will be an ornament to his room ; and every time he sees 
 it, it will bring back to his recollection the glorious bit of 
 sport he had with it before it was grassed. The largest chub 
 that I have as yet taken out of the Trent weighed five and 
 three-quarter pounds — a splendid fish, short, thick, and well 
 fed, who fought hard for his liberty. I was fishing the 
 locust in a smart stream, when he took with no more break 
 than a four-ounce dace. The largest that I ever saw is one 
 that was taken by Mr. Cubley, Crown Street, Newark, out 
 of the Muskham waters of the Trent. This gentleman is a 
 first-class angler, and the chub just mentioned is now in a 
 glass case, as a trophy of his angling skill, and measures 
 twenty-five inches in length, sixteen inches in girth, and 
 weighs a little over six pounds; a splendid fish in the 
 opinion of all anglers who have seen it. I have had also 
 authentic information about the capture of a chub, that I 
 
THE CHUB. 41 
 
 should suppose to be the largest ever taken out of the Trent 
 with rod and line. A few years ago a Newark angler, named 
 Frank Sims, was fishing below Newark, at what is called the 
 foot of the lawn at Winthorp, when he was lucky enough 
 to hook and safely land a monster that weighed eight 
 pounds. I believe this grand fish suffered the indignity of 
 being either baked, boiled, or stewed, when it ought to 
 have been made beautiful for ever, and not only it, but 
 Frank himself ought to be in a glass case. I should very 
 much like to handle such an one myself. 
 
 I remember once fishing for roach with creed wheat, in a 
 good swim on the Trent ; a youth, a very devoted angler, 
 was with me. We had been having fair sport, when suddenly 
 the fish went off the feed. I was just beginning to puzzle 
 my brains as to the why and the wherefore, when the lad 
 suddenly had a bite. I saw by the bend of the rod that it 
 was something unusual, but the fish only gave a lazy roll or 
 two, when it was brought to the bank without much re- 
 sistance. As I slipped the landing net under it I saw that 
 it was a chub, but such a chub ! It was the longest, leanest, 
 and most hungry-looking wretch that I ever dropped across, 
 with a head and mouth that would not have disgraced a 
 twelve-pound cod-fish. It was twenty-eight inches in length, 
 and only weighed three and three-quarter pounds, though 
 had it been in good condition, it ought to have weighed 
 seven at the very least. Still, if an angler takes one of four, 
 or four and a half pounds, he may congratulate himself that 
 he has got hold of a very good specimen ; and if by a bit of 
 very good luck he should happen to take, in a day's chub 
 fishing, twenty fish that will weigh forty pounds altogether, 
 he will find that to be a very good average, for large chub 
 are not so plentiful now in the Trent as they used to be. I 
 have heard that thirty years ago anglers used to think 
 nothing of taking three or four fish out of one hole that 
 
42 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 would average four pounds each, though it must be con- 
 fessed I have seen nothing like that during the last few 
 years. The best I have seen were four fish taken out of one 
 hole, that weighed altogether eleven pounds. Now-a-days 
 here a four-pound chub is a rarity, while, as I said before, in 
 a day's chubbing, two pounds each lish would be a very good 
 average weight. 
 
 What pleasant recollections I seem to see in my mind's 
 eye at the very mention of the word " chub," ay ! as vividly 
 as though they only happened yesterday, for some of the 
 pleasantest hours of my life have been spent by the river- 
 side in my search for chub. The roach has a book of his 
 own, and so has the pike ; but the chub has not. I don't 
 really see why he should not be thus honoured ; for I regard 
 him as one of the most interesting of our coarse fishes. In 
 spite of what has been written or said against the chub, in 
 spite of all his faults, I love him ; but when the cruel net 
 is put around the weed beds in the scouring time, and he is 
 dragged to bank, or when the night-line has done its work, 
 and he is hauled out without a chance of showing his 
 fighting power, my love is mingled with pity for his igno- 
 minious fate, for he is a foeman worthy of a sportsman's 
 steel ; although some writers speak with contempt of him, 
 and call him all sorts of names, some of which are libels on 
 him and his character. If I have a special weakness it is 
 for " chub fishing," for I have been told that it really is a 
 weakness ; and one or two have gone further, and called me a 
 " fool," after I have had an adventure something like this. 
 I am standing by the river, rod in hand ; the twilight of the 
 summer's day has deepened into that semi-darkness that is 
 so peculiar to our country districts, where the air is free from 
 smoke ; strangely quiet seems Nature in her peaceful repose, 
 a strange quiet that is only broken by the harsh grating 
 croak of that peculiar bird the corncrake, or the splash of a 
 
THE CHOB. 43 
 
 rising chub. Away in the distance I can see, though dimly, 
 the tip of a village church spire, trees, bushes, and hedges 
 seem to merge indistinctly together, while the river flowing 
 past seems, on the opposite side, to be dark and mysterious. 
 Putting my hand carefully down my line and cast to feel if 
 my white moth is all right, I sweep it out into the river, 
 and wait, for I cannot see it. Ha ! a brave tug, and the 
 next moment a chub is gallantly fighting against odds for 
 life and liberty. In a few more minutes, however, he goes 
 in the bag to join some three or four more of his comrades 
 in distress taken by the same means. But hark ! what is 
 that ? The village church clock is striking, clear and distinct 
 through the stillness of the night sound the strokes — 
 eleven ; time to pack up, thinks I, and trudge home, for I 
 am a few miles away ; and when I arrive there, I am called 
 by the before-mentioned classic name, " What a fool you are 
 to stay until this time of night, just for two or three brace 
 of those things " (chub), is the observation ; but I can for- 
 give them, for they don't know of the sweet intercourse I 
 have had with Nature in her midsummer night's beauty. 
 None but sportsmen can enjoy these things as they ought to 
 be enjoyed ; and I am weak enough to say that fishing on a 
 summer's evening, with the moth for chub, is a sport, for me 
 at least, of the highest order. 
 
 The chub is a member of the carp tribe, and his scientific 
 name is Cyprinus Cephalus. Izaak Walton used to call 
 him " Cheven," " Chevin," and " Chevender," and by some 
 of these names he is still known in certain districts. Michael 
 Drayton, writing nearly three centuries ago on the Trent and 
 its fish, says, " The chub (whose neater name which some 
 a chevin call), food to the tyrant pike (most being in his 
 power), who for their numerous store he most doth them 
 devour." The chub seems to be set upon by more than one 
 writer ; even the good and gentle Izaak Walton says of him, 
 
44 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 " Oh, it is a great loggerheadeci chub," and this name has 
 crept down to more modern times. One writer, in a recent 
 article in a daily paper, has actually the impertinence to call 
 him " chuckle-headed ;" where he got the term from I don't 
 know. In some districts the chub is called *' the large- 
 headed dace," the Scotch call him " Skelly," the "Welsh 
 " Penci," and the Swedes "Kubb," which latter means "a 
 lump of wood." 1*^0 w, if we look at these names, we can 
 see that they are most of them alluding to the head of the 
 chub ; but why he should be called big-headed, &c., &c., I 
 cannot imagine ; for if we take a splendid, well-fed specimen 
 of three pounds or so, and lay him broadside on the grass, 
 really his head does not look at all out of proportion to his 
 body. The shoulders are broad and vast, belly deep and 
 rounding off, back a trifle hollow, and ending in a fairly 
 broad spread of tail ; look at him from that stand-point, and 
 his head is not out of proportion. If you stare him in the 
 face, perhaps he does look a little full-faced, and he has 
 rather a large mouth, but he does not deserve the names of 
 " loggerhead," "chuckle-head," &c., that are so often applied 
 to him. I maintain that he is a handsome fish, and as a 
 sporting fish in all weathers, he has not his equal amongst 
 the coarse fishes. True, when you come to cook him he is 
 not worth much, for he is woolly and watery, and has such 
 a plenitude of small bones, that to eat him is almost to 
 run the risk of being choked. As some anglers, however, 
 will persist in eating their spoil, the best plan is to clean 
 them as soon as possible, split them open, and rub the inside 
 with salt or lemon; some put stuffing in them, something 
 like veal stuffing ; but one thing must be remembered — if 
 they are kept all night without being cleaned they are abso- 
 lutely uneatable. 
 
 Very small chub, of say half or three-quarters of a pound, 
 when crimped and fried dry, are eatable. The French call 
 
THE CHUB. 45 
 
 him " un vilain," because they can do nothing with him ; 
 and if they are beaten in making a toothsome dish of him, 
 we may safely say these fish are not very edible. 
 
 As I have before remarked, various methods are employed 
 for the capture of the chub ; and as this little work more 
 particularly relates to bottom fishing, I will commence with 
 that. The rod, the reel, and the line described in the pre- 
 ceding chapter will be just the things for chub, and your 
 bottom tackle should be as fine as you like, the finer the 
 better consistently with strength. Kemember, you have to 
 deal with a very shy and cautious fish. Your tackle for 
 bottom fishing for chub should be about four or five feet 
 long, but it will be as well to have some not more than a 
 yard in length, in case you should want to fish in rather 
 shallower water. Pale blue gut, or that stained a brown 
 colour (a recipe for staining gut these colours was given in 
 the preceding chapter), is in my eye, and is the very best 
 sort to make your tackle of. For a float, if you can help it, 
 never employ one larger than a goose quill — one that will 
 carry eight or ten split shots ; for summer fishing, when the 
 water is low and bright, never have one of the split shots 
 less than eighteen inches from the hook. For successful 
 chub fishing, your tackle, &c., should be as neat as possible. 
 It is a downright insult to the intelligence of a chub to drop 
 a lot of big split shots and heavy leads on coarse tackle over 
 his nose. Your hooks may be of sizes ISTos. 6, 7, or 8, ac- 
 cording to the bait in use ; and remember when you whip 
 your hooks on to have your waxed silk the colour of the bait 
 you intend to use. Chub may be ground-baited for before- 
 hand in the same manner as barbel, if you like, but I do not 
 think it pays very well, as a general rule. More chub 
 may be caught by " roving " for them. Half an hour in a 
 place is quite sufficient in my opinion, unless the place is 
 very productive of sport. Keep throwing a little ground 
 
46 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 bait in as you go along, or just before you fish another 
 place. If the water runs tolerably fast, throw your ground 
 bait in a dozen yards above where you are going to stand, or 
 the stream will carry it clear out of your reach. If, how- 
 ever, the stream glides more slowly, one need only throw 
 the ground bait in a little above. If you are fishing with 
 worms, a nicely scoured maiden lob-worm is as good as any 
 on a No. 6 or 7 hook, and for this bait fish as near the 
 bottom as you can. A small bag of sawdust will be very 
 useful in baiting your hook with a worm. In baiting you 
 can either break about half an inch off the head end of the 
 worm, and stick the hook in the end thus broken, or you 
 can leave the head on and put the hook in about three- 
 eighths of an inch from the end. Dip your worm in the 
 sawdust, and work the hook nicely down the worm to about 
 half an inch from the tail, taking care that you do not bruise 
 or cut it by allowing the point of the hook to protrude from 
 it during its passage down the worm. Treat the worm ten- 
 derly, for rough handling spoils its attractiveness. I think it 
 is an improvement if the point of the hook be brought out 
 about half an inch from the tail of the worm, and a small 
 cockspur stuck on the point, for the ends of the bait will 
 then wriggle about in a most lively manner. If you notice 
 an eddy under old roots, or by the side of an overhanging 
 bank, with a sharpish stream outside, and there should 
 happen to be six feet of water, don't pass a place like that, 
 but take two or three coarse worms and break them up small, 
 and throw them in ; drop your carefully threaded bait in, 
 and ten to one, in about a quarter of an hour, you wiU have 
 caught a brace of nice fish. I should then advise you to 
 leave that place, for chub are a fish that are easily disturbed. 
 Before going, however, break up two or three more coarse 
 worms and throw them in ; when you, perhaps, come back 
 again in another hour or two, you can then try the place 
 
THE CHUB. 47 
 
 again. Keep your eyes open when you move away from the 
 first swim, and when you see another Hkely place, treat it as 
 before. Of course gentles or scratchings can be used in the 
 same way as worms, only a very little at once is quite suffi- 
 cient. This is a style of fishing that I like very much. 
 This wandering along the bank for a mile or two, drawing a 
 brace of chub out of this, and another brace out of that 
 hole, is very pleasant. A bit of a submerged bush or its 
 roots wiU sometimes hold a good fish or two, and ought 
 never to be passed by. Sometimes you may drop your bait 
 in a very unpretending-looking spot, and your float has 
 hardly time to steady itself before it goes down with a rush ; 
 and after a few minutes a three-pounder, perhaps, lies gasping 
 on the grass. This sort of fishing is a good deal practised 
 by the more experienced anglers of the Trent, and worms are 
 a bait that is often used. Indeed if I were to be tied to one 
 particular bait, and not allowed to use any other, I should 
 instantly choose worms. I cannot say when would be the 
 best time to use worms for chub ; you can scarcely be wrong 
 any time. September and October are good months to use 
 scratchings, and gentles may be used with effect any time 
 during the summer and autumn, just for a change ; these 
 baits are the best used as near the bottom as possible. I 
 have sometimes caught chub when roach fishing with gentles, 
 but mostly at the extreme end of the swim. If you think 
 there is a chub about, a swim of a few yards further wiU 
 very often fetch him. Brandlings, cockspurs, and blood 
 worms may all be used with effect in this method of angling, 
 and to enable the tyro to recognize these worms, I will 
 describe them. The brandling is marked from head to tail 
 with alternate bars of red and yellow ; when handled, there 
 exudes from it a yellow fluid of a very nasty smell ; it is 
 found in old dung heaps, and almost in any old heap of de- 
 caying vegetable matter. The best are, however, found in old 
 
48 BOTTOM PISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 rotten tan heaps, where they sometimes attain a large size, 
 even to three and four inches in length, and the thickness of 
 a dew worm. Brandlings of this size are not very common, 
 two inches in length is the general size. I have caught 
 barbel with the largest size, when they would take nothing 
 else ; and they are the very best bait for bream. The cock- 
 spur is a worm of a bright red colour ; it is about one and a 
 half inches long, and has a light -coloured knob about half 
 an inch from the head ; it is found in similar situations to 
 the brandling, and is a capital bait, but more especially for 
 roach, dace, &c. Blood worms are found under the excre- 
 ment of horned cattle, they are a small worm of a deep red 
 colour, and are a capital bait for chub. Before using any of 
 these worms they should be scoured for about twenty-four 
 hours in some clean moss ; two, three, or four of these sorts 
 of worms, according to their sizes, on a ^o. 8 hook, make a 
 capital chub bait, especially in the months of February and 
 March. At the beginning of the season, say about the latter 
 end of June, and all through July, the caddis will be found 
 a deadly bait for chub. These curious-looking insects are 
 found sticking to the stones, on the under side, next to the 
 bottom of the river. I have found them in the Trent from 
 May to August, and sometimes in September. In gathering 
 them carefully pull up a stone, and as carefully turn it over ; 
 and sometimes you may see as many as a dozen sticking to it. 
 They are protected by an outside shell, this shell is about 
 three quarters of an inch long and a quarter of an inch thick, 
 it is composed of very minute pebbles and shells on the out- 
 side, while the inside looks to me to be composed of sand and 
 slime from the insect. When you have gathered a quantity 
 of them, they are ready for use at once, the sooner the better, 
 for they become soft and flabby if kept any time. I have 
 tried various dodges to keep them for a few days, and have 
 put them in a vessel of water, changing the water two or 
 
THE CHUB. 49 
 
 three times a day, but they soon become soft and useless. 
 Damp moss will keep them good for a few days. Once I left 
 some hanging in a bag just as I gathered them for nearly a 
 week, and forgot all about them ; when I saw the bag again 
 I thought they would be dry and withered, but judge of my 
 surprise when I found the grub to be alive and well, although 
 the shell was as dry as a stick. They were smaller, however, 
 than they were at first, so the best plan is to use them the 
 same day that you get them ; the fresher they are the better. 
 When you use them for bait, ^caref ully open one end of the 
 shell and draw out the grub ; a good one is a bright yellow 
 colour with a black head, but some of them are a dark 
 colour, and some green ; these are useless for the hook, the 
 yellow ones are the best. Some of them are a deal larger 
 than a wasp grub. Being the larvae of various water flies, 
 they are rather tender, so that jon must be tfareful in putting 
 them on the hook. Nevertheless, they are a grand bait for all 
 sorts of fish, two of them on a No. 8 hook are a bait that a 
 chub cannot resist. Kove about and drop them in all likely- 
 looking spots, and if the fish are on the feed, you will not 
 only take chub, but barbel, bream, dace, &c. ; in fact, I have 
 seen some grand bags of all sorts of fish taken with this bait 
 (and with shame be it said, some of them taken in the month 
 of May, when the ova has dripped from the fish, as they have 
 been bagged). A fine tackle about three or four feet long, 
 with a quill float that will carry six or seven small split shots, 
 is the very best for this sort of work, and with the same 
 tackle can be used another deadly and irresistible bait, 
 namely, the wasp grub. This is generally used in August 
 and September. If the angler knows of a wasp's nest, let 
 him proceed to take it after this fashion. He procures an 
 ounce or two of common fine gunpowder, and works it up 
 with a little water into a stiff paste, it is rolled in an oval 
 shape, with a point at one end. I need not say that the 
 
 E 
 
50 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 angler must operate on a wasp's nest with a good deal of 
 caution. Carefully note the hole from which the wasps pass 
 in and out, and cut a sod that will fill it nicely, then walking 
 boldly up to the hole light the thin end of the gunpowder 
 paste, then thrust it into the hole, which hole must be in- 
 stantly stopped up with the sod already mentioned. Stamp 
 your heel on this to force it in tight. After a few minutes, 
 when the wasps have become suffocated, the angler can dig 
 the cakes out with a spade. Brush all the loose wasps from 
 the comb and pop it into a bag and make "tracks" away 
 from the spot in case of the return of any wasps. These 
 grubs are very tender, and cannot be used very well without 
 some preparation. Some anglers bake them in the oven for 
 a few minutes, but I think the best plan is to put the cakes 
 in a jar, then put the jar in a saucepan of water and steam 
 them over the fire, but don't let any of the water get to the 
 comb. This renders them tough and enables them to hang 
 on the hook. A few minutes of this treatment will render 
 them tough enough. Now take the grubs that are uncovered 
 and with the embryo wasps put them in a bag with some 
 bran for ground bait.^ The good grubs are carefully picked 
 out and put in a tin for the hook bait ; they will keep good 
 for two or three days prepared as described. This is a very 
 killing bait, and I have known bags of from twenty to forty 
 chub being made by its means in a day's fishing. Chub will 
 also take a lump of paste or a bit of cheese, and the more the 
 cheese smells, or the more gamey it is, the better the chub 
 likes it. A piece the size of a small gooseberry is a very good 
 bait, or a bit of rotten Cheshire cheese mixed with a little 
 bread makes a very good chub bait for a change ; even a 
 
 1 When chub fishing with wasp grub, put five or six grubs on the 
 hook, and let them go down the stream forty or fifty yards ; and do 
 not be afraid of a rattling stream, for there, very often, the big 
 fish lay. 
 
THE CHUB. 51 
 
 boiled shrimp will not be refused. A black slug with the 
 belly slit open so that the white is shown is also a very good 
 bait for chub at times. 
 
 And now we will look for a few minutes at a bait that is 
 used during the winter, and is in my idea the winter bait imr 
 excellence for chub ; I allude to pith and brains. The pith 
 is the spinal chord of a bullock ; your butcher will draw you 
 a piece out when you want to use it, the brains are used for 
 ground bait, they must be washed perfectly clean, and well 
 scalded, or else boiled for a few minutes in a bag. They can 
 then be either chewed and spat out in the river, or else cut 
 up very small with a knife and thrown in. Don't, however, 
 be extravagant in this matter, a very few pieces are quite 
 sufficient. The pith itself when you first see it looks a very 
 dirty and disagreeable affair ; the pieces are about as thick as 
 your fore-finger, and I have had them a foot long. The skin 
 must be slit from end to end with a pair of fine pointed 
 scissors, carefully pulled off, and thrown away, being use- 
 less. The pith must then be carefully washed two or three 
 times in clean water till it is perfectly clear from blood and 
 all other impurities, and as white as curd. Some anglers re- 
 commend that it should be scalded, boiled, &c., but I say 
 don't be deluded into doing anything of the sort, for I have 
 tried it and boiling ever so little makes it very soft, and it 
 won't stop on the hook at all. I say do nothing more to it 
 than what I have recommended above. After it is washed 
 clean, it is ready for use ; and for this bait a N"o. 4 hook is 
 the best. Cut off a piece of pith about the size of a hazel 
 nut and put the hook through and through it several times 
 till you have worked the pith up the shank, it will then stop 
 on the hook very well. When you have a bite with this 
 bait play your fish very carefully, for I have found that two out 
 of three of the fish so caught have only been hooked by the 
 skin at the side of the mouth; handle them roughly, and you 
 
 E 2 
 
52 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 will be sure to lose them. I have tried triangle hooks, 
 double hooks, and single hooks of the sizes of 6, 7, or 8's, 
 but I find I lose the least fish with a single No. 4, and what 
 I find to be the best myself, I shall in all cases recommend 
 to others. This is a clinking bait to use in the depth of 
 winter, when the snow lies deep on the ground, and when the 
 thermometer indicates a few degrees below freezing point. 
 Indeed, I think it is nearly useless to try it unless there is a 
 little frost. I have taken fish with it from ISTovember round 
 to March, but if you want a change of bait during the winter 
 you can try the flat wriggling tail of a nicely scoured lob- 
 worm. Chub do not, as a rule, bite freely at a worm during 
 a frost, however, and therefore the angler will find the pith 
 the best. Let him bear in mind that the clearer and finer 
 the water is the better for pith, but if the water is discoloured 
 let him try the worm, also let the angler remember that the 
 finer he fishes the greater is his chance of success with this 
 fish. When the angler has a bite the next thing is to hook 
 his fish, and this operation should be done as neatly as pos- 
 sible, a single turn of the wrist will be quite sufficient, for a 
 heavy tug and rough usage will result in the loss of both 
 fish and tackle. I don't like to see an angler strike his fish 
 as though he were trying to drive a whole flight of hooks 
 into a bony old pike, with a mouth like a carding machine. 
 When first hooked, Mr. Chub makes a desperate efi'ort to 
 escape and bolts for his hold ; he must be kept away at all 
 hazards, if it be under old roots, a steady pressure will 
 accomplish this. He fights well for a minute or two, but 
 soon gives up ; and when you have drawn him to you, and he 
 lies on his side, he can be run up on a shelving bank, or the 
 net slipped under him. I think I have said as much as 
 I need say about float fishing for chub, and I will now turn 
 to another branch of chub fishing, namely, fishing on the 
 surface with live and dead insects, &c. This is a very im- 
 portant branch of angling, and is commonly called dibbing or 
 
in. 
 
 u o 
 o o 
 
 H^K 
 
 .r^ 
 
 bOd) 
 
 cq 
 
 ^o 
 
 •^ ^ bo 
 
 ^02 . 
 
 i e8 J< 
 05 o « 
 
THE CHUB. 58 
 
 daping ; and for this branch of our art no better instructions 
 have ever been given than those by Izaak Walton. The 
 bottom fisher's rod, reel, and line, will do for this work, but 
 the lower tackle must only be about a foot long, with a couple 
 of big split shots as close to the loop as possible, and for baits 
 all sorts of creatures are used, such as butterflies, humble 
 bees, large blue-bottle flies, cockroaches, beetles, grasshoppers, 
 &c., &c., and also a very small yellow frog. Caution, care, 
 patience, and observation are also necessary in a daper. He 
 must approach the place with the utmost circumspection, for 
 the places where this sort of fishing is practised are where 
 willow and alder bushes line the banks, or the hollow under 
 an overhanging bank. I have crept up to such places on my 
 hands and knees, and peered through the bushes into the 
 water below. If it has been a suitable place, I have seen 
 three or four chub about a foot from the surface, and some- 
 times while I have been looking a dried stick has snapped 
 under my feet, and the chub have instantly bolted. It is, 
 therefore, necessary that caution should mark your every 
 movement. A 'No. 6 hook on the foot of tackle mentioned 
 above will be the best, put your live insect or whatever it is 
 on the hook as carefully as possible and see that everything 
 is clear. You then wind up all the spare line until only your 
 foot of gut with its two split shots hangs from the rod point, 
 turn the rod round and round until the gut is entirely 
 twisted on the rod top ; it is now ready for use. The rod is 
 poked through an opening in the bushes until the top is per- 
 fectly clear, it is then turned the reverse way until the bait 
 hangs clear, let the line run off the reel tiU the bait hangs 
 about a foot or so from the water ; carefully mark then where 
 the fish are and drop the bait over them, taking care that 
 none of the gut touches or lies on the water. The two split 
 shots are not used as sinkers, but merely to carry the line 
 through the rings of the rod and to allow you to steer the 
 bait where you like. If the angler has conducted his opera- 
 
54 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 tions properly, and got his bait quietly on the surface of tlie 
 water, a chub, perhaps, will rise and gobble it down instantly. 
 If he does, then the angler must not strike instantly, but 
 allow him to turn his head well down and then give him a 
 very gentle pull. If the fish be struck on the very instant 
 the chub bites, he will splash about on the top of the water 
 and scare all the fish within yards. The fisher must then 
 look for a handy hole close by, through which he can poke 
 the landing net, and after carefully landing his fish he retires 
 a few yards and rebaits his hook, and after waiting a few 
 minutes until the chub have recovered their equanimity, he 
 again pokes his rod through and repeats the operation. After 
 a brace of chub have been taken by this means, they generally 
 become disturbed in that place, and the best plan is to leave 
 it and look for another. Small frogs are a very good bait for 
 this kind of fishing. Hang a very little bit of the skin of 
 the back on the bend of the hook, and put it gently on the 
 surface of the water, as described before. As soon as it 
 touches the water the frog will strike out and try to swim 
 away, when if there is a chub within reasonable range, the frog 
 will prove such an attraction that he cannot help taking it, 
 and with it the hook. July and August, when the weather 
 is very hot, is the best time for this class of sport, indeed 
 good bags of chub may be made by this means, when the 
 weather is too hot for anything else. 
 
 When you are fishing this method under an overhanging 
 bank and no bushes line the bank, it will be necessary to 
 crawl to the spot on hands and knees, or even on your belly. 
 An old friend who once saw me capture a three-pound chub 
 that had his home in a deep hole under a high over-hanging 
 bank, termed it taking a mean advantage of the fish. The 
 weather was very hot, and so after catching a big humble 
 bee, and putting him carefully on the hook, I crawled to the 
 edge and just poked the rod top and my own nose over. I 
 dropped the bee carefully on the water. It began to buzz and 
 
THE CHUB. 55 
 
 spin in a very attractive manner, and presently Mr. Cliub came 
 to have a look at him and swim round him a time or two 
 with back fin erect. The attraction was, however, too strong, 
 he opened his mouth and took his last bite. 
 
 When the angler operates from a high over-hanging bank, 
 he ought to take notice that the bank is sound, for an old 
 friend of mine one day thoughtlessly stepped on one, and the 
 next moment he and part of the bank were in eight feet of 
 water — rather disagreeable, you know, when a little observa- 
 tion would have prevented this. Whipping with a small 
 frog is also a very good plan. The frog is thrown somewhat 
 similarly to a fly. l!^o float is required, nor shots on the 
 tackle. A lip-hook and a double hook just below it is the 
 best form of tackle, the lip-hook is put through the lips of 
 the frog, and the double hook tied to one of the thighs with 
 a little bit of yellow silk, it is thrown or pitched in all likely- 
 looking spots and allowed to sink a little below the surface, 
 being worked by a series of short jerks. At the symptoms 
 of a bite, the angler instantly strikes. Artificial chub baits 
 have also been made and used with effect, but natural baits, 
 &c., are so numerous and deadly that for my part I think it 
 is a waste of money to buy artificials. An artificial chafer is 
 used with effect on the Thames, however, and this bait, which 
 is garnished by two or three gentles, giving it the appearance 
 of a natural insect with its inside squeezed out. It is thrown 
 like an artificial fly, only it is allowed to sink under the sur- 
 face for a few inches, and worked with a series of jerks. 
 When I spoke against artificial baits just now, of course 
 I did not allude to fly fishing, for that is a separate art. 
 In some districts the tail of a cray-fish boiled is successfully 
 used for the capture of large chub ; the locust also is a most 
 successful surface bait for chub, and to use it a special tackle 
 is required. These so-called locusts are a peculiar-looking 
 insects, on warm evenings they may be seen about tree-tops 
 and hedges, sometimes in considerable numbers. They are 
 
56 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 about the size of a smaU humble bee, of a light brown colour, 
 and are covered with a hard shell. When you have captured 
 a quantity of them, they can be kept in a perforated tin along 
 with a few leaves, the leaves from an elm are the best, 
 by this means they can be kept alive for several days. They 
 can be used with the ordinary rod, reel, and line of the Not- 
 tingham bottom fisher, some anglers using a float with a few 
 big shots close to it. The locust, of course, has to swim on 
 the top of the water. I don't like a float myself for this 
 bait, preferring to throw them out like an artificial fly. If 
 the angler has a fourteen feet double-handed fly rod with a 
 fly reel and line, these will be better for locust fishing than 
 the ordinary rod. The fisher need not be particular about the 
 fineness of his tackle, and for this about four or five feet of 
 middling strong gut with a large loop on each end (one loop 
 is to knot the reel line to, and the largest loop is at the 
 bottom, to which the rest of the tackle is fastened). For the 
 extreme bottom tackle take a longish length of fine gut and 
 double it, it will then be a long loop (about six inches long), 
 take then two No. 8 hooks and whip them back to back on 
 the ends of the last-mentioned loop, so that the two ends of 
 the tackle and the two hooks are perfectly fast together. The 
 angler will require a baiting-needle, and for this purpose a 
 stocking-needle about three inches long and as thin as you 
 can get one, with a nick filed in the bottom of the eye will be 
 the very thing ; slip the loop of the bottom tackle in the nick 
 that you have filed in the eye of the needle and then push 
 the needle completely through the locust lengthways from 
 head to tail. Draw the locust itself up to the bend of the 
 hooks until the hooks lie as it were upon the shoulders of 
 the bait. You must take care that the points of the hooks 
 are bare, and not hid in the locust at all, as the hard shell 
 will prevent you from hooking your fish. The two 
 sections of the tackle now want fastening together, and this 
 
THE CHUB. 0/ 
 
 is done by simply putting one loop through the other, the 
 bait through the opposite one, and pull tight ; they are per- 
 fectly fast, and can be easily undone when you want to rebait. 
 This bait is cast on the stream as far as it can be thrown, and 
 allowed to float down. It should then be held stationary 
 until it works across stream to the bank on which you stand, 
 and if there is a chub anywhere about the water over which 
 the bait has travelled, he will most certainly take it. Here 
 is one instance out of many where that bait has played a 
 leading part in making a good bag of chub. Some years ago 
 an angler went down the river below JN^ewark to fish the 
 water that ran beside a rather long field ; he had forty-three 
 locusts with him, and when he got down to the bottom of 
 the field he had taken a chub with every locust but one. 
 Forty-two chub with forty-three baits, in three hundred yards 
 of water was not bad sport, and his tackle and method of 
 baiting was exactly as I have described. Warm evenings 
 during July and August are the very best times in which to 
 use this bait, although years ago when the chub were upon 
 the shallow spawning beds, during the latter end of May or 
 the beginning of June, an angler using this bait has drawn 
 out as many as a dozen chub without shifting a yard. These 
 have been in a gravid state, however, and ought not to have 
 been taken. The use of this bait properly is not generally 
 understood by anglers, so I have been particular in my in- 
 structions. 
 
 Another good plan of taking chub is with the artificial fly. 
 For this work some anglers use a single-handed fly rod, but 
 I prefer a double-handed one. The rod that I use is four- 
 teen feet long ; the butt is of hickory, and the other two 
 pieces are lancewood. It is of a medium gauge, neither too 
 stiff", nor too whippy. A fly reel and a waterproof fly -line is 
 necessary, and the cast should be about three yards of 
 middling stout gut. Some use two or three flies on their 
 
58 BOTTOM riSHTNG IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 casts, but I have always found one quite sufficient. The 
 flies, generally going under the name of " chub flies," are red, 
 black, and grey palmers, and a big coch-y-boudhu ; the best 
 fly perhaps being the black, with silver tinsel. Whatever 
 fly you use, they should be big, with plenty of hackle about 
 them, and ought to have a strip of white kid attached to the 
 bend of the hook by way of a tail. I have seen scores of 
 chub flies that are sold at the tackle shops, and they don't 
 seem to me to be dressed big enough ; a good big fly that 
 drops in the water with a flop so as to attract the attention 
 of the chub is the best. Fine tackle is not needed for this 
 work, indeed, some use a cast of salmon gut. If you 
 are fly fishing in a boat under the boughs, where the water 
 cannot be fished very well from the bank, stout tackle is 
 necessary, for the hook very often gets hung across flags, 
 rashes, or twigs, and a sharp haul is necessary to loosen it, 
 hence the convenience of strong tackle, for if fine were 
 used the boat would have to be taken into the boughs, and so 
 spoil the spot. Besides, stout tackle is necessary to haul a 
 three-pounder out of his fortress of old roots, &c. 
 
 Chub begin to get under the boughs about August, and I 
 think that is the best time to go after them with the f\.y. 
 Your fly should be thrown across the stream as far as you 
 can ; and allow it to work round over every eddy that curls 
 round, and perhaps a bold rise and boil in the water will 
 reward you. 
 
 As this work more particularly relates to bottom fishing in 
 the ^^ottingham style, I think I have said as much as I need 
 say about fly fishing for chub, and as chub is my favourite 
 fish, I have given him the place of honour in this little book, 
 it is rather a lengthy chapter, but I have said nothing but 
 what the angler ought to know. I hope I have been very 
 plain in my directions. 
 
THE BAEJ3EL. 59 
 
 CHAPTEK TV, 
 
 THE BARBEL. 
 
 This fish is another distinguished member of the carp family, 
 and derives his name from the peculiar beard or wattles that 
 hang from his mouth. His scientific name is Cyprinus 
 Barhatus. " With these beards or wattles," says Walton, 
 '' he is able to take such a hold upon weeds and moss that 
 the sharpest floods cannot move him from his position," but of 
 course this is wrong. His Eoman nose seems to me to be 
 peculiarly adapted for rooting among the sand at the bottom 
 of deep holes and overhanging banks, and he is a well made, 
 handsome, and powerful fish ; still I think he is not quite so 
 good-looking as the chub. The barbel is very active and 
 vigorous, and quite the fellow to try the angler's skill, and 
 the strength of his tackle. The mouth being situated very 
 much underneath, that is, the top jaw being much longer than 
 the lower, he is enabled to pick up food from the bottom, for 
 he is for the most part a ground-feeding fish, although we 
 hear of odd ones running at a spinning bait. There are, how- 
 ever, more often hooked foul than anything else. The upper 
 scales of barbel are of a bright olive green colour, with a 
 gold tinge towards the white belly, and a fish in good con- 
 dition, of six pounds' weight or so, looks very attractive. The 
 barbel is mostly found in the deepest part of the river, for he 
 does not like the fiery heat or the extreme cold, although in 
 the month of June it may be found in the weed beds or on 
 
60 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 the shallows, where they congregate in considerable numbers 
 for the purpose of scouring themselves. At this time they 
 go rashing in and out among the weeds, and thread them in 
 all directions. I have seen weed beds twenty yards long and 
 five wide, that have been literally alive with them. Poachers, 
 too, take advantage of this peculiarity of the barbel, and put 
 a long net over the vreed beds, and take them to the extent 
 of stones, I might say " tons ;" for a few years ago a party of 
 three went every morning for a fortnight, and came back 
 every time with as many fish as they could fairly stagger 
 under. I am afraid this was a general plan in many districts 
 on the Trent. It was grievous to see so many fine fish out 
 of condition, to be sold for about one penny a pound as 
 wholesome food, when it was anything but wholesome. I 
 last year saw two or three lots of barbel and chub that had 
 been taken by the same manner, but it was a few days after 
 the fifteenth of June, and I have also seen numbers too that 
 have been taken with the cad-bait during May and June, 
 when they have been in a gravid state. Barbel spawn about 
 the latter part of May, and retire to the deep holes about 
 July ; they should certainly not be taken before then. This 
 fish delights in such places as old walls, where old piles and 
 posts stick up out of the water, or in an eddy under a shelv- 
 ing bank, or about old sunken trees or timber, providing the 
 water is tolerably deep ; he delights, too, in the rushing boil- 
 ing waters of the weir and other deep rapid waters, for his 
 powerful fins enable him to stem the strongest current. 
 
 I have heard anglers again and again remark on the scarcity 
 of the barbel in the Trent, there is no wonder at it when we 
 consider the vast quantities that used to be taken in the 
 manner I have described, but we must hope for better things. 
 In my opinion netting ought to be stopped from the first of 
 March till the first of August, and then we may hope for a 
 return of the good old days in barbel fishing here, when a 
 
THE BARBEL. 61 
 
 hundredweight of fish was not considered anything extraordi- 
 nary. The baits, for a barbel consist of worms, slugs, gentles, 
 grubs, scratchings, or cheese ; although odd fish are some- 
 times taken by strange baits, such as bits of pudding, pieces 
 of fat bacon, or strips of lean beef, &c., &c., while a piece of 
 a larapern is a good bait for big fish. 
 
 In some continental waters we hear of the barbel reaching 
 the extraordinary weight of forty and fifty pounds ; but in 
 England we have nothing like that, from sixteen to eight- 
 teen pounds being the top weight for a barbel in the Trent 
 and the Thames, which two rivers, by-the-bye, are the best 
 barbel rivers in England. The biggest that I ever saw was 
 thirteen pounds in weight, but I heard of one that was taken 
 on a night-line with lampern bait which reached seventeen 
 pounds. Big fellows like these do not, however, often fall 
 to the lot of the angler, he may be well satisfied with one of 
 ten pounds and a nine or eight-pounder is not to be despised, 
 indeed I should question if any angler during the last six 
 years has taken a bag of barbel, of say, twenty fish that have 
 averaged above three pounds each fish. An angler fishing 
 Sir Henry Bromley's water at Stoke, about three years ago, 
 caught, I believe fifty barbel, and the whole lot only weighed 
 seventy-two pounds. An old angler also told me that the 
 best day's barbel fishing he ever had on the Trent was about 
 thirty years ago. He caught thirty-two fish, five of them 
 weighed from twelve to fifteen pounds each, about a dozen 
 were from six to ten pounds each, and not one of the others 
 were under three pounds —a glorious bag. He says the 
 thirty-two fish weighed 224 lbs., being an average of seven 
 pounds each fish. We must not expect anything of the sort 
 to happen to us, however, until nets are things of the past, 
 and poachers cease to exist. 
 
 Some anglers may suppose that as the barbel is a strong 
 and powerful fish, strong and powerful tackle is required to 
 
62 BOTTOM risHiNa I^' the Nottingham style. 
 
 take them. N'ow this is not necessary, for the tackle that 
 will kill the chub will, in skilful hands, kill the barbel, and 
 as the fish have become more and more educated, the angler's 
 chance of success is all the greater if he fishes with fine 
 tackle. What I have said in this respect with regard to the 
 chub, holds equally good with the barbel. The rod, reel, 
 and line described in Chapter II. page 22, will be just the 
 things for barbel fishing, and your bottom tackle should be as 
 line as you like, providing it is good, sound, and strong. It 
 should be stained as recommended in chub fishing. When 
 you make your tackle, it would perhaps be as well to pick out 
 the strongest lengths, and leave the very finest for chub or 
 roach tackle, but always remember and have the thinnest 
 length of gut at the bottom for the hook or hooks to be 
 whipped to. Your tackle should be about four or five feet 
 long ; I like a long tackle because you can have all your split 
 shots on the gut without having to pinch any on the line. 
 There are several sizes of these split shots, and the angler 
 ought to have a supply of different sorts in his bag. For a 
 float he should have a pelican or swan quill when fishing a 
 light stream, and a cork float for a heavier one. A No. 5 or 
 6 hook will be the best for the bottom one, and about an inch 
 above this there is a No. 8, called a liphook. The angler 
 when he whips these hooks on should use the pink silk 
 mentioned in Chapter II. This is a worm tackle (the tackle 
 required for other baits will be described further on) ; and 
 there should not be a split shot less than fifteen inches from 
 the bait. Some anglers for float fishing put a long lead on 
 the line close to the loop of the tackle, but I like the split 
 shots on the tackle, the larger ones nearer the top and 
 the smaller ones lower down. Enthusiastic anglers, or ty7'os 
 in the art wo aid perhaps be the best name for them, would, 
 perhaps, on receiving information that the barbel were biting, 
 get a lot of ground bait in a hurry and dash ofi" to the river 
 
THE BARBEL. GS 
 
 and pitch it in anywhere, in the belief that any quantity of 
 barbel would be attracted into the swim, only waiting for a 
 bait to be dropped over their noses in order to be dragged 
 out wholesale. Now, my dear brother angler, let me caution 
 you in this respect — don't waste any ground bait if you can 
 help it, let caution mark your every movement in this respect. 
 You might pitch your ground bait in a place that is entirely 
 unsuited to the barbel, and wonder why you don't catch 
 them, when the fact is there are none there to catch, and then 
 go home disappointed, and say that barbel fishing is all a 
 delusion and a snare, and that there is not such a thing in the 
 river as a barbel. You are furthermore as cross as two sticks, 
 and vow you will give up fishing for ever, when in reality 
 the fault is yours and does not lie in the fish or river at all. 
 You have not been at home above half an hour when your 
 friend drops in and says that Smith has got such a glorious 
 catch of barbel, " as many as he could carry home," that is 
 the last feather that breaks the camel's back. You then, 
 perhaps, go to look at Smith's fish, and a finer lot you never 
 saw. " Smith, old fellow, how did you catch them ? " Ah, 
 there is the rub, by simply using a lit tie judgment in putting 
 in his ground bait where the fish were, and not throwing it 
 in anywhere, as you did. If you know a place that abounds 
 with barbel, of course it is different ; but if you don't, keep 
 your eyes open, and you will most probably see them jump 
 out of the water or go through a gymnastic exercise, locally 
 known as " pitching." They are troubled with parasites, and 
 I suppose it is in order to try to rid themselves of these pests 
 that they " pitch." As they generally run in shoals, where 
 you see one jump there are probably many more. During 
 the months of August, September, and October, which, by- 
 the-bye, are the very best months to take them, you can 
 scarcely take a walk by the river side without seeing them 
 jump very frequently. Having selected a swim, the next 
 
64 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 proceeding is to bait it, and there are various methods of 
 doing this. In order to suit the bottom, you should know 
 how the current is. It may, perhaps, be different under the 
 surface to what it is at the top, and you must bait accord- 
 ingly ; a little practice will make you judge this to a nicety. 
 If you fail to see any barbel jump, then you must choose a 
 swim where there is an eddy by the side of a swift stream, a 
 ledge, or a deep hole where some old posts stick up, &c., as 
 these afford shelter for the fish. The big fellows like a lazy 
 eddy by the side of a swift stream, the curl of the water 
 bringing the food round to them as it is swept down the 
 stream. A good place to find barbel is at an abrupt bend of 
 the river, where the stream rushes hard against the opposite 
 bank. At the inside of this stream a big curl or eddy is 
 generally formed, and in this the fish are wont to congregate. 
 If, when you carefully try such places as these you find a 
 tolerably level bottom with about eight or ten feet of water, 
 you are almost certain to find barbel, and then you must mind 
 and throw your ground bait in so that it glides into the hole 
 or eddy, or else it will perhaps be swept away down the 
 stream. The best way to try the set of the stream is to take 
 two or three small pieces of wood or stick and throw them on 
 the water, and you will see by the way they float down where 
 to put your ground bait in to suit the circumstances of the 
 case. And now having found a swim that holds barbel, the 
 next thing is to bait it. One way of baiting a swim, as 
 practised on the Trent, is to procure half a stone of scratch - 
 ings. Be sure and get English cake, don't be put off with 
 anything the dealers might want to impose upon you, for the 
 foreign stuff is not fit even for ground bait. When you have 
 got the right sort, break it up small and put it in a pipkin 
 and pour boiling water upon it sufficient to cover it, and let 
 it stand all night. Then take about half a peck of small or 
 refuse potatoes (but not diseased ones) and boil them until 
 
THE BARBEL. 65 
 
 they will crush up. Now put them and the scratchings 
 into a receptacle together, and then add a half-quartern of 
 barley flour, and mix the whole mass till it will hang to- 
 gether in lumps. It is now ready for use. The cost of this 
 ground bait is but trifling, and it is used a good deal on the 
 Trent. Lumps about the size of a cricket-ball are thrown in, 
 about two-thirds in one night, and the remainder the night 
 after. The swim can be fished the following day. The 
 angler must remember that before he fishes the swim he must 
 take a little ground bait with him to use while he is fishing, 
 and he ought to prepare it fresh the night before he goes, 
 because it is of no use saving any of that he prepared first, as 
 it is likely to be sour. Before he scalds his scratchings, 
 therefore, in the first instance he ought to save about a pound 
 of it, a few potatoes, and a handful or two of the barley meal, 
 which can be prepared either the morning he starts to fish, 
 or the night before. Of course, when this ground bait is 
 used, your hook-bait is scratchings, the nicest, best, and 
 whitest bit you can pick out of some that is specially scalded, 
 and without the addition of the potatoes and barley flour 
 (this should also be scalded fresh before you use it) . A bit 
 of white pipe is a very good bait, and is much liked by both 
 barbel and chub. The tackle for this bait should be the same 
 as the worm tackle, except in the case of the hooks. A lip- 
 hook will not be wanted, and instead of a IS'o. 5 or 6 hook 
 on the bottom, two No. 7 hooks whipped back to back will 
 be the best. In baiting, the tackle can be released from the 
 line, and the pipe slipped over the shots and down till it is 
 stopped by the bend of the hooks, the points are then 
 covered by a small piece of the scratchings, and the bait is 
 ready for use. This sort of ground bait, to my mind, has its 
 objections, for, after you have done fishing the swim, very 
 few more fish can be caught in it for a week or two after, it 
 makes them sickly, and I think it spoils the sport for any 
 
 F 
 
66 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 one who may happen to follow you soon. In fact, I don't 
 like the plan at all, but as it is used a good deal on the Trent, 
 I have thus referred to it. The best of all ground bait, in 
 my opinion, for barbel is about a thousand or so of large 
 lob-worms. These are procured at night out of the meadows 
 where the grass is short after a heavy fall of rain or dew, by the 
 aid of a lantern and candle. In gathering them, step as carefully 
 as you can, and by the light from the lantern you will see 
 the worms stretched out on the grass, or at least partly out 
 on the grass and partly in their holes. Seize each one firmly 
 but carefully, and draw it out of its hole. Drop them in a 
 bag or whatsoever you have with you, but be as still as you 
 can, for at the least noise they will disappear like lightning 
 into their holes. A pair of creaking boots are fatal to the 
 success of the worm-catcher ; he must be prompt in his actions 
 and move about as stealthily as a mouse. 
 
 When you have a sufficient quantity of them, and they 
 have been scoured for a few days among some clean moss, 
 you may then proceed to bait the swim. To do this, some 
 cut them up in pieces and scatter them down the swim, and 
 also a little above the hole, if it be a hole you are going to 
 fish, so that the stream may carry them down fair and square 
 into it. If possible, the angler does this three nights before 
 ne fishes the pitch. About five hundred the first, three hun- 
 dred the second, and two hundred the third is a good pro- 
 portion. "When he comes to fish the next morning, he must 
 be sure, before he puts his rod and tackle together, to cut up 
 a dozen or so and scatter them down the swim. This is an 
 important point ; the reason will be given further on. 
 Some anglers throw the worms in whole, for this reason — 
 they say that they live longer in the water and will attract 
 the fish better, whereas the cut up worms soon turn bad. I 
 think myself it is the best to use whole worms, but I prefer 
 to bait the place first thing in the morning, before or at sun- 
 
THE BARBEL. 67 
 
 rise. Tlie reason of this is obvious, for eels and other noc- 
 turnal fish would be attracted into the swim if you baited 
 over-night, and get a lot of the ground bait that was intended 
 for the barbel, therefore I pronounce for morning baiting. 
 
 If you wish to fish a pitch that you cannot bait very well 
 by scattering the worms down the stream — if, for instance, 
 the water runs too fast— then a good plan is to have a small 
 net, something like a cabbage or onion net, and put clay 
 and worms in it. Then tie a strong cord to it, and cast it in 
 the stream a little above where you are going to fish ; the 
 action of the water will cause the worms to work out of the 
 net and attract the fish into the swim. When you come 
 again to bait, draw the net out by means of the cord, fill it 
 again, and repeat the operation until the swim is fully baited, 
 Walton says " the barbel is curious for his baits, that they 
 may be clean and sweet, that is to say, to have your worms 
 well scoured, and not kept in sour or musty moss, for he is a 
 curious feeder ; but at a well- scoured lob- worm he will bite 
 as boldly as at any bait, and especially if, the night or two 
 before you fish for him, you shall bait the places where you 
 intend to fish for him with big worms cut into pieces, and 
 note that none did overbait the place, or fish too early or too 
 late for a barbel." If this held good in Walton's time, that 
 a well-scoured lob- worm is the best bait for a barbel, it holds 
 equally as good now. The next business, therefore, is to pro- 
 cure a well-scoured lob-worm. The maiden lobs are the 
 very best for the hook ; and may be known very easily. 
 They are the smallest of the dew worms that you pick up 
 from the grass, and have no rings or knobs on them. Their 
 colour is a bright pink, and they are usually about two or three 
 inches long. These sorts should be picked out from the 
 others and kept separate, among some fresh moss that is 
 slightly damped. To make them a clear red colour, you 
 should have a piece of very soft red brick, and when you 
 
 F 2 
 
68 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 have placed your worms on the top of the moss (a small bar- 
 rel or a large earthenware vessel is the best to scour them in), 
 you should take a nutmeg grater and grate the piece of brick, 
 so that the dust goes among the worms. Examine them 
 every day, and pick out all bruised and diseased ones, and 
 repeat the operation with the brick and nutmeg grater. This 
 operation will make the worms a splendid red colour, very 
 tough, and a perfect bonnebouche for the barbel. They will 
 be ready for use in about a week, and if you are careful with 
 them and adopt this plan, you will have a well-scoured 
 attractive lob-worm. The worms that you use for ground 
 bait should be well-scoured, for as Walton says, "he is a 
 curious feeder," that is, he likes to have his food clean. As 
 an illustration I might just mention a little incident that 
 came under my own observation. Two anglers were fishing 
 the barbel swim at the Corporation fishery, "Winthorp ; they 
 had both scoured their hook baits separately, only with this 
 slight difference, one had had his worms scouring for over a 
 week, the other for only a day or two ; one lot was bright 
 tough, and of a splendid colour, the other was dark, dirty, 
 and tender ; each used their own baits ; the one with the 
 bright baits kept getting fish, the other with the dirty ones 
 got none ; they changed places, but with the same result ; 
 they both then used the bright and well-scoured worms, and 
 then both of them took fish. This is one instance out of 
 many, and goes to prove that the barbel likes a clean, well- 
 scoured worm. And now we will suppose the angler has his 
 tackle all right, his barbel swim baited, and two or three 
 hundred well-scoured maiden lob-worms in a bag among 
 some moss for his hook baits, and also about two hundred 
 coarse worms in another bag to cut up and throw in during 
 the time he is fishing. He will now be ready for any 
 amount of barbel, but he must remember to make no more 
 noise than he can help. Whether he fishes from a boat or 
 
THE BARBEL. 69 
 
 the bank, he should never be less than fifteen yards from the 
 hole he intends to fish; and having carefully anchored the boat 
 lengthways down the stream, or taken his starid on the bank, 
 before he puts his tackle together, he should take his cocoa- 
 nut shell and put two or three dozen worms in it. With a pair 
 of old scissors he cuts them up in pieces and throws them down 
 his swim. This will make the fish feel as it were, at home, 
 and they will not be so easily frightened ; because when a 
 swim is properly baited, and you have a nice bait on fine 
 tackle, you very often hook a fish the first swim, and if you 
 have not thrown a few worms in before you begin, the fish 
 are apt to be frightened at seeing one of their companions in 
 trouble, and fly from the swim. You will then, perhaps, be 
 at considerable trouble to entice them back again, and all 
 for the want of just throwing a few cut-up worms in. Per- 
 sonal experience, and the experience of old angling friends, 
 prove this to be correct. Another thing these old friends 
 have told me, besides my own experience in the matter, and 
 that is — if when you begin to fish barbel, and you take a 
 dace or two the first few swims, you may make up your mind 
 that there are not many barbel in the swim, for they do not 
 seem to agree very well together ; on the other hand, if you 
 take a barbel or two the first few swims, you may congratulate 
 yourself, and know that the barbel have got it to themselves. 
 And now the angler must bait his hooks. Two of the maiden 
 worms will, in my idea, be the best ; roll the worms in 
 the bag of sawdust before mentioned, and put the hook in 
 the first worm about three quarters of an inch from the head 
 end, and work the worm up to the lip-hook; leave about 
 half an inch of the tail end hanging below the bottom hook, 
 and then stick the lip-hook right through the head end of 
 the worm, and bring the points of both hooks out of the 
 worm. Take another worm smaller than the first, and just 
 hang the head end on the lip-hook and the tail end on the 
 
70 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 bottom hook, your bait will then be in the shape of a link, 
 with three or four ends to wriggle about in a most lively 
 manner ; that, in my idea, is the best worm bait you can 
 use. Sometimes I have put the worms on the hooks head 
 downwards, and taken fish with them ; these were at odd 
 times when I had been an hour without a bite in the 
 ordinary way of baiting ; but whether this result was an 
 accident or not, I cannot say. Having your bait now ready 
 (and you must be sure that it touches the bottom of the 
 river), let it glide down the swim thirty, forty, or even fifty 
 yards from the boat or stand. When you have covered the 
 entire distance where you suppose your ground bait to be, 
 without a bite, wind up the line on the reel and repeat the 
 operation. If you have a bite, don't be in a hurry, give him 
 a second or two to take the bait, and then strike pretty 
 smartly to fix the hook well. Should your float be forty 
 yards away, you must strike a little harder thari when it is 
 only twenty yards from you, as you have a good length of 
 line to lift ofl" the water, and when you find you are fast in a 
 fish, wind him out of the hole as quickly as possible. Let 
 him run as near the boat as you can, and then he won't dis- 
 turb the others. When I say wind him out as quickly as 
 possible, I don't mean a sort of a pully-hauUy system— a 
 dragging out of the fish neck and crop, because your tackle 
 would not stand it, but as soon as you can, get him under 
 the rod's point ; keep a tight line on him, and when he is 
 exhausted your companion should put the landing-net in the 
 water as carefully as possible. You then bring the fish over 
 it, and with a sharp lift you have him. Never dash the net 
 in the water right in front of his nose, or perhaps the sudden 
 fright may make him give an unexpected bolt when you 
 were not prepared for it ; be very cautious in this respect, or 
 you may lose both fish and tackle, and then you will perhaps 
 think of the quotation — 
 
THE BARBEL. 71 
 
 ** The waters wild closed o'er the child, 
 And I am left lamenting." 
 
 I inferred a little time back tliat when the harbel were 
 biting you would catch no dace, and when the dace were 
 feeding you would catch no barbel ; of course, I allude to 
 the two fish in the same swim at the same time. Now, I 
 don't want it to be understood, for a moment, that you never 
 catch the two together, for occasionally dace and barbel 
 are taken together, but I mean it is not a general thing 
 to find the two fish feeding very freely at the same time and 
 in the same swim. I remember once fishing in a good barbel 
 swim a short distance above Newark, with an old friend — a 
 capital angler. We had baited the swim properly, and 
 reckoned on a good take of barbel, but that time we had 
 reckoned without our host ; water was right, tackle was right, 
 bait was right, in fact everything was right except the barbel, 
 and they were conspicuous by their absence, for not a single 
 barbel did we take in the two days, but nearly every swim 
 we took a dace ; now I supposed that there were no barbel in 
 the swim or else the dace would not have fed so freely, and 
 I have still every reason to believe I was right in my sup- 
 position. On the other hand, I can remember taking half a 
 dozen barbel and the same quantity of dace out of one swim, 
 though as a set off to this I have known good catches of barbel 
 that have not had a single dace among them. 
 
 When I was first initiated into the mysteries of the Trent 
 and its fish, I supposed, as the barbel was a big fish, I should 
 require very powerful tackle to take it. I had for a com- 
 panion an old friend with very much the same opinion ; in 
 fact, you may put us down as being very much uninitiated 
 just then. Well, as it happened, we had got our ground bait 
 in all right, more by good luck than good management, I 
 must now confess ; the water was very bright, the tackle very 
 coarse. My old friend, who had a predilection for spectacles, 
 
72 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 had them as usual astride his nose, when, by accident, they 
 fell off and sank to rise no more. There, in fact, we were in 
 fine water with coarse tackle, trying to catch barbel. Of 
 course it was " no go." The result was only two small fish 
 in five hours. " There are no barbel in the swim," said my 
 old friend ; " let's give it up and go home." " Oh no," said 
 I, " let's try a little longer. I believe it is all owing to 
 your spectacles that we are getting no barbel, for I believe 
 there are a lot down there, only they keep putting your gig- 
 lamps on in turns to examine the bait." The idea of a big 
 barbel with a pair of goggles on was too much for my old 
 friend's risible faculties. He looked at me and laughed, then 
 drew the cork from the bottle, and, as he said " the joke was 
 too good to pass by without wetting," took a good swig. 
 About half an hour after, another angler came down with his 
 rod and tackle, we explained our difficulty to him ; he knew 
 his business ; he looked at our worms, they were all right ; 
 so, at our invitation, he put his tackle together, and now, for 
 the first time, I saw my mistake. His tackle did not look 
 strong enough to land a roach, while his line, I thought, 
 would hardly do to whip hooks on with, so fine was it. In 
 about an hour, however, eight more good barbel lay on the 
 grass, all killed with his fine pale blue tackle, without losing 
 a single fish. This was rather a severe eye-opener to us, and 
 proved by demonstration that fine tackle was decidedly 
 superior to ours. Those anglers who go in for extra fine 
 fishing, use a sort of gut that is sold at the tackle shops, 
 called " patent gut :" it is very fine and very strong. I like 
 a length of it on the bottom of my barbel tackle. I have seen 
 Mr. Kudd, of the Reindeer Inn, !N'ewark, use a barbel tackle 
 made entirely of this fine patent gut, and with a very light 
 float he has succeeded in making some grand catches of 
 barbel. Once, in particular, I remember he and three visitors 
 were barbel fishing and used that sort of tackle, and at nearly 
 
THE BARBEL. 73 
 
 every swim he was fast in a barbel till he had landed a very- 
 good catch, whilst his companions could scarcely show a single 
 fin. Some anglers like round bent hooks, and some like 
 sneck bent ones. I think a round bent Carlisle hook is the 
 best, for you can put a worm on it so much nicer than you 
 can on a sneck bent one. An old friend of mine, when barbel 
 fishing, after the first mad rush or two of the fish and when 
 he once begins to wind on him and gets the float above water, 
 hardly ever allows the float to disappear again, but holds him 
 tight and lets the spring of the rod kill him. I don't recom- 
 mend this, but still it is done by that old friend of mine, and 
 he is a very good and successful angler. If your barbel is 
 only a small one, it is perhaps as well to hold him tight, but 
 if he feels heavy don't risk losing fish and tackle by not 
 allowing him to have a little of his own way. The mouth of 
 a barbel being situated very much underneath, and as he 
 has some very hard leathery jaws, it is certain if you hook 
 him firmly you need not fear the hook cutting through. A 
 moderately sharp stroke is necessary to fix the hook well, and 
 when he is once well hooked, the hold very seldom gives way. 
 " Tight corking " is a plan that is adopted by many barbel 
 fishers on the Trent. For this style a cork float a trifle larger 
 than the one in use for " traveller '* fishing is the best, except 
 that it must be adjusted so that the bait lies w^ell on the 
 bottom, say about two feet deeper than the distance between 
 the float and the ground. The bait is thrown in and allowed 
 to swim down as far away from you as you think requisite ; 
 it is then held stationary, and you can tell at once by the 
 bobbing of the float when a barbel attacks the bait. This 
 plan is chiefly used if the swim be a deep hole or eddy not 
 far from the bank. I like the plan under these circumstances, 
 but as a general rule I prefer to fish with a traveller float, so 
 as to let the bait be always moving about over the swim, or in 
 other words, wherever the ground bait may be. (I have giv en 
 
74 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 full instructions for throwing the float and bait to any dis- 
 tance required in Chapter II. page 34), but if the water is 
 over eight feet deep I should use a slider or " traveller " float. 
 At the beginning of the barbel fishing season, say during the 
 month of July, two caddis on a No. 7 hook and a light float 
 and tackle will be found a good bait, especially in such 
 places as the piles or at the bottom of the woodwork of old 
 bridges, or in the eddies and streams that run from a weir. 
 Barbel will sometimes take a lump of cheese or a bunch of 
 gentles, or in fact almost any bait, for I have known them to 
 take a bit of paste or a grain of creed wheat or malt, when 
 roach fishing, and the sport a three-pounder will give you on 
 fine roach tackle is something for you to remember. Worms 
 and scratchings are, however, the principle baits for barbel, and 
 as I have said and directed it is necessary to well ground bait 
 for them. Fair catches of barbel have been made without 
 any previous baiting, a dozen worms or so being clipped up 
 and thrown in as you go along, but it is not a very safe plan. 
 Indeed, it may be said that even after a pitch has been well 
 baited it is not certain that one will catch fish, and the angler 
 is more often disappointed than not. Barbel fishing now-a- 
 days is a very precarious job, for barbel are more often " off" 
 than " on." Years ago they were nearly always " on " during 
 the months of August, September, and October, but of late 
 years the angler has to put up with two or three disappoint- 
 ments for one success. 
 
 If you find it is not possible to fish the place with a float, 
 if, for instance, the stream runs too fast, or you wish to fish 
 in the rushing, boiling waters of a weir tail — which latter 
 place I may impress upon my readers is a capital one for 
 barbel — (there are generally two or three lazy eddies in the 
 close vicinity of a weir, and in these the big ones love to lie), 
 you will have to do what is locally known as plumbing or 
 ledgering. For this plan a bottom tackle about a yard long 
 with a few split shots on it is required, and the " ledger " is 
 
THE BAEBEL. 75 
 
 either a long pear-shaped lead, or a flat triangular one. Some 
 anglers put this lead on their lines and pinch a split shot ' 
 below it close to the loop of the tackle, but I think it is best 
 to put the ledger on a small length of fine gimp, and make 
 a loop at each end. The reel line can be fastened to one 
 loop and the loop of the tackle can be put tlirough the loop 
 on the gimp. The hook is brought through the tackle loop 
 and drawn tight, it is then perfectly fast. The lead is liable 
 to cut the line if it is put on that, so I think the gimp is 
 better. When this plan is adopted in the rough waters of a 
 weir, a stronger line and tackle is used. The waters are 
 mostly discoloured by the stream stirring up the sand at the 
 bottom, and there are mostly a lot of big stones, piles, and 
 obstructions generally in the neighbourhood of a weir. When 
 also a fish is hooked and bolts for his " hover," it has to be a 
 clear case of '* pull devil, pull baker." The hooks and baits 
 for this style are the same as for float fishing. 
 
 If the angler has not the time to properly bait a swim, he 
 can fish in a style known as " roving " for barbel. Having 
 found a likely-looking spot, he cuts up a very few worms and 
 throws them in, and then fishes it with either the traveller 
 float, the ledger, or tight corking ; if he gets a fish or two, well 
 and good, if not, he looks for another place and tries again. 
 Should the water be low and bright you will find, as a rule, 
 the barbel in the deepest holes, but if, on the other hand, the 
 water is high and very much discoloured, you will find them 
 on the shallows ; for they, like pigs, like to root amongst the 
 sand on the bottom. I remember only last year that one of 
 the night-line parties set their lines during a fresh on the 
 shallows below Winthorp, and for two or three nights, while 
 the water was up, they had some very nice catches of barbel, 
 but as soon as the water went down they ceased catching barbel 
 there, the fish having retired into the deep holes. During a 
 fresh in August and September some good barbel are often 
 taken by ledgering or long corking close to the bank, for they 
 
76 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 are then roving about in search of food. A friend of mine 
 told me some time back, that he had given instructions for the 
 baiting of a barbel swim with worms some few years ago. He 
 anticipated it had been done according to his instructions, 
 but judge of his disgust when they went to fish it to find that, 
 instead of throwing the worms in the hole where there were 
 ten or twelve feet of water, they had been thrown into the 
 wrong place, so that they worked into an eddy of about four 
 feet deep on ordinary occasions. However, there had been a 
 lot of rain a few days before, and the water was just rising, 
 and it was the luckiest chance in the world (as it afterwards 
 turned out) that the bait was put in where it was. The 
 water rose a yard during the day, and at night they had one 
 of the best catches of barbel he ever saw. If the bait had 
 been put in the hole, ten to one if they would have caught a 
 single fish. This case goes to prove that barbel rove about 
 the shallows during a fresh. 
 
 I have always found that just when the water is rising, 
 you can catch barbel ; but it is no good to bait a swim during 
 a fresh. The first day the water comes on is worth all the 
 rest of the time it is up put together. 
 
 A piece of a lampern on the ledger tackle is a very good 
 bait for big barbel ; these baits (lamperns) are a peculiar eel- 
 shaped fish. Very heavy fish have been killed by its agency, 
 especially late in the season when the lamperns were running. 
 There is one thing fina^Jy I must mention as a caution to the 
 angler. It is this, don't over-feed the barbel while they are 
 biting. Many a day's sport has been spoilt by this very 
 foolish plan. If the fish go off biting a little, throw in 
 about half a dozen broken worms to set them on the feed 
 again ; this number will generally be found sufficient. 
 
 As a fish for the table, the barbel is one of the very worst ; it 
 is coarse, watery, bony, and flavourless ; but if the angler 
 fancies he should like one cooked, he can prepare it the same 
 as I directed for big chub. 
 
THE EOAOH. 
 
 CHAPTER y. 
 
 THE ROACH. 
 
 To be a successful roach fisher is the highest attainment in 
 the bottom fisher's art. He must be possessed of great skill, 
 patience, and ingenuity, and also a thorough knowledge of 
 the habits of the fish. Further, he must be able to detect 
 the places where roach are likely to be found, and know 
 what places they avoid ; he must pay particular attention to 
 a number of the most minute details, a good swim must be 
 selected, and then must be fished at the exact depth. A 
 very fine tackle must be used, and in hooking a roach, the 
 angler must have a regular roach trick, that is, he must do it 
 without a jerk of any kind,simply in a moment by a single 
 turn of the wrist. Walton says, " When you fish for roach, 
 you must have a small hook, a quick eye, and a nimble 
 hand." Walton too says that the roach is " accounted the 
 water sheep for his simplicity or foolishness;" but roach now-a- 
 days are not so foolish and simple as they were in old Izaak's 
 time. 'Tis true the roach in a pond, where they are small 
 and half starved, and where they seldom see the presence of 
 an angler or a rod, might be foolish, and allow themselves to 
 be caught by any sort of bait and tackle (and I know that 
 roach in our well-fished river, during the latter part of May, 
 are perfectly reckless, and will allow themselves to be caught 
 by dozens with the cad bait, when the spawn and milt has 
 been running from them); but the well-fed, good-condi- 
 
78 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 tioned, and aldermanic roach of our well-fished river are not 
 to be caught by any tyro during August and the following 
 months, for they are amazingly shy of the hook. They seem 
 to me to be highly educated then, and pretty wide-a-wake to 
 the angler's proceedings. A reckless stamping up and down 
 the bank, or a peering over into it, or working a plumb all 
 over it, to see how deep it is, are all fatal to the success of 
 the roach fisher. His motto must be " fine and far off," thus 
 to keep out of sight as much as possible. Then, and then 
 only, with suitable tackle, baits, and a good swim, he may 
 stand a chance of deceiving a few roach. 
 
 The roach is a member of the carp family, and his specific 
 name is Cyprinus Eutilits. When in good condition he is a 
 handsome fish. One writer, paraphrasing Yarrell thus de- 
 scribes him. " The colour of the upper part of the head is 
 dusky greert, with blue reflections, becoming lighter on the 
 sides, and passing into silvery white on the belly, the irides 
 yellow, cheeks and gill covers silvery white ; dorsal and caudal 
 fins pale brown, tinged with red ; pectoral fins orange red ; 
 ventral and anal fins bright red ; the scales are rather large, 
 marked with consecutive and radiating lines ; large eyes, the 
 circles of which are of a gold colour, and the iris red ; their 
 scales are very smooth, except during and just after spawning 
 time, when they feel to the touch like a nutmeg-grater." 
 This seems to me to be a pretty fair description, and any one 
 reading it, who has never seen a roach, would come to the 
 conclusion that he is a very handsome fish. He also has a 
 small head and a leather mouth, with a peculiar top lip. 
 This lip, if you take hold of it, raise it, and bring it forward, 
 shows to you that it has the power of elongation, and that it 
 is shaped something like a hood. This power seems to prove 
 that the fish can take his food on the bottom like a barbel ; or 
 retaining the lip in its ordinary position that he can take a bait 
 in midwater, or on the surface like a dace. I have found, how- 
 
THE ROACH. 79 
 
 ever, that roach are, for the most part, a ground-feeding fish 
 As an iUustration I may say, I was only last year fishing a 
 good swim with a friend. The swim was well baited, and 
 we both had to stand side by side, and allow our floats and 
 btiits to travel down together ; we each fished with the same 
 bait. I fished, however, on the bottom, and he was some 
 eight or ten inches above it. We did this by mutual con- 
 sent, and during the whole of the time he never caught a 
 roach, and I did not take a single dace. We both had 
 very good catches, and strange as it may appear, that my 
 fish were roach and his were dace, the conclusions I arrived 
 at then backed up my former observation, viz. that roach 
 are for the most part a ground-feeding fish ; I know that 
 they will take an artificial or a natural fly on the surface ; it 
 is the formation, therefore, of the mouth that allows them to 
 take a bait at all depths. (The above will be found a good 
 plan, to fish a swim that you know contains both roach and 
 dace). I have been rather particular in my description of a 
 roach, because the would-be roach anglers ought to know the 
 peculiarities and habits of these fish, and also because during 
 certain stages of their growth they may be confounded with 
 fish of an apparently similar character, but which on closer 
 observation, side by side, are widely different. Eoach 
 spawn about the latter end of May, and are a very prolific 
 fish. They are then very slimy, and have a lot of rough pim- 
 ples on their scales. When they have done spawning they 
 retire into deep holes, or among the thick weeds, and live 
 upon the weeds and the insects found among them. About 
 the latter end of July or so they come out of the weeds, and 
 take more to the open water ; and they may be found some- 
 times in considerable quantities by the side of rushes, flags, 
 or weed beds, especially if the water is from five to eight feet 
 deep. About this time, when as old roach fishers say, " The 
 weed is out of them,*' and the slimy coat they wore among 
 
80 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 the weeds has worn off, their scales are smooth and bright, 
 and their fins nice and clear. They are in very good condi- 
 tion, and are very shy j and it is now that it requires an 
 artist in the business to take them. Roach prefer a sandy 
 bottom, do not like a muddy one ; in fact, a river roach I may 
 say is a very clean fish. His baits have to be clean and sweet. 
 If their be any suspicion of dirt or sourness about them, he 
 will have none of them. 
 
 The roach fisher should he able to find out what sort of a 
 bottom the river has before he fishes it. I know a very 
 good roach fisher, who, when he is on the look-out for a new 
 swim, has a lump of lead with a flat bottom, on which he 
 sticks a piece of soap, and by letting this down to the bot- 
 tom generally manages to bring up enough of the sand or 
 whatever it is to judge by. Roach very seldom exceed three 
 pounds in weight ; and we have very few instances where 
 the fish reach this. A two-pound roach would be considered 
 a giant if taken from the Trent ! and I have only seen 
 one roach that reached this weight. This was caught 
 by a labourer with a large lob- worm for a bait : it weighed 
 2 lb. 5 oz., and it was literally quite greyheaded. The Avon, 
 I believe, has the biggest roach ; I have heard of them being 
 frequently taken from that river of the weight of from two 
 pounds to two and a half pounds. Two-pound roach are 
 sometimes taken in the Thames ; but in the Trent I only 
 know of the solitary one mentioned above. A half-pounder 
 is a sizeable fish, a pounder is a good one, while a pound and 
 a half fish would make the heart of a Trent angler rejoice ; 
 indeed, I have known the first prize for a specimen roach to 
 be taken with a pound fish. I once took fifteen roach that 
 weighed fourteen pounds ; and, again, seventeen fish that 
 weighed fifteen pounds ; and an old friend of mine once took 
 six grand fish close to Newark, weighing seven pounds, and 
 not an ounce difference was there in the weight of them. 
 
THE EOACH. 81 
 
 Eoach are very fond of a lazy eddy by the side of a swift 
 stream, and being a bulky fish are not found much in very 
 strong and rapid waters. They like the slow, lazy curls 
 under bushes, or the slow streams by the side of flags, rushes, 
 &c. ; quiet lie-byes or corners away from the main stream are 
 very much affected by roach ; streams that flow at the rate 
 of not more than two miles an hour ; or in the curls and eddies 
 in the vicinity of a weir, or in the neighbourhood of an old 
 wooden bridge, and sometimes they are found in the shallows 
 of a mill tail. These are the places where roach are princi- 
 pally found, and it is in such places as those that the suc- 
 cessful roach fisher pursues his quarry. The food of roach 
 consists of grubs, flies, grasshoppers, worms, cad baits, weeds 
 and water insects, gentles, bread, paste, rice, pearl barley, 
 creed malt, wheat, &c., &c. The last few that I have men- 
 ♦tioned are the very best hook baits you can have. Indeed, 
 to put it correctly, gentles stand first, cad baits second, worms 
 next, then paste, pearl barley, creed wheat, and malt. These 
 baits, if they are properly used, are all that is required by 
 the bottom fisher for roach. 
 
 As a fish for the table, they are a little better than chub 
 and barbel. Nicely fried, a good roach out of a gravelly 
 stream, during the autumn and winter months, is not to be 
 despised, and is a very palatable addition to the breakfast- 
 table. " The Freshwater Fisheries Act of 1878 " seems to 
 me to be hardly satisfactory as far as roach are concerned, for 
 on the 15th of March, these fish are in the very best condi- 
 tion, and could very well be taken for another month — that 
 is, as regards the Trent; while on the 15th of June they 
 have not all of them done spawning, and for another month 
 at least they are slimy, lumpy, and in a generally wretched 
 state. I think, therefore, that anglers ought not to take them 
 before the middle of July. 
 
 Having looked at the roach and his habits, we will turn to 
 
 G 
 
82 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 the tackle that is necessary to take him ; the rod, reel, and 
 line described in Chapter II , and recommended for chub, 
 will do, but if the angler goes in for roach fishing alone, 
 then a rod that is lighter will be better ; such an one, for 
 instance, as I have now before me, made for me by David 
 Slater, of !N'ewark. The length is about twelve feet tapered 
 from the butt to the point to a nicety ; wire guards are on 
 the rings, and these prevent the line from catching or hitch- 
 ing round them. Such a rod will hook a roach in an 
 instant, by that almost imperceptible turn of the wrist so 
 necessary in a good roach angler. It is well balanced and 
 only weighs about 10 oz.; this is a splendid roach rod, but, as 
 I have said before, for the working-man angler who goes in for 
 general bottom fishing, and can afford only one rod, the 
 first-mentioned one will be the best ; if he goes in for roach 
 alone, he can, if he likes, have one of the very finest Derb}/* 
 twist lines, instead of the next size recommended for chub ; 
 and his bottom tackle should also be of the very finest gut 
 he can buy. He should make his bottom tackle from three 
 to five feet in length, to suit the depth of the water ; though 
 a five-foot tackle will be long enough if he has to fish 
 fifteen feet deep. Some anglers use horsehair for their 
 tackle, which will do very well ; but I have seen gut thinner 
 than horsehair, and I am sure that fine gut is better in all 
 respects than hair. I have used no hair lately, and I have 
 come to the conclusion, after careful practice, that extra fine 
 gut is the best. 
 
 A very important article in a roach fisher's outfit is his 
 float ; if the water is quiet or very nearly so, he must have 
 a float made of the smallest of goose quills, one that will 
 carry about three are four split shots ; but if there is a bit of 
 a stream, he can increase the size of his float, and the number 
 of shots on the tackle. He need not on any account have a 
 float any larger than will carry about eight small shots ; in- 
 
THE BOACH. 83 
 
 deed in very quiet waters a self-cocking float will be the best. 
 This can be easily made out of two small quills. Use 
 the two tops and join them together with a little plug 
 of wood in the middle, in the bottom piece of quill two 
 or three small shots are placed. This float should be 
 about four inches long, and it can be fastened to the line 
 with a quill cap on each end ; to make this float watertight, 
 it should be bound where the join is, tightly and closely, 
 with a bit of well waxed silk or cotton. The utility of this 
 float is apparent to all thoughtful anglers, because when you 
 scatter your ground bait in a still water it breaks up and 
 sinks very gradually ; and then if you plump the hook bait 
 in, and there is a long necklace of split shots on the tackle, 
 the bait sinks so much diff'erently to the way in which the 
 ground bait did, and the shy and suspicious roach would see 
 the fraud at once. When the water is clear in these still 
 quiet places, the nearer you approach nature the greater is 
 your chance of success. The ground bait as just noticed 
 sinks down gradually, and the hook bait ought to do the 
 same ; so if the weight is in the float, without there being 
 any on the tackle the hook and the bait will sink down as 
 gradually as did the ground bait, and be more likely to de- 
 ceive the fish. The float for roaching in ordinary swims on 
 the Trent will carry about half a dozen split shots ; and I 
 must again impress upon the angler, that he ought not to 
 have one of them less than eighteen inches from the hook. 
 The others also ought to be down the tackle at distances of 
 six inches or so from each other ; the bait will then swim 
 straighter in the water, and the fish will be less wary than 
 if all the shots were huddled together in one place on the 
 gut. The float of a roach fisher should be so nicely weighted 
 that it will indicate in a instant a roach bite. The angler 
 may ask himself the question, What is a roach bite ? The 
 answer would be, " When the fish snaps at the bait and 
 
 G 2 
 
84 BOTTOM riSHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 takes it ; " but I believe that in quiet or semi-quiet waters, 
 a roach does not snap at a bait and swallow it instantly ; in 
 paste fishing this is so especially I remember reading some 
 time ago of experiments tried with different fish in an 
 aquarium. Dace and trout snap at the bait ; but the roach 
 generally took it in a different way ; he would swim up near 
 the bait, open his mouth and draw in a current of water, to- 
 gether with the bait. Should it please the fish it is imme- 
 diately swallowed, and the water ejected through the gills, 
 but the moment he finds out that there is something amiss, 
 such as a line attached to it, or the taste does not suit him, 
 he instantly blows it out with great force, along with the 
 mouthful of water he has just taken in ; and the bigger the 
 fish the more cautious they are in this proceeding. In 
 fishing with gentles for roach it is a very common occurrence 
 to find the gentles blown up the tackle, sometimes a couple 
 of inches from the hook ; the roach had tried to blow the 
 bait from his mouth, but the angler had been too quick for 
 him, the hook had penetrated the mouth, and the bait had 
 been blown up the gut, instead of both hook and bait being 
 forcibly ejected, which would most certainly have been the 
 case had the angler waited another instant before he struck. 
 The would-be angler will now see at once the necessity of 
 having a float that will indicate a bite of this description, 
 and the smaller the quill, the better it will be. Some 
 anglers in roach fishing only have the extreme tip of the 
 float out of the water. Now I think this is scarcely enough ; 
 he should have half an inch at least out, on purpose to pro- 
 perly indicate a roach bite. When the roach draws in the 
 bait, in the manner described, the float perhaps does not bob 
 down, but merely tilts over a little sideways, and the 
 angler ought to respond on the instant. How many times 
 has an angler seen his float give a hardly perceptible bob, 
 and has waited until he has had another and more decided 
 
IV. 
 
 1. Roach tackle. Page 87. 
 
 2. Worm tackle, with lip -hook, for Bream. Page 125. 
 
 3. „ „ „ for Barbel. Page 62. 
 
 4. Barbel tackle for scratchings. Page 65. 
 
 For particulars of the length of the gut, tackle, and distance apart of the shot, 
 see pages referred to. The hooks are given about the correct size. 
 
THE EOACH. 85 
 
 one, and then found on striking that his bait was gone, and 
 there was no fish on his hook 1 The crafty old roach had drawn 
 the bait into his mouth at the first little bob of the float, and 
 that was the time to have met him by the magic turn of the 
 wrist. In the moment between the first bob and the second, 
 the roach found out that there was something wrong, and so 
 blew the bait out, and it was the very act of blowing out that 
 caused the second and more decided bob of the float. One of 
 the very best roach fishers we have in Newark tells me that he 
 has very often noticed this peculiar biting of the roach when 
 he has been fishing with a stationary bait in quiet waters. 
 He says he always gives a short twitch, let the float move as 
 it likes j sometimes, he has noticed that the float has been 
 thrown upwards a trifle ; and then again it might only tilt 
 over a little ; and, he is now of the firm conviction that all 
 these moves indicate a roach bite, a conviction that I most 
 heartily share. It is always the largest and best roach that 
 bite in this sly and unobtrusive manner ; it is nevertheless 
 true that anybody can catch roach sometimes when the fish 
 are quietly sucking down the bait and hooking themselves ; 
 but it is not very often that he is *' on," like that. Very 
 small fish will bob down the float and make the angler think 
 he has got a most important bite ; but the big fellows in a 
 quiet water, when they are not very well " on ;" are not to be 
 taken by anybody. When you are fishing with gentles in a 
 slight stream, and your float is travelling down, you cannot 
 notice this action of your float, but it will be the best to strike 
 promptly on the least indication of a bite ; more roach have 
 been lost by waiting a trifle for a second bob, than have been 
 taken. I think I have shown the necessity of having a float 
 to properly indicate a roach bite, and now we will look for a 
 minute or two at the roach hooks ; these should be carefully 
 selected and tested before whipping them on the gut. Some 
 anglers like a hook that is short in the shank and very fine in 
 
SQ BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 the wire ; as they say " you can thread a gentle on them so 
 much nicer," but I don't care for them, because if your hook 
 is very short in the shank you cannot hook your fish properly 
 (they do not strike sufficiently true on the point of the 
 hook). Tie two hooks on two pieces of gut, the one with a 
 short shank, and the other with a shank a little longer, and fix 
 the points in something, and then pull the gut gently, and you 
 will see then what angles the hooks and gut form. The one 
 with a short shank will approach a right angle, a great deal 
 nearer than the one with the longer one; so you will see by this 
 that when you strike a roach with the short shanked hook, you 
 will most probably draw the hook out of his mouth instead of 
 his jaw ; or, in other words, when you struck the fish, the hook 
 failed to penetrate the jaw, because the angle formed by the point 
 of the hook on the gut and shank was too great ; whereas a 
 longer shanked hook would have pulled straighter from the 
 point. Hooks that are extra fine in the wire, too, have their 
 objections. They will spring open when you strike a fish 
 with them. A fish with a hard leathery mouth takes a hook 
 of this fine wire, and instead of it at once penetrating the 
 jaw it springs open and the barb is not buried, and the re- 
 sult is the loss of the fish. I like a hook of a medium length 
 in the shank, and moderately stout in the wire, and if you 
 take notice of your hooks you will see that the points 
 of some point outwards from the shank, while others point 
 inwards. I like those pointing inwards, for I have fancied 
 that I have hooked my fish better with them. When the 
 point stands very much outwards, the hook is liable to cut 
 itself out ; but when they stand inwards they are more liable 
 to take, as it were, a fresh grip the further they go in. These 
 hooks should be very neatly and closely whipped to the gut, 
 and the best sizes you can use will be No. 8 for the tail end 
 of lob- worms ; No. 9 for cockspurs, paste, creed wheat, or 
 malt ; Nos. 10, 11, and 12 for gentles, according to the biting 
 
THE EOAOH. 87 
 
 of the fish, or the fineness of the water, and all these hooks 
 should be the bright, round bend Carlisle hooks. If the 
 water is fine, use a small hook, and when you whip these 
 hooks to the gut be sure and have the gut on the inside of 
 the shank ; and as I have before said, use gut that is round, 
 smooth drawn, and of the very finest description. If the 
 angler, however, fancies he would like a hair tackle, the 
 best hairs for the purpose are those from the tail of a young 
 chestnut horse. Black hairs are not so good ; in fact, don't 
 have them if you can get anything else. Personally, I have 
 long since discarded hair in favour of the very finest gut, 
 and this gut should be stained as recommended in Chapter 
 II. During the summer and autumn, or, indeed, any time 
 when you can get them, gentles or maggots are the best bait 
 you can have for roach. Some fishers like white maggots, 
 and some yellow ; the yellow ones are the best ; they are best 
 procured from a bullock's liver ; hang this liver up somewhere 
 where the blowflies frequent, only before so doing slash it all 
 over with a knife, the flies will then lay their eggs in the 
 crevices; when it appears to be sufficiently blown, it should 
 be taken down and put in a vessel of some ki nd ; in a few 
 days the eggs will have hatched, and in a few more will 
 have fed themselves up to their full size. They should then 
 be removed into another vessel half fuU of bran, and only a 
 few pieces of the liver left with them to feed on ; as soon as 
 they lose the dark spot, and assume a pale yellow colour, they 
 are scoured and fit for the hook. They should be kept in a 
 cool place with plenty of air. The white gentles are bred 
 from fish ; three or four cods' heads well blown, and treated 
 in the same manner as the liver, make capital white maggots ; 
 but the yellow ones are the best. Gentles can be kept far 
 into the winter, and if the angler desires this, he should get 
 his bullock's liver or whatever it is well blown late in the 
 season, and then press it into a box that is half filled with 
 
88 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 sand and bran ; it is then covered over with the sand and 
 buried in the earth, and when the angler wants to use his 
 gentles a couple of months after, he will mostly find them in 
 good condition ; gentles for ground bait can be procured 
 from a bone or knacker's yard. These are not fit for the hook, 
 a quart or two of them they will be sufficient to bait the 
 swim ; in slow running swims on the Trent this is as good a 
 ground bait as can be used. The angler scatters them in during 
 the time he is fishing, and good sport is often obtained by 
 this means ; indeed, it is more often practised by Nottingham 
 anglers than any other plan for roach fishing. Two gentles 
 are put on the hook, and the fisher throws in and lets his 
 float swim down as far away as he thinks fit, very often 
 thirty or forty yards from him. When the fish slacken in 
 their biting he scatters them another handful of the coarse 
 gentles, and a very few of the scoured ones. 
 
 It sometimes happens when the angler is fishing with 
 gentles and the fish are very shy — biting and nibbling very 
 cautiously, though sufficiently to move the float — that the 
 angler strikes time after time, and yet cannot hook his fish or 
 only just feels them for a moment, and that when he has 
 drawn out his bait he finds that his gentles are nothing but 
 a bit of skin. The fish have sucked and squeezed the insides 
 out. When this is the case I have found the best plan is to 
 take off the No. 10 hook you are using and whip on instead 
 a No. 12, and instead of having two gentles on only use one, 
 and sticking the hook through the thick end of the gentle, 
 just let it go twisting down the stream in a lively manner. 
 Sometimes I have managed to deceive a few after using this 
 " dodge." 
 
 If you can manage to find a few cad baits or if you have a 
 few wasp grubs with you, you will find it to be to your 
 advantage, in order to change the baits pretty often, that is, 
 if the fish are biting very slow and shy ; i.e. sometimes use 
 
THE EOACH. 89 
 
 one gentle, then two, or a wasp grub and a cad bait. I have 
 found all these dodges to answer ; in fact, if the angler wants 
 to be a successful roach fisher, he must try all the dodges that 
 suggest themselves to him, but he must beware of overfeed- 
 ing the fish, his business being to attract them and not to 
 overfeed them. A quart or two of coarse gentles are plenty 
 to fish a forty yards swim all day. Two or three handfuls of 
 them are scattered in before the fisherman's tackle is put 
 together, and then after he has got the proper depth he puts 
 in another handful. After this he takes about a dozen of 
 his scoured gentles and throws them in, just to give the fish 
 a taste of what they may expect. He only now renews his 
 baiting when the fish give over feeding, and this must be 
 done sparingly. Thus by all the dodges I have named, viz. 
 changing the baits, fishing fine and far off, keeping out of 
 sight as much as possible, he may manage to secure a bag of 
 roach, should the day be anything like, even if the fish are 
 only biting indifferently. If the angler has not been able to 
 procure any coarse gentles and has only a few scoured ones 
 with him, a very good substitute can be made for his ground 
 bait as follows :— Take a basin-full of broken bread or refuse 
 crusts and put them in a small receptacle, and pour boiling 
 water upon them sufiicient to cover them. Put a cover over it 
 then to keep the steam in, and let it stand an hour or two ; the 
 water is now to be drained and the bread squeezed up so that no 
 lumps are left While the bread is going through the process of 
 scalding, the operator can have a pound of twopenny rice in a 
 bag boiling on the fire (be sure that the bag is big enough to 
 allow the rice to swell), and when it is thoroughly cooked 
 and the bread ready, a quartern or so of bran is added, and 
 the whole mixed well together till it is a very stiff pudding. 
 A handful or two of barley meal is an improvement to this. 
 It is necessary to be sure that this mixture is made fresh just 
 before it is wanted to be used, for it is apt to turn sour. 
 
90 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 Mind and make it up as stiff as you can, for if it is too soft 
 it will rise to the surface and swim away. The cost of this 
 ground bait is only trifling, and I have proved its efficacy to 
 my own satisfaction. The quantities I have given will make 
 about a dozen lumps the size of your fist, and will be plenty 
 for any ordinary swim. It is all the better if you can 
 manage to drop two or three lumps of it in your swim the 
 night before you fish, a round stone about the size of a large 
 walnut being placed in each lump, which should be dropped 
 in quietly. Be sure that the bran is sweet and not musty 
 when this ground bait is being made, or your chance with the 
 roach will not be a very good one. When this ground bait 
 is used and one is fishing with gentles, a very few of the 
 latter scattered down the swim will be an improvement. A 
 little wrinkle I will also give you now : the biggest fish very 
 often lay at the extreme end of the swim, and so don't be 
 afraid to let your float go a few extra yards. I have seen 
 splendid roach struck time after time when the float has been 
 forty yards away, ay, and hooked too. 
 
 Of course, paste, creed malt, or wheat, can be used in this 
 style of fishing, and with that ground bait ; but good roach 
 anglers adopt a difi'erent plan for paste baits. They use the 
 paste and grain in nice quiet waters by the side of streams, 
 just over some flags or weeds are very good spots, or where a 
 corner or any obstruction forms a slow eddy; in fact, anywhere 
 in a very lazy stream that they know or think contains roach 
 and is of four or five feet depth. Paste baits are fished as a 
 stationary bait, and this style is locally known as " pegging." 
 The tackle is the same as for the other method, and is hardly 
 ever used or practised above a yard from the bank, unless the 
 rushes or weeds extend further out. Your pill of paste is 
 put nicely on the hook and then thrown out, the slight 
 stream gradually works the float and bait down till it is about 
 fifteen yards below you, and it is then held stationary, the 
 
THE ROACH. 91 
 
 float indicating when you have a bite. I have taken good 
 roach by this plan when the stream has worked the float to 
 within a foot of the bank. Various plans are adopted for 
 making pastes, but as good a paste as you can have is made 
 of a bit of white bread crumb, the bread being dipped in 
 water and squeezed until all the water is expressed, it is then 
 worked up with the fingers to the proper consistency. This 
 makes a capital paste for this " pegging " business. Some 
 anglers say this paste is improved by adding a little honey 
 and gin to it, but I have never found that to be any better 
 than the plain paste. Coloured pastes are sometimes used 
 with advantage, they are made exactly the same as the plain 
 bread paste mentioned above, excepting the colouring. To 
 colour a paste red I roll the paste about a lump of red lead, 
 and work it well, until it assumes a nice pink colour. Don't 
 get any more of the lead, however, among the paste than you 
 can help. Another coloured paste I use is made by adding 
 a little chrome yellow to the bread paste. Some good roach 
 have been taken by these coloured pastes, but I don't per- 
 sonally think they are an improvement, on the whole, on the 
 plain paste ; when I fish with paste, it is very seldom I use 
 anything but the plain. Nevertheless, I know a very good 
 roach fisher who uses these plain coloured pastes, if I may 
 be allowed the term, and he certainly does make some good 
 catches at times. The angler can, however, please himself, 
 but whether he uses the plain or the coloured, when he makes 
 it his hands must be perfectly clean, and it would be an 
 advantage when the angler goes for a long day's paste fishing 
 and the weather is warm, to take a bit of bread with him, so 
 that he can make another lump of paste by the river side if 
 necessary, as the one he mixed before he started would have 
 a tendency to turn sour after a few hours. These pastes 
 should be rolled up in a bit of damp white rag, and I suppose 
 I need not tell you this ought to be clean. I might just say 
 
92 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 that new bread is nothing like so good as bread a day or two 
 old, and home-made bread is not so good as that from the 
 baker's. 
 
 The ground bait that I have described can be used in this 
 fishing, but anglers generally take a few pieces of bread with 
 them, and chew them up and spit into the swim, or rather 
 blow them out of their mouths, and some good catches of 
 roach are sometimes made by this plan without any previous 
 baiting. Creed wheat and malt are very good baits during 
 the months of August and September, and are used a good 
 deal on the Trent. An old angler has often told me that he 
 does not consider the roach are in condition until they will 
 take malt, and I agree with him. When I cook my malt 
 and wheat I put it loosely in a calico bag and boil it in the 
 kitchen boiler. Be sure you allow the corn to have plenty of 
 room to swell however, that is, don't tie the string of the 
 bag too close to the corn. I boil it in the boiler, because it 
 then has plenty of water, and after two or three hours, when 
 the skin cracks open and shows the white inside, it is ready. 
 It looks nice, white, and clean when it is cooked like that, 
 whereas some anglers stew it in ajar ; and when cooked like 
 that it looks black, dirty, and disagreeable. This bait is used 
 in the same manner as the paste, one or two corns being put 
 on the hook ; for ground bait use brewers' grains. Beware, 
 however, of overbaiting with brewers' grains, for many a good 
 day's sport has been spoiled by a too free use of this ground 
 bait. I have seen anglers come down to the river with a huge 
 bag of grains and dash them in by the peck, when about as 
 many as would fill a quartern measure would be ample ; the 
 roach feed on these grains, and when fishing with malt I have 
 taken roach with their mouths full of it. It is of no use 
 fishing with malt and wheat before August. We don't 
 expect cherries and plums on the trees in January, and the 
 fish don't expect grain to be coming down the river only at 
 
THE ROACH. 93 
 
 harvest time. Instinct is sometimes stronger than reason, 
 and to be a successful angler we must take lessons from 
 nature herself. Before I have done with this paste fishing 
 for roach, I will just shortly consider a very vexed subject 
 among anglers, and that is, the question of scented pastes. 
 Some say that roach are attracted long distances by scented 
 baits, and grow quite eloquent about the merits of their 
 chemically prepared pastes. Now I could never find out that 
 they ever made a better bag of roach than could first-raie 
 anglers using plain paste. True, we have odd cases of certain 
 individuals who have made a good bag of roach by using these 
 scented pastes, when other anglers in the same water and on 
 the same day have failed to take any, but in the course of my 
 experience I have only dropped across one angler who could 
 do it, and he was an old pensioner living in the fens of 
 Lincolnshire. He used to prepare his paste with something, 
 and certainly it did smell very nice, and I know he has taken 
 great catches of fish out of those large fen drains, but whether 
 it would have acted among the educated roach of the Trent 
 I cannot say. The old man promised to give me the recipe 
 of how it was made, but I suddenly left that part of the 
 world, and when I went back to visit the old man he was 
 laid in the village churchyard. I have tried these scented 
 pastes a time or two, but I must confess that my experiments 
 have not been crowned with a deal of" success. We know 
 that experiments have heen tried and fish have been attracted 
 by chemically flavoured food, but whether they would not 
 have been equally attracted by plain food is not shown. A 
 short time ago a bait was advertised and sold under the name 
 of " Ching," and the advertiser said it would take fish by the 
 bushel, or rather, fish would take it and be caught by the 
 bushel. I know some anglers who bought and tried it, but 
 it turned out a delusion and a snare. I examined a bit and 
 it looked to me to be nothing but a bit of bread, and it smelt 
 
94 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.- 
 
 as though it was flavoured with aniseed. I have an extract 
 which has been taken from some fishing-book, in which the 
 following passages occur : — " An old Nottinghamshire angler 
 to whom, when a boy, I was indebted for many valuable 
 hints, told me that when fishing in the Trent, he used to 
 meet an old collier, who was not only a most successful angler, 
 but one who could lure the fish on to his hook when every- 
 body else failed, this naturally excited the curiosity of the 
 neighbouring fishermen, and as the taciturnity of the collier 
 equalled his skill, they resolved to find out his secret. They 
 watched him, and found that his pastes were coloured and 
 scented ; but with what 1 After an investigation not much 
 unlike espionage, they discovered that a variety of essential 
 oils, safi'ron, and balsam of Tolu entered into the composition 
 of the old man's pastes, and that he changed them month by 
 month to suit the varying appetite of the fish he angled for." 
 A friend also told me a little while ago that when he lived 
 at Stratford-on-Avon, there was an angler there who could 
 catch quantities of roach with his scented paste ; he said he 
 told him how to make it, and it was nothing but " oil of 
 rhodium " that was mixed among the bread. My friend says 
 he has been to and worked in several counties since then, and 
 he could never do anything with it in any other river than 
 the Avon ; in short, I don't believe in scented pastes, and I 
 will leave the experiment of trying them to those who have 
 more time on their hands than I have. Plain bread paste is 
 good enough for me, when I feel inclined for a bit of paste fishing. 
 As the winter advances and the roach begin to get in the 
 deep holes, the cockspur worm is a good bait, as also is the 
 tail end of a lob-worm ; large worms clipped up very small 
 are the best ground baits you can use for this method, only, 
 as I have before said, be very sparing with your ground bait, 
 especially in the winter. When the water is very much dis- 
 coloured any time during the year, worms are the best bait for 
 
THE ROACH. 95 
 
 roach, and when the water is rising the angler can fish on the 
 grass slopes by the side. The fish are roving about, and are 
 looking for food ; also when water is low, keep your eyes open, 
 and note where a nice grassy slope comes gradually out of the 
 river, that is free from obstructions. This, when covered 
 with a rising water, will be found a capital place to take 
 roach with the cockspur or the tail end of lob ; but as soon 
 as the water begins to go down again, the fish retire with it 
 into the main stream, and it is very little good fishing in a 
 falling water during flood time. I have taken good roach 
 during the winter, when snow has laid on the ground, and 
 the weather has been altogether disagreeable, by a little judi- 
 cious baiting, and using the tail end of lob for the hook 
 bait ; anglers, therefore, need not despair, and think they can- 
 not get any roach fishing. If they know the winter haunts 
 of the fish, they caii get some sport, and the roach they do 
 catch in the winter with the tail end of lob are generally big 
 fish and in splendid condition. 
 
 Although roach, as a general thing, are found in deep, quiet 
 water, yet in the early part of the season they are sometimes 
 found in the shallows of a mill tail, or in the gravelly shal- 
 lows that flow from a weir, and they may then be caught by 
 a cad bait, or with gentles, fishing with a float and a short 
 tackle. If the angler is so minded also, he can whip for them 
 with an artificial fly, red and black palmers will be the best^ 
 and as an improvement he can put a gentle on the point of the 
 hook. Eoach can also be taken by daping a live insect on 
 the surface, in such places as follows : — Where a lot of weeds 
 &c., hinders you from float fishing, or in any place that you 
 know contains roach, providing that there is something on the 
 bank that will allow you to keep out of sight. A blow and 
 the cowdung fly are the best for this purpose. There is also 
 a certain water-weed {conferva rivalis) that roach will take as 
 a hook bait, when they are vegetably minded. That roach 
 
96 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 are sometimes vegetarians I know because I have opened 
 roach that have had some half-digested weeds in their in- 
 sides, though catching roach with a weed bait is a branch of 
 sport I have yet to learn. Ledgering for roach is not often 
 practised on the Trent, but sometimes during a thick, heavy- 
 water it is tried with success. It resembles what I have 
 described in ledgering for barbel, only the lead is smaller, the 
 tackle finer, and the hook is a l^o. 8. The bait is of course 
 a worm. 
 
 The wind comes in for a fair share of odium, when the 
 angler is only having indifferent sport, and east winds I know 
 are not good for roach fishing, although I have known good 
 catches to have been made when the wind is in the north, 
 which I have heard some anglers say is a much worse quarter 
 than the east. Roach can be caught when the wind is settled 
 in any one quarter ; it is when the wind is shifting about to 
 all points of the compass in a few hours, that it is fatal to the 
 success of the roach fisher. A rough wind is not good for the 
 roach angler, and if we could have it as we liked, a west, or 
 a south-west wind is the best of all. A morning when the 
 rime frost hangs about everything should be carefully avoided 
 by the roach fisher. If the sun should manage to struggle 
 out and lick the rime off, then the angler might venture to 
 go towards noon, with some chance of success. I remember 
 that an old friend and I were once roaching on the Trent ; 
 it was very cold, and the snow was falling fast. We were 
 fishing with bread paste, and yet we managed to take a bag 
 of fish, though the wind was in the east. I must confess, 
 however, that in the winter roach fishing is very uncertain. 
 More often have I been disappointed than I have taken fish, 
 but nevertheless, as I have before said, roach are to be taken in 
 the depth of winter, if you know their winter haunts, and the 
 day is anything like fair. Snow broth is fatal to your chance 
 
THE ROACH. 97 
 
 of success. Before I finisli with the roach, I might say that 
 occasionally the angler takes a fish that he supposes to be a 
 roach, but which in reality is a rudd ; it has a more coppery 
 tinge than the roach, is shorter and deeper, the back fin is 
 nearer the tail, and while the roach has a projecting upper 
 lip, the rudd has a projecting under lip. 
 
98 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE PIKE. 
 
 As this little book more particularly relates to "Bottom 
 Fishing in the JNottingham style," I ought strictly, perhaps, 
 not to mention the pike, but as there are plenty of bottom 
 fishers who occasionally indulge in a little pike fishing, per- 
 haps a few hints to the tyro as to what a pike is like, and 
 how to catch him, will not be unacceptable. The pike is a 
 member of the Esocidse family, and his scientific name is 
 Esox lucius. He is more frequently called the "Jack" 
 by anglers nowadays, though formerly he was only called 
 Jack when he was under about four pounds, and " pike " 
 when over that weight. The fish has also been termed " the 
 freshwater shark," and certainly he deserves the name, for in 
 very truth, he is a tyrant of the water. When hungry, the 
 voracity of this fish is very great, few things seeming to come 
 amiss to him. Hundreds of anecdotes are told about how he 
 will seize anything from a flat leaden plumb, to the hand of 
 a child. Among such anecdotes are references to his seizing 
 a swan's head and neck, a mule's lip, a Polish damsel's foot, 
 tender kittens and puppies, &c., &c. I have seen a pike come 
 up with a dash, and snap at a water wag- tail that has stood on 
 the edge of the water weeds ; and once I had hooked a nice 
 roach, and was getting it towards me, when, with a sudden 
 rush, a large pike seized the roach, and the next instant both 
 were gone. Pike wiU sometimes dash at a highly coloured 
 
THE PIKE. 99 
 
 float under the impression, I presume, that it is something 
 edible ; and will even swallow one of their smaller brethren 
 or offspring perhaps. In fact, when hungry, the pike is per- 
 fectly ferocious, but when his appetite has been appeased, he 
 is scarcely to be tempted. Practised pike fishers are well 
 aware of this, and know the difference between the " runs '' 
 when he is hungry and when he is not. When not very hun- 
 gry, he will mouth a bait and play with it, without any inten- 
 tion of swallowing it, and will then allow himself to be hauled 
 about, and pulled up to the surface of the water, only, with a 
 flap of his tail, to drop the bait from his jaws, and roll again 
 over into the deep water. In spite of his voracity there are, 
 however, some fish he does not care about. A tench is not a 
 good bait, neither does he like a perch although some do fish 
 for him with small perch which have been denuded of their 
 back fins. Although also he will take a frog, he will have 
 nothing to do with a toad. Notwithstanding this, his vora- 
 city is great, for we read that, "shrouded from observation in 
 his solitary retreat, he follows with his eye the shoals of fish 
 that wander heedlessly along ; he marks the water-rat swim- 
 ming to his burrow — the ducklings paddling among the water 
 weeds — the dab-chick and the moof-hen leisurely swimming 
 on the surface, he selects his victim, and, like a tiger springing 
 from the jungle, he rushes forth, seldom indeed missing his 
 aim ; there is a sudden rush, circle after circle forms on the 
 surface of the water, and all is still again in an instant." 
 
 The pike when in good condition is a handsomely marked 
 fish, his whole body is mottled with green, yellow, and white. 
 One great characteristic of the pike is his dorsal or back fin, 
 which is placed a deal further back thanin most fishes it is, 
 opposite the anal fin and is very near his tail. The body is 
 rather long and slender, rounded on the back, and the sides 
 are very much compressed. What a head and mouth he has ! 
 The very look of it is suggestive of ferocity, the head is de- 
 
 H 2 
 
100 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 pressed, the jaws are large, oblong and flattened, and furnished 
 with a perfect phalanx of formidable teeth of various sizes ; 
 his eyes are on the top of his head, and have a very villainous 
 look with them. We can fancy the sensations of a shoal of 
 roach or dace, when his head and eyes are suddenly thrust 
 into view. I once saw a pike rush at and seize the leg of a 
 duck, and a great squalling and flapping of wings was the 
 result, and it is common to hear of pike drowning ducks, 
 geese, and even swans, when they have seized them. In the 
 case of the duck just mentioned, however, the pike was only 
 about a four-pounder, so after a struggle the duck got away. 
 In Ireland, I believe, a big pike will sometimes drown an 
 eagle ; the eagle, it appears, having pounced on the pike when 
 the latter has been basking near the surface, has embedded 
 its talons in the flesh of the fish so deeply as to prevent its 
 extricating them. A traveller corroborates this story by say- 
 ing that he had himself seen a big pike with an eagle fastened 
 to his back lying dead on a piece of ground which had been 
 overflowed, but from which the water had retreated. It will 
 be seen from this that the pike, voracious as it is, is sometimes 
 the prey of feathered enemies. 
 
 The pike is a solitary fish, though big ones are often found 
 in pairs. After floods and frosts, however, they may some- 
 times be found collected together in numbers in favourable 
 eddies, or in a backwater, or at the tail of an island, reed 
 beds, or at the ends of old locks, &c. Grood ones are some- 
 times found in the rough water of a weir also, and they are 
 occasionally met with in a full stream. Generally, however, 
 they prefer the quiet parts of the river. A deep corner away 
 from the main stream, where a lot of reeds and rushes grow 
 by the side is a sure find ; a backwater or a cutting that has 
 an entrance from the river generally hold a few good fish ; 
 while a big lake often is a perfect pike paradise. 
 
 These spawn about March, and deposit their eggs on the 
 
THE PIKE. ' ' '^ 101 
 
 weeds in shallow waters, such as ditches and backwaters, and 
 after a short rest they scour themselves in the stream. After 
 this they take up their regular haunts for the season. While 
 they are performing the operation of spawning, such is their 
 lazy and absorbed manner that they may nearly be taken out 
 with the hand, and poachers profit by this and either snare 
 the fish or else catch them by snatching, though they are at 
 this time very unwholesome as food, and ought not on any 
 account to be taken. A pike in good condition is a good fish 
 for the table, the flesh is white and firm, and of a deal better 
 flavour than chub or roach. Those from a river and running 
 water are a great deal better than those taken from a pond, 
 and a pike out of season and condition is about as filthy a 
 mess as can be tasted. 
 
 Formerly, the pike was a scarce and expensive fish in Eng- 
 land. During the reign of Edward I. (about the close of the 
 thirteenth century), jack was so dear that few could aff'ordto 
 eat it, the price was double that of salmon, and ten times 
 higher than either turbot or cod. In 1466, pike was one of 
 the chief dishes in the high church festivals given by George 
 Neville, Archbishop of York. In Henry VIII. 's time also 
 these fish fetched as much again as house lamb in February, 
 and a very small pickerel would sell higher than a fat capon. 
 Pike under favourable circumstances and in good localities 
 will grow to a remarkable size. I have heard that in some of 
 the large lakes of Ireland they will attain the extraordinary 
 weight of eighty pounds, and in Wales it is said there are 
 enormous fish in its deep mountain tarns, but in England 
 they do not exceed the weight of forty pounds, and it would 
 require to be a carefully preserved and a very favourable water 
 to possess one of even that weight. The lakes, broads, and 
 meres of Norfolk, Sufi'olk, and Huntingdonshire are credited 
 with holding some big fish. There is a story also of a mon- 
 strous pike being caught at Lillieshall Lime Works in 1765 
 
102 ,]^OTTQM EI^HTNG IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE, 
 
 out of a pool about nine yards deep, whicli had not been 
 fished for ages. The water was let off by means of a level, 
 and brought up to drain the works when this enormous pike 
 was found at the bottom ; he was dragged out by means of a 
 rope in the presence of hundreds of spectators, and was said 
 to have weighed upwards of one hundred and seventy pounds, 
 and was thought to be the biggest ever seen. Such is the 
 story, but whether it is correct or not, I cannot say ; it has, 
 however, been placed on record as a fact. Jack, as a rule, do 
 not run very large in the Trent, and it is only occasionally 
 that one of twenty pounds is taken, but there are some dis- 
 tricts where fish of that size or even a pound or two over are 
 taken. The occasions are nevertheless very rare, and a Trent 
 angler must be content if he gets one of that size during the 
 term of his natural life. A ten-pounder ought to content 
 him, a twelve-pounder make him happy, while one of fifteen 
 pounds or over ought to make his heart rejoice to such an 
 extent that he would call his friends and neighbours together 
 and give them a banquet in honour of the occasion. An 
 eight-pound fish is not to be despised, while one of six or 
 seven as a fish for the table, and a bit of sport for the angler, 
 especially out of a stream, is hardly to be equalled. It is 
 true the pike is not a very good fighter ; a ten-pound jack 
 being nothing like a five-pound barbel for pluck and dogged 
 resistance ; still, however, a five or six-pound jack on the light 
 tackle of a Trent spinner, in a stream, is not to be despised. 
 Two of the finest pike, I suppose, that have ever been taken 
 out of English waters by rod and line were taken a year or 
 two ago by Mr. Alfred Jardine. They weighed thirty-six 
 pounds each, or the two together seventy-two pounds. These 
 are grand fish in the estimation of all anglers who have seen 
 them, and are preserved, and were exhibited at the Norwich 
 Fisheries Exhibition. I believe they received a valuable 
 prize there as specimen fish. There must, however, be a 
 
THE PIKE. 103 
 
 great deterioration of the race of jack during these last few 
 centuries ; for what are Mr. Jardine's fish, or indeed the 
 monsters that have been taken from the Irish lakes, compared 
 to that historical pike captured in the vicinity of Manheim in 
 the year 1497 a.d. To one of the gills of this fish was found 
 suspended a medal with the following inscription in Greek : 
 "I am the first fish that was put into this pond by the hands 
 of the Governor of the Universe, Erederic the Second, on the 
 5th day of October, 1232." By this it will appear that the 
 fish had reached the ripe old age of two hundred and sixty 
 five years, and he is said to have weighed three hundred and 
 fifty pounds, measuring nineteen feet in length. His skeleton 
 is said to be preserved in the Museum at Manlieim. 
 
 Various are the methods employed for the capture of the 
 jack. He can be shot, trimmered, huxed, and snared or 
 snatched, but these are methods unworthy of a sportsman, and 
 should be carefully avoided by the true angler. He legiti- 
 mately is taken by live baiting, dead gorge fishing, and 
 spinning with both the natural and artificial baits. Of all the 
 methods that are adopted for the capture of the pike, spinning 
 is certainly the most scientific, and is practised more on the 
 Trent than is any other style. I will commence with that, 
 therefore, and shall be as brief as possible in my instructions, 
 merely giving the tyro a few hints, so that he may know how 
 to go on. Those anglers who would like to know the whole 
 art of jack fishing, I would recommend to purchase Mr. 
 Pennell's " Book of the Pike," which treats the subject in an 
 exhaustive manner. 
 
 The rod for pike fishing difi'ers from the ordinary bottom 
 rod in one or two particulars. It is stronger and stiffer, and is 
 nothing like so fine at the extreme point, the rings also on it 
 are larger, so as to allow the line to run freely through them 
 without the possibility of a catch or tangle. My pike rod is 
 in four pieces, the butt is of hickory^ and the other pieces are 
 
104 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 of lancewood. It is rather more lissom made in that fashion 
 than if it had been made like the generality of Trent pike 
 rods, that is of red deal and lancewood, because when the 
 middle joint is of red deal it must be thick and strong, for the 
 purpose of withstanding the wear and tear consequent on 
 throwing a heavy bait thirty or forty yards. My rod being 
 rather more lissom or whippy, as I said, it bends nicely to the 
 throw, and I can cast long distances with the greatest ease. 
 The would-be pike angler, however, can. please himself ; let 
 him go to a good rod-maker, and he cannot be far out. 
 
 The reel described and recommended in Chapter II. for 
 the bottom fisher will be just the thing, and for a line I 
 should use a plaited one, as they are better than the twisted 
 ones. Select one of middling stoutness, but not too thick or 
 heavy. A Nottingham spinning line or one that is made by 
 the Manchester Cotton Company is the best. Undressed 
 ones are best, the dressed lines for spinning are not so good in 
 my idea. The lines recommended are very cheap, and will do 
 for any sort of pike fishing. 
 
 To spin a bait properly the angler requires a trace, a lead, 
 and a flight of hooks on which to fasten his bait. The trace 
 consists of a yard of stoutish gimp with a steel loop and 
 swivel on one end and a large loop on the other, to which the 
 reel line is fastened. Some anglers use stout twisted gut for 
 these traces, but gimp is the cheapest. On the bottom of 
 this trace, and fastened to the steel loop and swivel is a lead, 
 and a lead that hangs below the line is the best. I used to 
 make these leads something in this fashion : — I took one of the 
 long pear shaped leads that are termed heavy corking weights 
 on the Trent, and bent it slightly in the middle, so that it was 
 in the form of a crescent. I next put a piece of gimp through 
 the hole, and then one of the spring loops and swivels on 
 the gimp, lapping the two ends of the gimp over each other, 
 and binding them tightly together with a bit of waxed silk. 
 
THE PIKE. 105 
 
 The bound ends are then worked round till they are inside the 
 hole of the lead, and the two pieces of gimp are next bound 
 together to each end of the lead. A loop of the gimp is now 
 at one end, and one of the spring loops and swivels at the 
 other. The gimp loop of this contrivance is then hooked 
 on the spring loop at the bottom of the trace, and this forms 
 a first-rate lead. The desirability of having these leads is 
 because they hang as it were below the line, and keep it from 
 twisting and kinking, which it must do if the lead is only a 
 straight one merely threaded on the gimp. A better lead 
 than this has been brought out by the Proprietor of the 
 Fishing Gazette^ and is a decided improvement on the old 
 system. 
 
 At the bottom of the lead there is another foot of gimp 
 or so, with a loop on one end and another of the spring loops 
 and swivels on the other, and at the end of this last there is 
 another foot of gimp with a small loop at one end, and the 
 flight of hooks at the other. Some tyros may want to know 
 why this trace, &c., cannot all be in one piece, without hav- 
 ing so many pieces and so many swivels in it % The reply 
 is that the bait must revolve or spin in the water, and if there 
 were no swivels on the trace it would not do that very well, 
 to say nothing of twisting and kinking the line. I like plenty 
 of swivels on my trace and the spring loops and swivels may 
 be bought at any tackle shop, being very cheap. These 
 spring loops and swivels are also fastened together and are 
 very useful things, as they enable the angler to disengage any 
 part of his trace from the others in a moment. Some anglers 
 only have their traces divided into two parts, with one 
 swivel, but I like it divided into three or four with as many 
 swivels, because if one swivel gets fast during the process 
 of spinning, there is another to keep twisting. This, then, 
 is the spinner's trace : and now for the flight of hooks. There 
 are various flights in use, but the one that is known as the 
 
106 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 "Pennell" flight is the best. It is chiefly remarkable by having 
 the lower hook or hooks formed like the letter S, it also has 
 a sliding lip hook and one or two flying triangles. This is 
 a very simple arrangement and is a very deadly one. The 
 sliding lip hoop, as you may infer from its name, is made to 
 move up and down the gimp of the flight, purposely to adapt 
 it to any sized bait. A piece of fine wire or gimp is whipped 
 to the side of the hook, so as to leave two loops, one at the 
 end of the shank and the other near the bend of the hook. 
 The ginip of the flight is then put through the loop nearest 
 the bend, and twisted two or three times round the shank, and 
 then passed through the other loop. By loosening the coils 
 of gimp that are round the shank, the lip hook can be 
 shifted up or down to suit the requirements of a large or small 
 bait. The lower hook, as I have said, is like an S, and be- 
 tween this hook and the lip hook there are one or two flying 
 triangles, so called because they hang loose, and are not 
 fastened in the bait at all ; these are on short pieces of gimp, 
 which in turn are whipped firmly to the gimp of the flight. 
 If dace are used as bait, two flying triangles are deemed best, 
 but if gudgeon or bleak are used one is better. To bait this 
 flight, it is best done in the manner described by Mr. Pennell 
 himself; the bottom or tail hook being inserted first : — The 
 point is inserted by the side or lateral line of the bait near to 
 the tail, and passing it under a broadish strip of the skin, 
 and through the end of the fleshy part of the tail, bring it 
 out as near the base of the tail as practicable. Next insert 
 the small reversed hook (the top hook of the S) in such a 
 position as to curve the bait's tail to nearly a right angle ; 
 finally pass the lip hook through both its lips, always putting 
 it through the upper lip first when the bait is a gudgeon, and 
 through the lower one first with all others. This is very 
 important in securing a very brilliant spin." The flying 
 triangles of course hang free. This is a splendid flight, but 
 
THE PIKE. 107 
 
 I fancied when I first made and used one, that it might be 
 improved on a trifle. The bait spun well, but there was such 
 a long distance between the bottom hook and the lip hook, 
 and nothing to hold the gimp to the side of the bait, which 
 would often buckle in the middle, and cause the gimp to 
 stand away from the bait in an awkward manner. I there- 
 fore had a smallish hook, and whipped it on the gimp the 
 reverse way to the lip hook, somewhere between the two 
 triangles, and then stuck it well in the side of the bait. I 
 found that it acted well. Another kind of flight and one 
 that is more used on the Trent than any other, is made 
 with two or three fixed triangles and the sliding lip hook. 
 These triangles are all whipped tight to the gimp, and 
 just above the bottom one there is a single hook whipped 
 on the reverse way. To bait this flight, take the bait 
 and put one of the hooks of the bottom triangle into the 
 flesh of the tail, bringing the point out on the same side ; 
 draw up the tail so as to bend it well, and then put the 
 reversed hook in to keep it bent, next insert one of the 
 hooks of the second triangle in the side, and then one of 
 the third triangle in the side near to the shoulder; and 
 lastly put or slide the lip hook dow^n to the mouth of the 
 bait and put it through both lips. The three triangles should 
 be straight by each other along the side of the bait, and no 
 loose gimp between them, or the bait will not spin so well. 
 All sorts of flights are made that the ingenuity of man can 
 suggest, or his hands form for the destruction of the jack ; 
 but the two described will be found entirely sufficient for the 
 angler's purpose. I may just mention two more contrivances, 
 however, that have been brought out for spinning with dead 
 bait ; one is Mr. Gregory's *' Archimedean" spinning tackle ; 
 it is thrust in the mouth and down the belly of the bait ; 
 the tail requires no bend as the fans at the mouth of the 
 bait causes the spin. The other is a contrivance brought 
 
108 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 out by the Proprietor of the Fishing Gazette, called the 
 " Fishing Gazette Spinner ; " and is a capital contrivance with 
 which to spin a dead bait. The triangles of an ordinary flight 
 are simply inserted in the sides of the bait, without bending 
 the tail, and the " Spinner " performs the spinning operation 
 itself, which it does to perfection. 
 
 The baits for spinning are dace, gudgeon, bleak, and small 
 roach. A bleak I may say is more frequently called a whitling 
 on the Trent ; it is a brilliant bait, but soon wears out on the 
 hooks j the others being tougher last longer. A Thames 
 spinner when he throws his bait pulls off the reel a suffi- 
 cient quantity of line, and either gathers it in the palm of 
 his hand, or else lays it in coils at his feet ; the Trent spinner 
 avoids this by casting directly from the reel ; he winds up 
 all the spare line till only the trace and bait hang from the 
 point of the rod ; he has the forefinger of one hand laid 
 lightly on the barrel of the reel, and then brings the point 
 of the rod behind him, and makes his cast by sweeping the 
 rod and bait smartly over the river, in the direction he re- 
 quires. If the angler is not careful the reel is apt to turn so 
 much faster than the line can travel through the rings, and a 
 sad tangle is the result ; this can be avoided, however, and re- 
 gulated by the forefinger that is on the barrel of the reel. When 
 the cast is made the forefinger is lifted off, and if he sees it is 
 likely to travel round too fast, he can check it by again laying 
 the forefinger lightly on the edge of the revolving part of the 
 reel. So soon as the bait strikes the water it can be stopped at 
 once by pressing a little harder. It is rather difficult to get 
 into the throw all at once, but as the saying goes, " it is easy 
 when you know how ; " a little practice will soon put you up 
 to it ; and when you do get into it, you can throw your bait 
 anywhere you like to within a foot or so ; and thirty or forty 
 yards are by no means uncommon distances. When you have 
 thrown your bait, you wind up the line on the reel, and the 
 
THE PIKE. 109 
 
 bai comes spinning and glittering towards you like a thing 
 of life, or more properly like a partly disabled fish trying to 
 escape. Wind the bait as near to you as you can, lift it out 
 of the water and repeat the cast, never let the bait sink to 
 the bottom, or the hooks may catch hold of some obstruc- 
 tion, and give you a lot of trouble to disengage them. Try 
 all sorts of dodges also during spinning, spin slowly, spin 
 quickly, let the bait spin near the surface, or down deeper 
 in mid water; or jerk it a little with the rod point; act, in 
 fact, all sorts of dodges. 
 
 When you know there is a jack about, search all the water 
 within reach of the cast well, don't let a yard of water go 
 unfished. When a jack takes the bait, and he is hungry, he 
 generally takes care that it shall not be a doubtful matter. 
 Hit him rather smartly, as the hooks having rank barbs, 
 would fail to penetrate the hard mouth of the pike if you did 
 not strike well home. Some anglers, when they feel a fish, 
 give him a few seconds' grace. This is not absohitely neces- 
 sary, as a pike when he means to take a bait, seldom misses 
 his target, and striking and hooking can be done at once, as 
 well as if one waited. Pike are very often lost when spin- 
 ning, but mostly through the carelessness of the angler. 
 Play the fish firmly but carefully, and keep a tight line on 
 him, for if the line be slack and the hooks not very fast in, 
 he will shake his head like a bulldog sometimes, and pro- 
 bably shake hooks and bait out of his mouth. When you 
 have landed your fish, the next job is to get the hooks out of 
 his mouth, and it is " ware 'hawk " here. Don't put your 
 fingers in his mouth, or indeed close against it, for he can bite, 
 and to some tune too. He will snap at you like a savage dog, 
 and if he once gets a fair hold, you will most likely remem- 
 ber it for the rest of your natural life. The best plan would 
 be to rap him over the head with something heavy, and then 
 force his mouth open with a bit of stick, pulling out the 
 
110 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 hooks with a pair of flat-nosed pliers. Contrivances have, 
 however, been brought out, on purpose to prop open the 
 mouth of the pike, so that the hooks can be disengaged with- 
 out fear of the fish closing his jaws over your hand. Before 
 concluding spinning for pike, I may be allowed to again refer 
 to Mr, Gregory's " Archimedean Spinner" in detail. Its merits 
 are so obvious that it were a pity to omit description. They 
 consist, as I have said, of a long brass hook and lead to 
 thrust down the belly of the bait, three triangles, a single 
 hook to stick in the head of the bait, and the "Archimedean 
 fins " at the head to cause the spin. To put on a bait pro- 
 perly, thrust the brass hook with the lead, in the mouth of 
 the bait, and down the belly, with the point towards the 
 belly, taking particular care that the head of the bait is 
 brought as closely up between the Archimedean fins as pos- 
 sible ; when you have done this, the bait will be perfectly 
 straight ; next bring over the hook at the top, and send it 
 well into the head of the bait, and adjust the treble hooks to 
 suit the size of the bait you are using. This can be done by 
 drawing the gimp through the tubes, but take care the hooks 
 are not twisted before putting on the bait, or the gimp will 
 not draw properly through. A six-inch dace is as good a bait 
 as you can use with this tackle. Do not bend the tail at all, 
 let it be perfectly straight, and the fins of the tackle will 
 cause the bait to have a brilliant spin. Mr. Gregory tells me 
 that with this very tackle, in the season 1880-81, he 
 killed fifty-eight fish. I might just mention that these 
 tackles are made in five sizes, two for pike and three for 
 salmon and trout. I must now just caution the angler to exa- 
 mine and test his hooks, and the spring loops and swivels 
 before he makes his tackle, or if he buys his tackle ready- 
 made before he uses them, for I have lost a good fish or 
 two by the spring loop snapping at the bend, and the hooks 
 of the flight either breaking, or pulling straight. 
 
THE PIKE. Ill 
 
 If the angler wishes to fish in a backwater, or any other 
 place that is choked up with weeds (and he cannot very well 
 use the spinning bait there), he fishes with what is called the 
 gorge bait. The gorge hook is a double hook securely fast- 
 ened to some stout twisted brass wire ; about six inches in 
 length. Around the shank, a piece of conico-cylindrical 
 shaped lead is cast, and to bait this, it is necessary to have a 
 flat baiting-needle, about seven inches long. Put the loop 
 of the tackle in the eye of the needle, and push the point of 
 the needle in at the mouth of the bait, then drive it right 
 through the body, and bring it out between the forks of the 
 tail. The lead is now pushed into the belly of the fish, until 
 the hooks lie by the side of the mouth ; next the tail can be 
 tied to the gimp, then hang the loop of this contrivance in 
 the spring loop at the bottom of the trace, and it is ready. 
 In the weedy places where this is used, there may be a few 
 holes and openings that are comparatively free. Drop or 
 tiirow the bait into these openings, and work it with a series 
 of jerks up and down, letting it sink to the bottom, and then 
 drawing it to the surface with a jerky motion. When a fish 
 seizes the bait, the angler must let him take it where he 
 likes, letting out the line from the reel, so that the fish 
 shall not feel any obstruction. The fish begins to swal- 
 low the bait ; when he stops, — and the angler allows him ten 
 minutes to perform this operation, unless he begins to move 
 off before, — at the end of that time, wind up the line, and 
 pull a little ; striking is not necessary, as the pike most likely 
 has got the bait down his belly, and all the striking in the 
 world won't make it any faster. This is a plan of fishing 
 that I don't like, because if you only hook a pound fish or he 
 swallows the bait, you cannot return him to the water, he 
 must be killed. I don't practise this plan, if the place can 
 anyhow be spun over, Another method of pike fishing is by 
 live baiting. For this method, the spinning trace is dis- 
 
112 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 pensed with, and a single length of gimp, about two feet long, 
 is used. At the bottom of this, there is an arrangement of 
 hooks, and at the top a loop ; the hooks are generally a tri- 
 angle at the bottom, and a little above it there is whipped a 
 smaller single hook. This small hook is fastened to the 
 fish, at the side near to the back fin, by the help of the bait- 
 ing-needle, and the triangle hangs loose against the side near 
 to the belly of the bait. A double hook is sometimes used 
 instead of a triangle, especially if the water is fine, because 
 the hooks will lie closer to the side of the fish, and the pike 
 not notice them. Another sort of live-bait tackle is made by 
 merely having a double hook on the bottom of the gimp; the 
 baiting-needle is passed under the skin, near to the shoulder 
 of the bait, and brought out a couple of inches lower down, 
 the gimp is then drawn through, until the shank of the hook 
 is under the skin, and the hooks are laid close to the side of 
 the bait. A large float is used with these baits, and is put 
 on the line, and thereafter a running lead which is fastened 
 halfway between the float and the bait. When a pike takes 
 these live baits, I advise you to give him a minute or so to 
 get it well into his mouth, but don't give him time to gorge 
 it, and then strike smartly. A single hook is sometimes 
 hung through the lip of a bleak, or a small dace, by way of 
 a live bait ; but a pike when he takes this bait must have 
 time to gorge. There are several other sorts of snap hooks 
 and Hve-bait tackles that have been introduced to the public, 
 and amongst others an arrangement in which a live bait can 
 be fastened to the tackle by means of india-rubber bands, in- 
 stead of having the hooks stuck in the body of the bait. 
 For that, however, and other inventions, I must refer the 
 angler to the nearest tackle-maker. All sorts of creatures have 
 been recommended as baits for pike, such as frogs, rats, mice, 
 small birds, &c., but I don't much believe in either of them, 
 except, perhaps, the frog. 
 
THE PIKE. 113 
 
 Pike are not confined to fish or spinning baits, for I know- 
 that sometimes they will take a worm. A friend once took 
 four pike about four pounds each with a worm on fine roach 
 tackle out of one hole in about an hour, he hooked the lot 
 in the corner of the mouth, or else perhaps they would have 
 cut the gut and escaped. I also have taken an odd one or 
 two with the worm, and I have lost some, owing to the fish 
 severing the gut with their teeth. Artificial baits for pike 
 are so numerous and various in design, that to give a descrip- 
 tion of them would require a very long chapter. The old- 
 fashioned spoon bait is still used a great deal, and kills fish ; 
 but improvements have been brought out these last few years 
 that we now very seldom see the old spoon bait in the hands 
 of a scientific pike fisher. First and foremost among the 
 artificial pike bait makers stands Mr. Gregory of Birmingham ; 
 his baits are splendid articles and beautifully finished. I 
 have tried the "Colorado," the ''Clipper," the "AVindsor 
 Bee," and the " Fishing Gazette Spoon." These are all grand 
 baits, and will spin well in dead water, and where there is a 
 difficulty in procuring fish baits, they are very good substi- 
 tutes. I can most cordially recommend any of those baits to 
 the angler. Another sweet little bait Mr. Gregory has just 
 brought out is called the " Wheeldon." It is a lot smaller 
 than the others, and for small pike, or waters that contain no 
 fish heavier than four pounds, it will be found just the 
 thing ; it looks to me to be admirably suited for perch spin- 
 ning. If perch are inclined for running at your spinning bait, 
 one of these will be just the lure for them. There are also 
 " Phantoms," " Piano convex baits," " Archimedean min- 
 nows," and artificial fish in every shape, style, and size, which, 
 as I said before, would take a very long chapter to describe ; 
 but this is already drawn out to a greater length than I had 
 intended, and so I must refer the reader to the tackle makers. 
 The baits mentioned above are plenty good enough for me, 
 
 I 
 
]14i BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STILE. 
 
 and any one of them will kill when the pike are inclined to 
 feed, but I suppose I need not say that natural fish baits are 
 the best, if you can get them. 
 
 Pike will sometimes take a very large artificial fly, if fly it 
 can be called. Its body is as thick as a man's finger, and the 
 wings are two peacock's feathers, and it is as big as one of 
 the stuff'ed humming-birds that you see in glass cases. It is 
 worked over weeds and open places, with a series of jumps and 
 bobs. 
 
 One word yet, and I have done. The angler should always 
 pay very great attention to weed beds, reeds and flags, or a 
 sheltered shallow corner, in the immediate vicinity of a deep 
 hole, or just below an island, where the stream is, as it were, 
 broken in two, and a quiet eddy formed in the middle. 
 These are all favourite places, and some good pike are often 
 found therein. 
 
THE PERCH, 115 
 
 CHAPTEK YII. 
 
 THE PERCH. 
 
 The percli is a member of the Percidae family, and is a true 
 representative of the " spinous finned " fish (of which there 
 are very few diff'erent sorts found in the waters of Great 
 Britain), and his scientific name is Perca Muviatilis. When 
 he is in good condition, he is a handsome fish ; the body is 
 oblong, and is covered with small, hard and rough scales. 
 He has a large mouth, and the gill covers are spinous or 
 prickly. His jaws and palate are well furnished with teeth ; 
 in colour he is a sort of a pale green, with a white belly, and 
 there are some dark transverse bars stripmg his sides ; his anal 
 and tail or caudal fins are of a bright red, and the golden 
 irides of his eyes are very beautiful. The back is very 
 humped, the dorsal or back fin is surmounted by sharp spines 
 or prickles ; there is one very great characteristic, and that is, 
 he has two dorsal fins. Taking the perch altogether, he is a 
 very handsome fish. One drawback he has, and that is, he 
 is not a very comfortable fish to handle. You hook one, and 
 swing him into your hand, like a roach or dace, and he will 
 elevate the spines on his back, or you may perhaps catch 
 your hand against the edge of his gill covers, and a very sharp 
 stab will be the result. He might very well be called the 
 water hedgehog, in that respect. The baits for perch fishing 
 are worms (a well-scoured tail end of lob-worm is, perhaps, 
 as good as any, though he likes a bunch of small red worms, 
 
 I 2 
 
116 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 or a brandling) ; minnows are an excellent bait for him, or a 
 very small gudgeon, or dace (all fry in fact not above two 
 inches long) ; minnows, however, if you can get them, are the 
 best. He will sometimes take a lump of paste, or a bunch of 
 gentles, when one is roach fishing, or a cad bait when fishing 
 for dace in a stream, and he will very often take the very 
 small hook and scrap of worm of the gudgeon fisher. When 
 ledgering for barbel with worms in a weir hole, he is often 
 taken, but I believe his principal food is the small fry of fish. 
 I have taken them when I have been spinning for pike with 
 an artificial bait, and have seen them dash at a six inch 
 dace on a spinning flight, with back fin extended, and mouth 
 open, to within a few inches of it, and then turn tail and re- 
 treat ; and very often they have only been perch of half a 
 pound or so. In lakes and waters where perch run very 
 large, it is astonishing the size of the bait a three pound 
 perch will take. You are perhaps fishing with a live bait, a 
 dace or roach, intended for (at least) a ten pound jack, and 
 a three pound perch will insist on trying to swallow it. A 
 big perch has a tremendous mouth, in proportion, and perhaps 
 he thinks that anything he can get into his mouth, he can 
 swallow. When I see a three-quarter pound perch hanging 
 from the triangle of a spoon bait (for instance), I always 
 think of the old saying about the eyes being bigger than the 
 beUy. Perch are found in almost any river, canal, lake, and 
 pond in the kingdom : and in ponds, &c., where they run 
 small, and are ill-fed, can be taken anyhow, a worm on coarse 
 tackle they will then take greedily. A good river perch, in 
 the months of August, September, or October, is quite another 
 thing ; he is a good deal like a roach, and is not to be had by 
 a mere tyro. About the latter end of June or so, perch are 
 found in the streams, and are often caught when dace fishing 
 with worm ; a month or two after they get into deeper and 
 stronger waters, or seek the quiet eddies and deep holes near 
 
116 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 or a brandling) ; minnows are an excellent bait for him, or a 
 very small gudgeon, or dace (all fry in fact not above two 
 inches long) ; minnows, however, if you can get them, are the 
 best. He will sometimes take a lump of paste, or a bunch of 
 gentles, when one is roach fishing, or a cad bait when fishing 
 for dace in a stream, and he will very often take the very 
 small hook and scrap of worm of the gudgeon fisher. When 
 ledgering for barbel with worms in a weir hole, he is often 
 taken, but I believe his principal food is the small fry of fish. 
 I have taken them when I have been spinning for pike with 
 an artificial bait, and have seen them dash at a six inch 
 dace on a spinning flight, with back fin extended, and mouth 
 open, to within a few inches of it, and then turn tail and re- 
 treat ; and very often they have only been perch of half a 
 pound or so. In lakes and waters where perch run very 
 large, it is astonishing the size of the bait a three pound 
 perch will take. You are perhaps fishing with a live bait, a 
 dace or roach, intended for (at least) a ten pound jack, and 
 a three pound perch will insist on trying to swallow it. A 
 big perch has a tremendous mouth, in proportion, and perhaps 
 he thinks that anything he can get into his mouth, he can 
 swallow. When I see a three-quarter pound perch hanging 
 from the triangle of a spoon bait (for instance), I always 
 think of the old saying about the eyes being bigger than the 
 beUy. Perch are found in almost any river, canal, lake, and 
 pond in the kingdom : and in ponds, &c., where they run 
 small, and are ill-fed, can be taken anyhow, a worm on coarse 
 tackle they will then take greedily. A good river perch, in 
 the months of August, September, or October, is quite another 
 thing ; he is a good deal like a roach, and is not to be had by 
 a mere tyro. About the latter end of June or so, perch are 
 found in the streams, and are often caught when dace fishing 
 with worm ; a month or two after they get into deeper and 
 stronger waters, or seek the quiet eddies and deep holes near 
 
5. Wasp, grub, and pith tackle, for Chub. Pages 50, 51. 
 
 6. Worm tackle, without lip-hook, for Barbel. Page 69. 
 
 7. „ „ „ for Bream. Page 125. 
 
 8. Locust tackle, for Chub. Page 56. 
 
THE PERCH. 117 
 
 old piers and piles of bridges, weir depths ; and it is then 
 that they are very shy, being well fed. It requires fine tackle, 
 and a very delicate bait to entrap them then. After a sharp 
 winter, when the frost has just broken up, and the river is 
 tearing down in high flood, the perch are driven into the still 
 comers and eddies, and at that time and in those places they 
 are sometimes congregated together in large numbers. They 
 have been on short commons most of the winter, and are 
 very hungry, and will then take almost anything, after the 
 water has cleared down a little. In good perch waters, I have 
 heard of as many as two hundred fine fish being taken out of 
 one hole, by two rods in a few hours, when they have been 
 in that condition. That instance is the exception, however, 
 and not the rule. In January and February they are taken 
 in the largest quantities, but in the autumn and early part of 
 the winter they are not to be had so easily. 
 
 Perch spawn in April, and deposit their eggs on the weeds 
 and rushes, the submerged branches or fibrous roots of trees 
 or bushes in the still backwaters, or up ditches, and these 
 hang about the weeds, &c., like long festoons of lace ; it is 
 then that swans, &c., should be kept away, for they will 
 gobble up this spawn by the yard. One singular point in the 
 perch is that out of every dozen that is captured, eleven of 
 them are female fish. Some naturalists infer that the perch 
 are bisexual, and that they are self-concipient, but one thing 
 is certain they are very prolific, even a small perch contains 
 a vast quantity of eggs. Perch in some localities will reach 
 a considerable size. I have heard of them reaching a very 
 heavy weight in the Danube, but in England they very 
 seldom exceed the weight of four pounds, and this is by no 
 means common. A three-pound fish is a very heavy one, a 
 two-pounder is a good one, while a pounder or a three-quarter- 
 pounder is not to be despised, while even a dish of a half- 
 pound perch does not fall to the lot of the angler every day. 
 
118 BOTTOM PISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 The Thames, the Kennet, and the Hampshire Avon, are perhaps 
 the best rivers in England for perch, for we hear of them 
 being taken out of those rivers very often of the weight of 
 from two to two and a half pounds, while in the broads of 
 Norfolk and Suffolk, and the meres of Huntingdonshire, we 
 hear of them of the weight of four pounds and even a few a 
 little over. The Trent does not seem to be much of a perch 
 river, either as regards weight or numbers. I don't see why 
 it should not, but such is the fact. I have never yet seen 
 or heard of a two-pound perch being taken out of the Trent. 
 Some localities are better stocked with them than others, 
 perhaps, but I must confess that in all my rambles up and 
 down the Trent, I have never found a place that abounds 
 with perch either little or big. Once I got a pound fish from 
 out of the rough water of Averham weir, and two or three 
 three-quarter-pounders from the mouth of the Devon, and 
 another place or two, and a few half-pounders from various 
 places, but they are by no means common, and I don't think 
 I ever caught above half a dozen perch in one day from the 
 Trent in my life ; the Devon and the Witham seem to be 
 better stocked with perch than the Trent, for I have seen 
 several good catches from those rivers. An angler went up 
 to Barnby to fish the Witham a few months ago. It was, in 
 fact, just after the break up of last winter's frost, and when 
 he got there the river was tearing down nearly bank full and 
 very much discoloured. He thought when he saw it that it 
 would be no use fishing, but there was a big drain or dyke a 
 little distance away, and as there was a deep hole at the 
 mouth of this drain where it ran into the river he thought 
 he would go and have a look. He found that a short dis- 
 tance up this drain, a very few yards in fact, the water was 
 nothing like so much discoloured as it was in the river, so he 
 determined to have a try. It was a beautiful quiet eddy, 
 whereas a few yards outside the river rushed down in a tor- 
 
THE PEECH. 119 
 
 rent : he clipped up a few worms and threw them in, and 
 then baited his hook, his float had hardly reached the per- 
 pendicular, before down it went, and in another minute a 
 half-pound perch was landed, this was rather encouraging, 
 and so he set to work in earnest, and for two hours the biting 
 was very fair, and when he left off, he had something like 
 thirty perch, and some half-dozen roach, and many of the 
 perch were very good fish. The perch had run up the mouth 
 of this drain, to get out of the way of the heavy water out- 
 side, and being hungry, had taken the bait freely. Nothing 
 like that has been done on the' X^'ent, and I have tried all 
 such likely -looking spots up and down the river, on purpose 
 to see if I could not break the spell that seems to be cast 
 over it, but without any very great results, and I have long 
 ago come to the conclusion that the Trent is not much of a 
 perch river. The largest perch by far that I have seen 
 captured in the neighbourhood of Newark was taken out of 
 the Devon, it was only an ounce or two short of two pounds. 
 I have, however, an idea that if they were properly angled 
 for there are some good perch in Besthorp Fleet (a large 
 sheet of water a short distance from the Trent, about eight 
 miles below Newark), in fact, I think of experimenting 
 there before long. A perch is a splendid fish for the table, 
 a small one out of a stagnant pond is not very good, but a 
 good river perch is excellent ; his flesh is white, firm, and 
 flaky, without so many of the objectionable small bones of 
 the roach. I have them opened and well cleaned, and a little 
 salt rubbed down the backbone, and then simply broiled in 
 their jackets. When they are cooked the skin and scales all 
 slip ofi", they are then seasoned to taste. The rod, reel, and line 
 described in Chapter II., p. 22, will be most suitable for perch 
 fishing, and the tackle may be stoutish roach tackle, about 
 three or four feet long, with a No. 5 or 6 hook on the end. 
 A perch has a large mouth and so it is better to have a large 
 
120 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 hook ; the float can either be a quill or a very small cork one, 
 according to the strength of the stream. I prefer a quill' and 
 tackle (except in the case of the hook), as recommended for 
 dace fishing when the bait is worms. A few worms cut up 
 as you are fishing and thrown in, is quite sufficient for ground 
 bait, the hook bait is a worm, the tail end of a well-scoured 
 lob- worm is the best of all, while brandlings or small red 
 worms can be tried for a change. When a perch takes the 
 bait, give him a second, and then strike lightly, and play 
 him carefully, for if you prick, hook, and lose a perch or 
 two it is fatal to your chance of success, unless they happen 
 to be well " on," which is not often the case ; and if you 
 get a shoal of perch in a biting humour, nothing would be 
 more annoying than to prick a fish or two. The rest of 
 them are frightened, and fly out of the swim, and nothing 
 will entice them back again (this holds good with either 
 worm or minnow fishing), or if you do entice them back 
 again it will be a couple of hours wasted, and the fish will 
 be shy and bite very gingerly. The most common plan of 
 taking perch is with the minnow, and this can be used in 
 several fashions. The most common method is with a single 
 minnow and float. The float is a light cork one, and the 
 tackle is about four feet of medium gut, sufliciently weighted 
 with split shots. Don't have a great clumsy float, but one 
 of the lightest cork floats you can find. One that will carry 
 six or eight middle-sized split shots will serve, and the lowest 
 shot should be about a foot from the hook, which should be 
 about a ISTo. 4 or 5. Some fasten the hook near to the back 
 fin, but I like to hook them through the lip. This bait 
 should be very near the bottom, and the float should travel 
 down the swim, something like traveller fishing for barbel. 
 The minnow is a capital fellow to work about ; and if you 
 know a perch haunt by the side of a row of bushes or a line 
 of flags, reeds, &c., the little fish will soon attract the atten- 
 
THE PERCH. 121 
 
 tion of Mr. Perch. When the float bobs down with a perch 
 bite, don't strike at once, give him a few seconds, and let 
 him have a trifle of line ; and when you feel the quick tug, 
 tug, tug, which ensues, strike firmly, but don't hit him too 
 hard. The reason why you give him a few seconds is be- 
 cause the hook is at the lip of the minnow, and a perch 
 takes them by the tail, and he has the whole of the minnow 
 to get into his mouth before the hook can take effect ; at 
 least that is my impression. With this tackle you can use 
 worms, for some odd times he will not look at the minnow, 
 but will take a well-scoured worm. In swift boiling waters, 
 or in a rapid stream, in which very often the largest perch 
 are to be found, and where you cannot very well use a float, 
 Jhen an arrangement that is called a paternoster is used. 
 This paternoster consists of about four feet of gut without 
 any split shots on it ; and at the bottom there is a plumb, or 
 heavy ledger, to keep the bait well down. Above this lead 
 there are two or three hooks on which the minnows are 
 impaled ; two will be sufficient. On the gut bottom, about 
 a foot from each other, two loops are tied — the bottom one a 
 few inches from the lead, and in these loops a piece of fine 
 gut about six inches long is also tied with a No. 4 or 5 hook 
 on the end. The minnow is baited in the same way as for 
 the float tackle. Do not use a dead minnow, but see that 
 he is perfectly lively. To use this, cast the plumb down 
 and across stream, when the plumb touches the bottom hold 
 it tight there, and let it stay a minute, then slowly wind up 
 the line and draw the baits towards you, but let them come 
 very slowly ; when you get them as near you as you can, 
 lift the plumb out of the water and make your cast again. 
 Throw it in all directions so as to search the whole of the 
 water well ; when you get a bite, remember what I said 
 before, don't strike at once, but give the fish a few seconds, 
 so that he may have time to get the bait in his mouth well. 
 
122 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 I have heard of anglers fastening bones at -egular distances 
 on a cord, by way of an attraction for the perch. I should 
 suppose the bones have a supply of meat on them, and Jiave 
 not been picked clean. A first-class angler says they are a 
 capital attraction for perch ; I, personally, cannot say, for I 
 never tried the scheme, and so cannot speak from experience 
 on that matter. The artificial minnow is sometimes spun, 
 but I think it is like spinning the natural one — a very sorry 
 business. If you must have an artificial bait for perch, per- 
 haps Mr. Gregory's " Clipper " would be as good as any, for 
 I have caught one or two on it. Spinning for perch, how- 
 ever, is not very profitable. Where perch abound the "v^orm 
 and the minnow worked as I have described will be found 
 all that is required. I have heard that perch are taken in 
 some districts with an artificial fly, but I have never seen 
 one caught with a fly, nor have I caught one myself. I am 
 told that a big showy fly is the best, and that it does not 
 matter about the pattern, as the perch are not very par- 
 ticular. I have used big showy flies for chub and in places 
 where I have taken perch with worm, but not a single perch 
 has yet taken my fly. 
 
THE BREAM. 123 
 
 CHAPTEE YIII. 
 
 THE BREAM. 
 
 The bream is another distinguished member of the carp tribe, 
 distinguished because he is of rather a peculiar shape, being 
 nearly as broad as he is long. His back stands up a good 
 height, and his belly bows round to a good depth. Indeed, 
 I have a short cutting before me from a journal in which a 
 writer describes a bream as being like a pair of bellows, " the 
 handles forming the head and the spout the tail ;" my author, 
 however, spoils his remark by adding, "they are like a pair of 
 bellows in flavour." Well, I know they are not very good 
 as an edible, but like a pair of bellows ! The scientific name 
 of the bream is Gyprinus Brama. There are three sorts of 
 bream in English waters, but the most common are the carp 
 bream or golden bream, and the white bream or silver bream 
 called by some bream flats. The carp bream is the larger of 
 the two sorts, and is not a very handsome fish, it can easily 
 be recognized by any tyro, being very thin and also wonder- 
 fully broad. The fins are of a very dark colour, his head is 
 not out of the way large, and he has rather a small mouth, 
 when we consider the size of him ; his skin is very slimy in 
 a general way, but I remember taking two or three two-pound 
 fish, and they were as clean as a dace. This was in Septem- 
 ber, and I hooked them in a slight shallow stream. They 
 were very beautiful on the back, looking as though they were 
 shot with mother-o'-pearl and gold, while their bellies were 
 silvery white, the scales on their sides were smooth, round, 
 
124 BOTTOM PISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 and hard ; in fact it seemed to me that they were a different 
 species of bream altogether, and I can only suppose them to 
 have been the third species, Ahamis Bugganhagii, or the 
 Pomeranian bream, which is a very scarce fish in Britain. 
 These bream had the distinguishing features of the carp bream, 
 namely, very dark fins, head and mouth small, but the back 
 (shot, as I said, with gold and mother-o'-pearl) glittered when 
 taken out of the water as though phosphorescent, the scales 
 were small, round, hard, and as smooth as glass, without any 
 superabundant slime on them. The sides and belly were 
 silvery white. They were all about one size, the smallest 
 was a trifle over two pounds. I cannot remember taking any 
 bream either before or since that were so beautifully marked. 
 Carp bream are generally found in sluggish waters, they are 
 very fond of a deep quiet hole that has a sandy bottom. Old 
 anglers on the Trent, when they are on the look-out for a 
 bream swim, watch what they suppose to be one very 
 narrowly, early in the morning or late at night, because bream 
 in warm weather will rise up to the surface, and when they 
 do rise they leave a large bubble on the surface. In suitable 
 holes bream are sometimes congregated together in very large 
 numbers. There was a few years ago a famous bream hole a 
 short distance below Newark, when the fish were "on," a 
 good bag of bream was almost a certainty from there, but one 
 day the hole was netted and upwards of two tons of fine 
 bream were taken out of it, and since then scarcely any fish 
 have been taken from it. I have noticed that bream are 
 sometimes very roving in their habits, swims that contain 
 quantities of bream one week becoming tenantless the next, 
 as far as we could make out, and we have found them again 
 in places where we never supposed any bream to be. Bream 
 spawn in June, and during this operation each female is 
 accompanied by three or four males. These fish are found 
 in rivers, lakes, and ponds, but I believe the Bedfordshire 
 Ouse is the very best bream river in England, its deep 
 
THE BREAM. 125 
 
 sluggish streams being exactly suited to them. The Broads 
 of Norfolk and Suffolk contain vast quantities of fine bream, 
 and the Trent has some good ones in many of its deep quiet 
 holes. 
 
 This fish will sometimes attain to a very great size. I have 
 seen them taken from the Trent when they have scaled seven 
 and eight pounds, but such are by no means common, four or 
 five pounds being a good weight. Although I believe it is 
 put on record as a fact that a seventeen-pound fish was once 
 taken from the Trent, I have a cutting from the Fishing 
 Gazette now before me in which the following passage 
 occurs : "At Hoveringham (on the Trent) three years ago, 
 two splendid carp bream were caught by Mr. Beck in his eel 
 nets. I was present at the weighing of these fish, and they 
 scaled twelve and a quarter and twelve and three quarter 
 pounds respectively." Grand fish they would be, but I must 
 confess that I have never seen any approaching that weight. 
 The bream is not a very good fish for the table, its flesh is 
 wooly, watery, and disagreeable, and it has a great quantity 
 of small bones in its flesh. It will take a bit of paste, a 
 lump of gentles, or a cad bait, but the very best bait for 
 bream is a well-scoured worm. The rod, reel, and line re- 
 commended for barbel and chub will do for bream, and your 
 tackle should be the same as recommended for the same fish. 
 Don't have a float any larger than a swan quill if you can 
 help it, and it ought to be a slider, for bream are, as I said 
 before, found in deep holes ; and as the stream is sluggish, 
 do not use any heavier tackle than what will ride comfort- 
 ably in the swim. Everything should be as neat as possible, 
 for the bream is rather a cunning customer. They are very 
 uncertain in their feeding, often refusing to look at a bait 
 after the swim has been well baited. The hook should be a 
 No. 7 or 8, as bream have rather a small mouth, and a lip 
 hook, a No. 9 can be used if you like, the same as is recom- 
 mended for barbel. The swim is baited with worms exactly 
 
126 BOTTOM FISHING IX THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 the same as is recommended for barbel, and the hook bait 
 should be the tail end half of a well-scoured maiden lob- 
 worm, a small cockspur or brandling twistinf^ about on the 
 point of the hook will be an improvement. The large brand- 
 lings as described elsewhere are a beautiful bait for bream, 
 and you should fish as near the bottom as you can ; in fact, 
 the description for barbel fishing will answer to the letter for 
 bream. "When a bream takes the bait give him a second or 
 two to get it well in his mouth, he is rather a nibbling biter 
 and likes to suck at the worm (and that is the reason I like 
 most of the worm on the hooks, and not much of a long end 
 hanging down), and then strike firmly but not too hard, for 
 you are fishing with fine tackle and might break it with too 
 hard a stroke. "When you feel that you have hooked your 
 fish play him carefully and look out for squalls, for he has 
 such a tendency to bore downward ; if, however, you play 
 him firmly and keep a tight line, you will soon tire him out, 
 heavy as he is (and he does feel very heavy on a line, his 
 very deep sides holding against the water). In a very few 
 minutes he turns on his side and the landing-net is slipped 
 under him. I once was playing a big bream, and I had got 
 him exhausted, and a companion slipped the net under him. 
 The net was very tender, and the fish went right through it, 
 making another bolt. Playing a heavy fish in that predica- 
 ment was a little bit of change in the sport, but I succeeded 
 at last in landing him. 
 
 The bream may be taken with the ledger the same as re- 
 commended for the barbel ; in fact, the instruction in worm 
 fishing for one will answer in every respect for the other, 
 except that the bream likes a smaller bait, and you use a 
 smaller hook. The white bream are often taken with the 
 same tackle, the same baits, and in the same swims as the 
 roach, they very seldom exceed a pound in weight and are 
 greatly inferior to the carp bream. 
 
THE CAEP AND TENCH. 127 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE CARP AND TENCH. 
 
 Carp and tench are mostly linked together on the angler's 
 tongue, why, is not apparent, unless it is because that they 
 are generally found in company They are both of them lake 
 or pond fish generally, although sometimes found in rivers. 
 In some respects, they are totally unlike one another, for in- 
 stance, the carp has the largest scales of any freshwater fish, 
 while the tench has the smallest, excepting the eel ; a small 
 carp is a very good bait for pike, while a tench is the very 
 worst. However, as bottom fishing for carp in ponds or lakes, 
 may be equally well practised for tench, I have connected the 
 two fish, and so the instructions for one must answer for the 
 other. A short description of these fish I will, however, here 
 give. The carp is a cunning member of the Cyprinidse or 
 carp family, and his scientific name is Cyprinus Carpio. He 
 has very large scales as I have said, and a Roman nose, like 
 a barbel. Carp spawn in May, though I have read some- 
 where that they spawn three or four times in the year. This 
 I cannot verify ; observation shows to me that they only 
 spawn once, and that in May. However, I will not argue 
 the point as to whether they spawn once, or more, but one 
 thing is certain, they are very prolific. The female fish con- 
 tains a vast quantity of eggs ; indeed, I have read that when 
 the roe is extracted from some specimens, it will turn the 
 scale against the rest of the fish. These fish will sometimes 
 
128 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 reach a very heavy weight, and are found in England of the 
 weight of from twelve to twenty pounds, but the latter, how- 
 ever, being by no means common, from six to ten pounds 
 makes a very good fish. In Germany, carp reach to an 
 extraordinary weight, thirty and forty pounds being a com- 
 mon size, while it has been put on record that " a carp was 
 caught in 1711, near Frankfort on the Oder, which was more 
 than nine feet long, and three round, and which weighed 
 seventy pounds ;" and in the lake of Zug, in Switzerland, 
 one was taken which weighed ninety pounds. Carp are 
 found in lakes and ponds, and sometimes in rivers, the big 
 ones being the most shy and suspicious fish that swim in our 
 waters. Small ones of a pound or so will sometimes bite 
 very freely, but the big ones are not to be had except with 
 great difficulty ; indeed, it often happens that when the angler 
 has exhausted all his patience and ingenuity, the carp has not 
 come to hand and rewarded him for his trouble ; for as the 
 poet justly remarks, — 
 
 " Of all the fish that swim the watery mead, 
 Not one in cunning can the carp exceed." 
 
 All sorts of baits are recommended in carp fishing — pastes 
 of all sorts and colours, sweetened with honey and sugar, or 
 flavoured with gin or brandy ; green peas, small green beans, 
 while others swear by a bit of half -boiled potato, a bunch 
 of gentles, or a few grubs. Perhaps, however, as good a bait 
 as can be used is a well-scoured worm, a brandling, or a 
 cockspur. If you know of a lake or pond that contains carp, 
 it will be as weU to bait a pitch. If you keep your eyes open, 
 you will soon see which is a favourite feeding-ground, and a 
 day or two before you fish, get the right depth. Having 
 done this, throw in a handful or two of chopped worms the 
 first thing in the morning, or whatever ground bait you pro- 
 pose trying, and, if possible, repeat this for two or three days. 
 When you come to fish, if you can keep quite out of sight. 
 
THE CARP AND TENCH. 129 
 
 and you have a beautiful well-scoured brandling on your hook, 
 you may perhaps delude one of the big fellows, though hook- 
 ing one would be the signal for the rest to bolt. You should 
 then go to another part of the pond, and operate there in the 
 same manner, and so give the carp in the first swim time to 
 recover from their astonishment. Whatever you do, don't 
 insult the carp by fishing for him with a heavy cork float, 
 a long necklace of chain shot, and a coarse tackle, the self- 
 cocking float, the one split shot, and the fine tackle recom- 
 mended for roach fishing must be the order of the day. 
 Remember that 
 
 " The carp whose wary eye 
 Admits no vulgar tackle nigh, 
 Essay your art's supreme address, 
 And beat the fox in sheer finesse." 
 
 The tench is a good deal nicer-looking fish than the carp. 
 The following is a good description of him : " All fins are 
 rounded at the extremeties, tail fin not at all forked, nearly 
 square with comers rounded ofi"; mouth small and toothless, 
 with one barbel at each comer ; scales very small ; colours, 
 head, sides, and cheeks, golden green, darker on the back and 
 fins, orange yellow under the belly, irides, bright orange red." 
 Tench spawn in May, and seem to go raving mad while they 
 are performing the operation. I have seen them dancing and 
 twisting about in the most absurd manner, rushing and chas- 
 ing one another through the weeds, and then stopping side 
 by side for a few minutes, refusing to be scared by anybody. 
 They are like the carp, very prolific, no less than 300,000 
 eggs have been estimated in a fish of three and a half pounds. 
 They are very tenacious of life, and will live a long time out 
 of water. The tench do not grow so large as the carp, six 
 or seven pounds being perhaps their limit ; and this depends 
 on the quality of the lake or pond they are in ; in small ponds 
 they do not often exceed two or three pounds. There is an 
 
 K 
 
130 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 account, however, of one that was found in a hole among 
 some old roots, in a piece of water, in which old rubbish had 
 been thrown for years ; it was ordered to be cleared out, 
 which when done a lot of fine tench were found, and this one 
 in the hole had literally assumed the shape of the place in 
 which he was found ; it weighed eleven pounds nine and a 
 half ounces, and is the largest on record. As a fish for the 
 table the tench is a good deal better than the carp ; his flesh 
 is white and firm, and not at all bad eating. The fish has a 
 very thick skin, and is very slimy. It has been called the 
 " physician of fishes," and the reason, it is said, why the pike 
 will not eat him, is because when the pike is wounded, the 
 pike rubs the injured place against the side of the tench. 
 Pike have been known to take tench occasionally, though it 
 is thought that this is the result of accident, rather than 
 design. 
 
 The rod, reel, and line described and recommended in 
 chub and barbel fishing are right for carp and tench fishing. 
 As I have said before, your float should be as small as you 
 like, the self-cocking one will be the best if you can use it, 
 if not the lightest quill you have got, one that will carry four 
 or five small split shots will be quite big enough. In fact, 
 the remarks on the subject of floats in the chapter on roach 
 will fit in exactly for carp and tench fishing; the tackle 
 should be the same as recommended for chub, and as fine as 
 you dare fish with. The split shots should be very small and 
 a long way from the hook, which latter can be a No. 7 or 8. 
 A bit of bread can be steeped, well crushed up, and mixed 
 up with a handful of bran, if you intend to fish with paste, 
 but use your ground bait sparingly, don't toss a thousand or 
 two of worms in, the same as you would for a big barbel 
 swim ; a handful or two of worms, or bread and bran, at once 
 will be quite enough, if you are fishing with worms. I 
 believe a smart brandling is as good as any of these ; thread 
 
THE CAEP AND TENCH. 131 
 
 it carefully on tlie hook, so that every part of it is hidden in 
 the worm, or Mr. Carp will soon find the latter out. Allow 
 the bait to be plenty deep enough, better let it lie a few 
 inches on the bottom, than hang clear. If the carp bites, 
 don't be in a hurry, for he is a very slow biter, the float will 
 sometimes bob and tremble for a few seconds, don't meddle 
 with it till it bobs under water and begins to glide away, 
 then strike firmly, and if he is a big one, look out for squalls, 
 should there be a weed bed handy so that he can pop in it. 
 If you wish to use paste, the bread paste recommended in 
 roach fishing will do, only instead of it being plain, it is best 
 mixed with a little honey ; a few pellets of this can be thrown 
 in before you begin to fish. The cunning old customers, how- 
 ever, will rob your hook of this paste continually, therefore I 
 should prefer the worm myself. 
 
 The chief requirements of an angler for big carp in a pond 
 are, first, very fine tackle; second, a nice bait; third, keep out 
 of sight, and make no noise; fourth, plenty of skill; and fifth, 
 a very large stock of patience, and then you may perhaps 
 catch one or two, and perhaps not, for fishing for carp and 
 catching carp are two different things, and should not be con- 
 founded in the least. Should the angler be so fortunate as 
 to drop across a big pond that has not been fished since the 
 " Middle Ages," and it contains an abundance of fine carp 
 and tench, then the probability is that he will get a little 
 sport ; but in well-fished waters, these fish are not to be had 
 without a lot of trouble. The angler must be up to all sorts 
 of dodges. If the pond has a lot of weeds, or water-fiowers 
 on it, and the carp are on the surface, as they very often are, 
 grubbing about and eyeing the weeds, to see if there is anything 
 good to eat among them, a nice worm is just hung over the 
 edge of a leaf or flower, the fish will very often take it with- 
 out any preliminary hesitation, as he would if it were on the 
 ground ; but it is a very risky proceeding, carp being more 
 
 K 2 
 
132 BOTTOM nSHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 often lost in the weeds than captured, after they have been 
 hooked. Small carp will sometimes bite pretty freely, as 
 they have not had the education of their elders. When I 
 was in the fens of Lincolnshire, I used to watch a few cun- 
 ning old carp that had their home in a very large pond. A 
 friend of mine used to try all manner of dodges for them, but 
 he never got a big one, a few pounders and some nice tench 
 was about the extent of his captures. A river carp will bite 
 a little more freely than a pond carp, for they are taken in 
 some places when fishing for barbel ; or they sometimes get 
 In a roach swim, and take a few gentles or a bit of paste. It 
 is not a regular thing to fish on purpose for them in rivers, 
 when the angler does get one it is a lucky accident, an odd 
 tench or two are also sometimes taken when bream fishing. 
 Cyprinus Tinea is the scientific name for tench. 
 
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THE DACE. 133 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 THE DACE. 
 
 This is a bright, handsome, well-made member of the carp 
 tribe, and his scientific name is Cyprinus Leuciscus. He 
 is only small in regard to size, but the old saying runs, " little 
 fish are sweet," and that old saying is very applicable to the 
 dace, both in respect to its culinary qualities and its ren- 
 dering of sport to the angler. The dace is the very fish to 
 train up the young angler in the way he should go, for not 
 being so shy as the roach, it will bite bolder ; and the young 
 fly fisher can then try his 'prentice hand on him. This fish 
 will spring freely at the artificial fly, and quick striking has 
 to be the order of the day with dace. I do not know that I 
 can say much about bottom fishing, for dace, for the tackle 
 and baits that are recommended for roach will be exactly 
 right for their capture. The dace, sometimes called the dart, 
 the dare, and the darden, is very rapid in his movements, 
 darting through the water with extraordinary speed. Drayton, 
 the poet, writing about him, says, — 
 
 " Oft swiftly as he swims, his silver belly shows ; 
 But with such nimble flight, that ere ye can disclose 
 His shape, out of your sight like lightning he is shot." 
 
 One may readily confound a small chub with the dace, and 
 remain under the impression that when he has caught a nine 
 or ten ounce chub it is a very fine dace. If he looks at 
 them carefully, however, the following differences may be 
 
134 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 noted ; the anal fin of the chub is red, while that of the 
 dace is not ; the scales are larger on the chub than the dace, 
 and the mouth of the chub is bigger. I have mentioned it 
 because I have seen anglers with a small chub (which if it 
 had been a dace would bo a very large one) carefully jjut on 
 one side as a " weigher in " for the specimen dace prize. 
 Dace are found in swifter, shallower water as a nde tlnin 
 roach, although they are very often taken witli tlie roach ; 
 indeed, I question if an angler fishing in a roach swim on 
 the Trent can make a bag of roach witliout there being a 
 dace or two with them. In the months of May, June, and 
 July dace are found on the shallow streams, tbo eddies by 
 the side of a swift stream, in tlie water at a mill-tail, over a 
 bank of weeds, or in the streams from a weir ; and they are 
 there sometimes in very great numbers, and may be caught 
 with a cad bait or a gentle. As the summer advances and 
 the days begin to shorten the dace retire into the deeper 
 swims, and are then caught almost exclusively by bottom 
 fishing. Sometimes they get into a barbel swim, and will 
 insist on swallowing a big bait intended for the barbel, and 
 it has often struck me as being strange that a little fish like 
 the dace can get such a big bait and large hook in his mouth. 
 When a swim is baited for barbel and no barbel are attracted 
 therein, the dace get possession, and the nngler has a fine 
 time of it, for dace can take the barbel hook and bait. This 
 question was, however, discussed in the chapter on barbel. 
 
 During the winter the dace pass into the deep quiet holes, 
 and are then caught with the roach, fishing with cockspur 
 worms. They spawn early in April, and for a week or two 
 after performing that operation are as rough as nutmeg 
 graters, again getting into condition about the middle of 
 May, and will then take the fly or bait on the shallows. 
 The new " Act," however, says no j the dace must not be 
 touched until the 15th June. Dace very seldom exceed a 
 
THE DACE. 135 
 
 pound in weight ; indeed, I should suppose that to be the 
 very top weight for them in England ; it is only in certain 
 rivers and under very favourable conditions, however, that 
 they reach that weight. In the Trent a dace of half a pound 
 is a very good one, while occasional ones of nine and ten 
 ounces are taken, though they are very rare. The biggest I 
 ever took weighed a trifle over ten ounces, and I caught it 
 out of a deep hole when bream fishing. They are a good 
 sporting fish, and will fight bravely to the last ; while as a 
 fish for the table, they are a deal better than the roach. 
 They are generally broiled or fried dry. In bottom fishing 
 for dace the tackle recommended for roach wiU do. In the 
 early part of the season when they are on the shallows they 
 are very fond of a cad bait, or a couple of gentles, and may 
 sometimes be caught in considerable numbers; they may 
 also be caught fly fishing. 
 
 A light single-handed trout rod is used for this work, and 
 the flies are the palmers, red, black, or grey, the black gnat, 
 or a coch-y-boudhu. He can also be caught by " dibbling " 
 the real insect on the surface, as is described elsewhere. An 
 improvement on the artificial fly will be a gentle or a cad 
 bait placed on the point of the hook. During the autumn 
 and winter months, when the dace retire into the deep quiet 
 holes, they are caught also in exactly the same way as was 
 fully described in reference to roach fishing. The ground 
 bait can be the same, the only exception being that the dace 
 do not care for paste and grain so much as roach, though 
 they are sometimes caught with those baits. Cockspur 
 worms and gentles are the best lures therefore. 
 
136 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 EELS AND FLOUNDERS. 
 
 These fish are generally connected together by Trent anglers 
 similarly to roach and dace, or carp and tench. Why is not 
 clearly apparent, because there is a vast difference in their 
 shape, nature, and habits. The eel, as every one is aware, 
 is long and thin, somewhat after the shape of a snake, while 
 the flounder is a flat fish, like a plaice. Perhaps the reason 
 is that where the flounder is found there also are eels, and 
 both of them are taken on the same tackle and with the 
 same bait. 
 
 Angling for eels as a sport is not of much consequence; 
 and as it is a sport that any boy can successfully follow, few 
 instructions are needed. As the fish, however, run to a good 
 size in the Trent, and are excellent eating, I think them 
 eminently worth mention. Eels are by no means " coarse " 
 fish as far as their gastronomic value is concerned. Perhaps 
 the only time when the term coarse can be applied to them 
 is when the angler is barbel fishing ; or, intent on nobler 
 sport, at that time a miserable little quarter-of-a-pound eel 
 takes the carefully prepared worm bait, and twists and 
 tangles up the tackle in a horrible way ; for of all the Gor- 
 dian knots ever fabricated, those tied by a small struggling 
 eel are the most complicated. The problem about the eel, 
 until recently could not be satisfactorily explained until 
 very lately, was how they produced their young, and where 
 
EELS AND FLOUNDERS. 137 
 
 the breeding-grounds were. Years ago, ay, and even up to 
 the present time, old and deep-rooted notions about the 
 breeding of this fish are entertained in various districts ; 
 some supposing they were born of the mud ; others from 
 particles scraped off the bodies of large eels when they 
 rubbed themselves against stones; others from the putrid 
 flesh of dead animals thrown in the water ; others that they 
 are bred from the dews which cover the earth in May; 
 others from the water alone ; others, and this is the most 
 curious of all, that they generated from stray pieces of horse- 
 hair that were thrown, or found their way into the water. I 
 believe it has, however, been proved lately that they produce 
 their young from ova or eggs the same as other fish, and 
 that they deposit their spawn in the sea, that is, as far as 
 migratory eels are concerned. Non-migratory eels, of course, 
 cannot get down to the sea, and so they deposit their spawn 
 under stones, or among the sand and mud at the bottom of 
 ponds or rivers, but I will not commit myself on this ques- 
 tion, leaving it for abler pens than mine. Very old anglers 
 here say that the silver-bellied or migratory eels come into 
 the Trent from the sea with the swallows (I don't mean that 
 the swallows come from the bottom of the sea and travel 
 alongside with the eels, but that they both arrive about the 
 same time) and disappear from the river when the swallows 
 go away. I think they are not far wrong. Other old 
 anglers say that the silver eels come into the river with the 
 first new moon in May. There are, I believe, four difi'erent 
 sorts of eels in the Trent — two that migrate and two that 
 do not. The silver eels that migrate are, if you examine 
 them carefully, two distinct species ; the one sort has a sharp 
 round nose, and is of a bright silvery colour on the belly, 
 and a very pretty dark green on the back ; the other has a 
 broader, flatter nose, and the belly is tinged with gold, as also 
 are his sides ; the back is darker than the other sort also. 
 
138 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 These two sorts are commonly called " browett eels " on the 
 Trent. Last year I and a friend caught two eels down at 
 Carlton about two pounds each. They were the silver eels, 
 and they were very marked and distinct species, as I have 
 described above. The non-migratory or yellow-bellied eels 
 are also divided into two sorts, the nose of the one being 
 very much sharper than the other. I have caught some of 
 these yellow-bellied eels with a mouth like a frog ; they are, 
 however, not so big, nor anything like so good eating as the 
 silver-bellied ones. Trent eels will sometimes reach a very 
 great weight — four, five, or six pounds being frequently taken 
 in the net. The two largest eels I ever saw taken from the 
 Trent were caught on a night-line at Collingham, with a 
 nest of young blackbirds for bait. The two weighed a trifle 
 over fifteen pounds ; one was eight pounds and the other 
 seven. I have seen several six pounds each ; but these big 
 ones, when you come to cook them, are very oily. The best 
 for the table are those from a pound to two pounds ; they 
 are very rich and luscious. The poet truly says, — 
 
 " The Trent hath such eels, and the Witham pike, 
 That in England there is not the like." 
 
 In Italy I have heard that the eel will reach the extraor- 
 dinary weight of twenty pounds, but I believe the biggest 
 that was taken in English waters weighed a trifle over eleven 
 pounds. The yellow-bellied or non-migratory eels in the 
 Trent very seldom exceed a pound and a half ; though in 
 some lakes and ponds they range considerably over this. In 
 Balderton ballast-hole, for instance, eels of this species, are 
 taken of the weight of three or four pounds. 
 
 There is hardly a piece of water of any description in Eng- 
 land, even a muddy horsepond, or ditch, that does not con- 
 tain eels of some sort. They are found in almost any place, 
 in the foul, muddy, and stagnant water of a cutting, or in the 
 boiling waters of a weir. The eel gets under stones, in holes 
 
• EELS AND ELOUNDERS. 139 
 
 in the bank, or in the brickwork of an old wall, or among the 
 piles and old rotten wood of a landing-stage ; and sniggling an 
 old eel out of these places, when the weather is hot, and other 
 fish refuse to feed, is not bad fun. Eels are caught in various 
 ways : in baskets, bucks, hives, &c. , &c., and when they are run- 
 ning they are caught in very great quantities in the nets. Mr. 
 Thorpe, at the Water Mill, Newark, once took three tons in 
 his nets in a single night, a most extraordinary catch. It 
 was a few years ago, and the catch has not been equalled 
 there, either before or since. Eels are for the most part noc- 
 turnal fish, and it is at night that they do their " running," 
 and that the big ones are caught. Some aver that the eel 
 will travel over land, from one pond or lake to another, and a 
 correspondent, recently writing to the Fishing Gazette, said 
 that an old fisherman told him that the eels came out of the 
 river during the night, and picked up the worms on the 
 grass. He was further assured that the fisherman had seen 
 them scuttling back again into the river, on his approach. 
 Now I should suppose that the " old fisherman " was poking 
 fun at that writer, for I must confess that I have been by the 
 river side all hours, night and day, under all sorts of circum- 
 stances, i.e. when it rained, when a very heavy dew was 
 falling, and when very fine, — in moonlight, starlight, or dark- 
 ness, — and I have never yet met an eel on his cross-country 
 journey, nor have I disturbed any, when they have been worm- 
 ing. Furthermore, I never yet met anybody who could 
 positively say they had done so. Large eels are not often 
 caught with rod and line, though odd ones sometimes are 
 picked up by angling, when the water has been very much 
 discoloured. As I said before, they " run " at night, and 
 they choose the darkest nights for this. Night-liners very 
 seldom set their lines during the bright moonlight. These 
 night-lines consist of several yards of very strong string 
 with ten or a dozen hooks on each, fastened about a yard 
 
140 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 from each other. The hooks are big ones, and are tied 
 on strong twisted horsehair ; the bait is a very large lob- 
 worm, or a young bird, or a bleak, for it must be noticed 
 that large eels are fish and flesh eaters ; a piece of lampern 
 is also a very good bait on a night-line. Grand fish of four, 
 five, or six pounds, are taken on these lines, while a big barbel 
 or chub are occasionally pulled out on them. A piece of 
 brick is fastened to each end of these lines to sink the baits 
 well. The lines are then thrown in the river and left, and in 
 the morning a drag hook and cord is used to pull them out. 
 Sniggling is another method of taking eels ; for this a stick 
 about six or eight feet long is used, with another short piece 
 lashed at the top so that it forms a right angle, a few yards of 
 coarse twine and a stout needle wiU complete the outfit of 
 a sniggler. The string is lashed to the needle with a bit 
 of waxed silk, beginning at the eye end of the needle, and 
 finishing about the middle, the point of the needle will then 
 be upwards. The end of the needle-point is stuck into a very 
 thin bit of stick or a crowquill, and the needle is thrust into 
 half a lob-worm at the broken end, until the whole of the 
 needle is in the worm. The point is then just brought out 
 of the worm, and the point of the needle is stuck very lightly 
 in the end of the cross piece of stick, at the top. The cord 
 is not tied to the stick at all, but held in the left hand, while 
 the right holds the rod ; and then the angler looks about him 
 for a suitable place, such as a hole under the water in an 
 overhanging bank, or under a stone, or in old walls, or old 
 rotten boards under a landing-stage, &c., and when he finds 
 one, he puts the worm on the end of the stick into it. If 
 there happens to be an eel there, he will seize hold of the 
 worm and pull it and the needle from the stick ; the angler 
 will feel the tug, and then he gently moves the stick away 
 and throws it on the bank. After a few seconds, when the 
 eel has swallowed the worm, the angler pulls the string, and 
 
FRESHWATER FISHES. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Illllf 
 
EELS AND FLOUNDERS. 141 
 
 as it is fastened to the middle of the needle, it turns cross- 
 ways in the throat of the eel, and of course holds him faster 
 than any hook can do. Now if the eel is a pounder or more, 
 and he has got his tail twisted over a stone, or a board, or 
 what not, he will refuse to come, and it is then a clear case of 
 " pull devil, pull baker," but the string is strong, and the 
 angler has only to keep steadily pulling, and the eel will tire 
 out in a few minutes, and come out of his hole, and is soon 
 drawn ashore. I have mentioned this method because it is 
 easily practised, and a few pounds of eels are a welcome 
 addition to the angler's basket, to say nothing of the fun of 
 the thing, when no other fish will stir. In angling for these 
 fish, the bottom fisher's rod, reel, and line is used, but the angler 
 need not be particular as to his tackle, the eel is not afraid of 
 a bit of gut ; if you want to angle close to the bank, or over 
 a bed of weeds, an ordinary quill float and a stoutish tackle 
 weighted accordingly will do. The hook is a No. 7 or 8, and 
 the bait is a worm, which of course must lie on the bottom. 
 If there are many eels about, they will soon take the bait, 
 and when the angler gets a bite, he must get Mr. Eel out as 
 quick as he can, set his foot on him, and stick a penknife 
 in the back of his head, and then get the hook from him as 
 quick as possible, for if he lets the eel twist about the tackle 
 a few times, it will probably take him half an hour to untie 
 the knots, and get all ready for another attempt. Eels are 
 also caught by ledgering, or plumbing, as it is locally known. 
 A big flat plumb is fastened on the line and a short tackle, or 
 even two, being used, the bait is of course a worm. The 
 plumb is wound up to the point of the rod, and the angler 
 throws directly from the reel to any place he desires. (This 
 throw is described elsewhere. ) When this plan is adopted, a 
 "lazy back," as it is called, is used. This is a forked stick a 
 good deal like the letter Y ; the bottom end is thrust into the 
 ground, and when the angler has made his throw, he hanks 
 
142 BOTTOlil FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 his line round one of the handles of the reel, and lays the rod 
 on the forks of the " lazy back " aforesaid. The butt is 
 on the ground ; when an eel bites, the angler will have 
 plenty of time to pick his rod up, for they are but slow biters 
 at best. He can tell by the bobbing of the rod point 
 when he has a bite. If the eel be a big one, and the angler is 
 getting the hook from its mouth, he must mind not to put 
 his finger in, for the eel possesses a lot of small sharp teeth, 
 and his bite is a very serious affair ; the disgorger is a good 
 thing here. 
 
 The flounder is a peculiar-looking fish and is found in the 
 lower reaches of the Trent. I do not believe any are found 
 above Averham weir. They are a flat fish, white under the 
 belly, and brown on the back, with some pink spots on it. 
 Its mouth is as it were all on one side, and its eyes seem start- 
 ing from their sockets. These fish, I believe, spawn very 
 early, for I have caught them in good condition early in May. 
 If we could get hold of a flounder about Christmas time, we 
 should then find them heavy with spawn. They bury them- 
 selves in the sand in the quiet shallow parts of rivers, and 
 perform the operation of spawning in the early spring. In 
 April they come out of the sand, and by May they are in good 
 condition. They like very quiet waters where there is a 
 sandy or gravelly bottom, and water not above three feet 
 deep, though they are sometimes taken ledger fishing for 
 barbel in the rough deep waters ; indeed, the angler need not 
 be surprised if he pulls up a flounder, let him be fishing 
 where he may on the lower Trent. As a rule, however, I 
 have found the most on the quiet sandy shallows. These 
 fish in a general way only run very small, i.e. three or four 
 to the pound, although some will reach the weight of a pound 
 and a half. A half-pound flounder is a good fish. For the 
 table flounders are very good, being sweet and luscious, if 
 fried in butter or lard, and sprinkled over with egg and bread- 
 
EELS AND FLOUNDERS. 143 
 
 crumbs, this fish is not to be beaten as a breakfast delicacy. 
 The flounder is caught in exactly the same way as described 
 in ledgering for eels with the "lazy back." The plumb, the 
 two tackles, and the worm for bait, on a ]N"o. 7 or 8 hook. 
 " Pin lining " is one plan of catching flounders, only this is 
 the way of the pot-hunter. Pins are fastened on lengths of 
 gut in exactly the same way as described for sniggling for 
 eels, and ten or a dozen of these are fastened to a long line 
 at regular intervals. The worm is baited as described in 
 sniggling, and a stone is fastened to each end of the line to 
 keep the baits down at the bottom, if you get a favourable 
 place and a sunshiny day, you catch a lot of these fish. From 
 four to eight dozen have been taken in a single day. 
 
144 EOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE BLEAK — THE GUDGEON — THE KUFFE — THE MINNOW. 
 
 This is a batch of small fry, and as it is not much trouble to 
 take them, very few instructions for their capture will suffice. 
 The reason why I mention them is because three of them out 
 of the four are very good baits for much more valuable fish, 
 This chapter will be a short one, as a sort of tail end to my 
 instructions for "Bottom Fishing in the Nottingham Style." 
 The words of Michael Drayton, will just fit in here for a 
 text, as regards these fish : — 
 
 " The dainty gudgeon, ruffe, the minnow, and the bleak, 
 Since they but little are, I little need to speak." 
 
 I have substituted the word "ruffe" for ** loche," which 
 appears in the original. 
 
 The bleak, sometimes called a " blay," or *•' willow blade," 
 or as it is known on the Trent, " the whitling " is a member 
 of the carp tribe, and its scientific name is Cyprinus Alhur- 
 nus. It is a small fish, six inches in length, and two ounces 
 in weight, this being about its extreme size, and is a very 
 pretty fish, narrow and flat, sides glittering like silver. Bleak 
 spawn about May, and are soon as active as ever; they 
 delight in warm summer weather, and will then disport them- 
 selves near the surface of the water ; they are very active and 
 glitter in the water, turning from side to side. They are 
 found in great quantities in different parts of the Trent, and 
 generally in large shoals in an eddy by the side of a swift 
 
THE BLEAK. 145 
 
 stream, or about the piles or buttresses of old bridges ; in fact, 
 the angler can soon find them, for they are mostly near the 
 surface. I read that the scales of these fish were once used 
 in the manufacture of " artificial pearls," a pound of which 
 went to make four ounces of the guanine, as it was termed. 
 Four thousand bleak were required for a pound of scales. 
 Fortunately for the bleak a new substitute has been found, 
 or bleak at that rate would soon be a " rara avis " in some 
 waters. Any sort of a light rod and tackle will do for their 
 capture. I have seen them pulled out very rapidly with a 
 long thin stick for a rod, a few yards of thread for a line, and 
 about six inches of fine gut, and the smallest of floats and 
 hooks, with a gentle for a bait. The light roach and dace 
 rod, reel, and line will do for the fish mentioned in this 
 chapter. As the bleak swims very near the surface, the tackle 
 will only require to be very short. A single length of fine 
 gut will do with a loop atone end and a No. 14 hook on the 
 other. A very small float is used, one that will carry 
 about a couple of very small split shots, and a gentle for a 
 bait. The hook is put into the thick end of the gentle and 
 the thin end hangs down and twirls about in a very lively 
 manner. It is then dropped among the bleak, and as the 
 bait is only a few inches under water, you will see a dozen 
 fish perhaps make a rush at it. As soon as the float bobs 
 down strike at once, and out comes the little rascal dancing 
 and glittering like a bar of silver ; they are pulled out some- 
 times by that plan as fast as you can take them off the hook 
 and bait again. Bleak can be caught with a very small arti- 
 ficial fly, and there is worse sport than whipping for bleak on 
 a summer's evening, with three or four small brown flies on a 
 fine gut cast. In the winter bleak go to the bottom of deep 
 holes, and are not so active. They make a capital spinning 
 bait, for they spin so truly and glitter beautifully, though they 
 are rather tender on the hooks. 
 
146 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 The gudgeon (Cyprinus Gobio) is another member of the carp 
 tribe, and a nice-looking little fellow he is; in shape something 
 like a barbel. The top jaw hangs over the bottom one, and looks 
 very much adapted for rooting among the sand. Like the 
 barbel he has a beard at each corner of the mouth. Six or 
 seven inches is its extreme length, but that size is by no means 
 common. He spawns about May, and it is some time before 
 he gets into condition : about August and September are 
 the best months to take this fish. He is a very toothsome 
 morsel, if fried crisp with egg and bread crumbs. A light 
 rod, reel, line, and tackle are used for his capture. His haunts 
 are in rather rapid shallow waters that flow over a gravelly or 
 sandy bottom. The bait is a small worm, the tail end of a 
 brandling or cockspur on a small hook is best ; and the bait 
 must trip along the bottom. The float and tackle recommended 
 for dace fishing in a stream will be right for the gudgeon, but 
 the hook must be a size or two smaller. The worm should be 
 threaded on the hook so that no loose ends hang about, or he 
 wiU pull and bother you like a tiny eel. If the water is very 
 clear, a rake is used in some places to stir up the sand and 
 make a rather thick water ; the gudgeon then flock together 
 there, and are then sometimes pulled out very rapidly. 
 I have seen anglers doing what they call " muddling for 
 gudgeon." They take off their shoes and stockings, and roll 
 up their trousers to the thigh, and shufflle about the sandy 
 shallows with their feet, and then with rod and tackle fish 
 among the discoloured water. This plan is adopted if the 
 water be not above two feet deep, but a heavy iron rake is 
 the best. Owing to the fact that these fish take so little 
 skill to catch them, it is a favourite sport with the ladies in 
 various districts where the fish abound. 
 
 A poem of Hood's, entitled the " Angler's Lament," con- 
 tains the following lines : — 
 
VIII. 
 
 The Tench. 
 
 The rr,KCH and Gudgeok. 
 
THE GUDGEON, RUFFE, AND MINNOW. 147 
 
 " At a brandling once gudgeons would gape, 
 But they seem to have alter'd their forms, now. 
 Have they taken advice of the Council of Nice, 
 And rejected the Diet of Worms, now ? " 
 
 But that must be a bit of poetic fancy, for gudgeon are very 
 fond of a nice brandling, and a " diet of worms " suits them 
 precisely. Perhaps, however, the poet had Martin Luther in 
 his eye when he wrote that. I now must pull up my line, 
 however, and, as the cheap-jack at the fair says, " show you 
 something else." 
 
 The ruffe, sometimes called the pope, is a member of the 
 perch family, and his scientific name is Perca ceruna. He 
 is very like a small perch in shape, having the same prickly 
 fin on the back, but is a deal darker than the perch and 
 marked more like a gudgeon. The fish is small, four or five 
 inches being his extreme length ; it spawns in April, and he 
 is to be found in deep quiet corners, and like the eel is not 
 afraid of a bit of mud. He will bite freely at a worm, and 
 where the young angler takes one he will very often find 
 many more. The ruff'e is not much good, except ^ a bit of 
 practice for the young angler. 
 
 The minnow is well known to any lad who has seen a 
 stream of water. These tiny fish also belong to the carp 
 family, and what a little beauty he is, with his splendid 
 colouring, silvery, white, brown, pink, &c., &c. When I see 
 one it always brings back to my memory the happy time of 
 my school days, when I used to catch them with a bent pin 
 and a scrap of worm. They are an excellent bait for perch, 
 &c., and for this purpose are caught in a hand net, or a 
 minnow trap specially made. They will take a scrap of worm 
 on the smallest of hooks, and any lad can catch them with a 
 stick, a bit of thread, a small piece of horsehair, a bent pin, 
 and a scrap of worm or gentle, or a tiny bit of paste. 
 
 And now, dear reader, I have got to the end of my in- 
 l2 
 
148 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 structions for " Bottom Fishing in the Nottingham Style," and 
 if I have imparted any real knowledge to those for whom it 
 is intended, I shall be well satisfied. I will, therefore, wind 
 Tip my line, put away my tackle, and bid you farewell ; and 
 may you have as many happy days on the Trent, or else- 
 where, as I have had, in the pursuit of this my favourite 
 sport. 
 
FRESHWATEE FISHERIES ACT, 1878. 149 
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 FRESHWATER FISHERIES ACT, 1878. 
 
 (41 and 42 Yic. Cap. 39.) 
 
 Notice is hereby given that, in accordance with the pro- 
 visions of the above Act, it is illegal — 
 
 1. To fish for, catch, or attempt to catch, or kiU, trout or 
 char during the close season between 2nd October and 1st of 
 February following, or during any close season, which by 
 Bye-law may be substituted for the same. 
 
 Note. — It is already illegal to buy, sell, or expose for 
 sale, or have in possession for sale, trout or char 
 between 2nd October and 1st February following 
 (36 and 37 Yict. c. 71, s. 20). 
 
 2. To use or have in possession with the intention of using, 
 any light, otter, lath, jack, snare, wire, spear, gaff, strokehall, 
 snatch, or other like instrument for the purpose of catching or 
 killing trout or char. 
 
 3. To use any fish roe in fishing for trout or char; or to 
 buy, sell, or expose for sale, or have in possession for sale, 
 any trout roe or char roe. 
 
 4. To fish for, catch, or attempt to catch or kill any " fresh- 
 water fish " between 15th March and 15th June, both inclu- 
 sive. (''Freshwater fish " include all freshwater non-migra- 
 tory fish other than pollan, trout, and char.) 
 
 Note. — This prohibition does not apply to — 
 
 a. Any owner of a several fishery where trout, char. 
 
150 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 
 
 or grayling are specially preserved, destroying 
 within such fishery any "freshwater fish" other 
 than grayling. 
 h. Any person angling in private waters with the 
 leave of the owner of such waters. 
 
 c. Any person angling in public waters with the leave 
 of the Local Board of Conservators. 
 
 d. Any person taking " freshwater fish " for scientific 
 purposes, or for bait. 
 
 e. Any district or part of a district specially exempted 
 by a Local Board of Conservators with the approval 
 of the Secretary of State. 
 
 5. To buy, sell, expose for sale, or have in possession for 
 sale, any "freshwater fish," as above defined, between 15th 
 March and 15th June, both inclusive. 
 
 6. To use any dynamite or other explosive substance for 
 catching or destroying fish. 
 
 NT.B. — The first four of these provisions do not apply to 
 the counties of Norfolk and Sufi'olk, which are placed under 
 a separate Act (40 and 41 Vict. c. 98). January 1st, 1879. 
 
 THE END. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Act, Freshwater Fisheries . 149 
 Ancient angling 
 Art, Angling an 
 Artificial flies for chub 
 
 baits for perch . 
 
 baits for pike 
 
 fly for pike . 
 
 — flies for roach 
 
 6 
 1 
 
 57 
 
 122 
 
 113 
 
 114 
 
 95 
 
 B. 
 
 Baiting the hook with 
 
 worm 
 
 for chub . 
 
 . 46 
 
 Baits for dace fishing . 135 
 
 for carp fishing 
 
 . 128 
 
 for pike fishing 
 
 . 108 
 
 Barbel, The 
 
 . 59 
 
 baiting the hook with 
 
 worms for 
 
 . 69 
 
 Baskets, fishing . 
 
 . . 31 
 
 Bleak, The 
 
 . 144 
 
 Blood worms 
 
 . 48 
 
 Boke of St. Albans 
 
 . 8 
 
 Bottom rod, general . 
 
 . 22 
 
 Brandlings . 
 
 . . 47 
 
 Bream, The 
 
 . 123 
 
 c. 
 
 Caddis, or cad bait 
 
 PAGB 
 
 . 48 
 
 Carp, The . 
 
 . 127 
 
 fisher, requirements 
 
 of the . 
 
 131 
 
 Casting a light tackle 
 
 . 33 
 
 
 . 35 
 
 a pike bait . 
 
 . 108 
 
 Chub fishing 
 
 . 38 
 
 cooking the 
 
 . 44 
 
 fare 
 
 . 39 
 
 fishing with locust 
 
 . 56 
 
 fishing with moth 
 
 42 
 
 names of . 
 
 . 43 
 
 Classification of fish . 
 
 . 10 
 
 Clearing ring 
 
 30 
 
 Cockspurs . 
 
 48 
 
 Coloured pastes . 
 
 91 
 
 Creed wheat and malt 
 
 . 92 
 
 D. 
 
 
 Dace, The . 
 
 133 
 
 Dead gorge fishing 
 
 111 
 
 Dibbling for chub 
 
 52 
 
 for roach . 
 
 96 
 
 Digestion of fish 
 
 16 
 
152 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Disgorger . 
 
 PAGB 
 
 . 29 
 
 Habits of dace . 
 
 PAGB 
 
 . 134 
 
 Drag hook . 
 
 . 30 
 
 of the eel . 
 
 . 137 
 
 
 
 Haunts of chub 
 
 . 39 
 
 E. 
 
 
 
 . 64 
 
 Eel, The . 
 
 . 136 
 
 of roach . 
 
 . 81 
 
 
 
 of pike 
 
 . 114 
 
 F. 
 
 
 of perch 
 
 . 118 
 
 Fins of fish 
 
 . 11 
 
 of bream . 
 
 . 124 
 
 Fishing a swim . 
 
 . 32 
 
 of dace 
 
 . 134 
 
 Fishing Gazette Spinner . 108 
 
 Hooking and playing 
 
 a 
 
 Fishing with gentles . 
 
 . 88 
 
 chub 
 
 . 52 
 
 Floats 
 
 . 26 
 
 
 . 70 
 
 
 . 82 
 
 Hooks, tying on 
 
 . 31 
 
 Flounder, The . 
 
 . 142 
 
 
 . 45 
 
 Food of barbel . 
 
 . 60 
 
 for pith and brains 
 
 . 51 
 
 of roach 
 
 . 81 
 
 for roach . 
 
 . 85 
 
 of perch 
 
 . 116 
 
 for pike 
 
 . 105 
 
 Frog fishing 
 
 . 54 
 
 I. 
 
 Introduction 
 
 
 G. 
 
 
 . 1 
 
 Gentles, or maggots . 
 
 . 87 
 
 
 
 Gregory's Archimedean 
 
 K. 
 
 Knots 
 
 
 Spinning tackle 
 
 107,110 
 
 . 27 
 
 Ground baiting . 
 
 . 33 
 
 baiting for chub 
 
 . 45 
 
 
 
 baiting for barbel 
 
 . 62 
 
 L, 
 
 
 baiting for roach 
 
 . 89 
 
 Lampern bait . 
 
 . 76 
 
 
 > and 
 
 Landing-net 
 
 . 30 
 
 tench 
 
 . 128 
 
 Lead for pike fishing 
 
 . 104 
 
 Gudgeon, The . 
 
 . 146 
 
 Ledgering, or plumbing 
 
 . 74 
 
 Gut, bottom tackle 
 
 . 26 
 
 for roach 
 
 . 96 
 
 
 . 27 
 
 for bream . 
 
 . 126 
 
 staining 
 
 . 27 
 
 Line for roach fishing 
 
 . 82 
 
 
 
 for pike fishing . 
 
 . 104 
 
 H. 
 
 
 Live baiting for pike . 
 
 . 112 
 
 Habits of bream 
 
 . 124 
 
 Lob-worms 
 
 . 66 
 
 — — of tench 
 
 . 129 
 
 Locust tackle 
 
 . 55 
 
INDEX. 
 
 153 
 
 Maiden lob-worms 
 Minnow lisliing . 
 The . 
 
 i>r. 
 
 iSTecessity of fine tackle 
 N'ight lines for eels 
 Nottingham reels 
 lines . 
 
 PAGE 
 
 . 120 
 
 . 147 
 
 71 
 130 
 
 P. 
 
 Pain, can fish feel 
 
 when hooked ? 
 Paste bait for roach 
 Paternoster, the 
 " Pegging " for roach 
 Pennell flight, the 
 Perch, The . 
 Pike, The . 
 
 playing the 
 
 Pith and brains . 
 Pliers . 
 
 pain 
 
 Q,. 
 
 Queer fish . 
 
 Eoach, The 
 
 the rod for . 
 
 bite, a 
 
 Eod for pike 
 Eoving for barbel 
 Eudd, The . 
 Eulle, or pope . 
 
 21 
 
 14 
 
 90 
 121 
 
 T'O 
 106 
 115 
 
 1^8 
 109 
 
 £0 
 
 31 
 
 77 
 82 
 8r5 
 
 103 
 75 
 97 
 
 147 
 
 S, 
 
 Scented pastes 
 
 Scouring worms 
 Scratchings 
 Senses of fish 
 
 of fish, sight 
 
 of fish, hearing 
 
 of fish, taste 
 
 smell 
 
 Sheffield anglers 
 Silk for whipping 
 Sleep, do fish sleep ? 
 Slider float 
 Sniggling for eels 
 Spawning of chub 
 of pike 
 
 of perch 
 
 of bream 
 
 of carp 
 
 of dace 
 
 Strength of fish 
 Structure of fish 
 
 T. 
 
 Tackle pouch 
 
 frame . 
 
 • ■ for chub 
 
 for barbel . 
 
 — — for roach . 
 
 for perch . 
 
 for bream . 
 
 for dace 
 
 Tenacity of life in fish 
 Tench, The 
 Tight corking 
 Trace for pike fishing 
 Trent fishing 
 
 flight, the 
 
 the . 
 
 and 
 
154 niTH.A"i^^^^M nuQi 
 
 V. 
 
 
 
 
 PAGR 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Weight of pike . 
 
 . 101 
 
 Voracity of pike 
 
 . 98 
 
 of perch 
 
 of bream 
 
 
 . 117 
 . 125 
 
 '.- '\ffFffr\ r»'4 "H^ r* W ; 
 
 
 of carp 
 
 
 . 128 
 
 ^lion's '^CdinpleCe Angler" 9 
 
 of tench 
 
 
 . 129 
 
 Wasp grub 
 
 . 49 
 
 ■ of dace 
 
 
 . 135 
 
 Wax, how to make 
 
 . 28 
 
 of the eel 
 
 
 . 138 
 
 Weather and wind 
 
 . 96 
 
 Winter fishing 
 
 
 . 52 
 
 Weed bait . 
 
 . 95 
 
 Working men anglers 
 
 2 
 
 Weight of chub . 
 
 . 40 
 
 Worm fishing for roach . 94 
 
 of barbel . 
 
 . 61 
 
 fishing for perch 
 
 . 121 
 
 of roach 
 
 . 80 
 
 fishing for bream 
 
 . 126 
 
 'J3C i-'O H8A0'- 3fV?f;r 
 
 Ih 
 
 CLOSE-TIMES FOR FISH 
 
 (According to the Act of 1878). 
 
 SALMON. — From November 2nd to February 1st, unless altered by the 
 local Board of Conservators, who may vary the dates ; but in no case 
 must the fence time commence later than December 1st, and it must 
 extend to ninety-two days. 
 
 TROUT AND CHAR.— From October 2nd to February 1st. 
 
 OTHER FISH.— From March 15th to June 15th. 
 
 "The close season does not apply to fish taken in private waters by leave 
 of the owner, or taken for bait or for scientific purposes.*' 
 
JOHN W. MARTIN 
 
 (THE TRENT OTTER), 
 Having commenced business as a 
 
 Fishing Rod and Tackle Manufacturer, 
 
 Will be happy to supply Anglers with woji ....i/ 
 
 NOTTINGHAM RODS, REELS, LINES, AND TACKLE 
 
 Of the very best manufacture, 
 AT THE VERY LOWEST POSSIBLE PRICES. 
 
 TERMS-CASH ON DELIVERY. 
 
 Every Requisite for a Bottom Fisher. 
 
 SPINNERS SUPPLIED. 
 
 BEST NOTTINGHAM RODS AT ABOUT HALF THE 
 PRICE USUALLY CHARGED. 
 
 Material and Workmanship Guaranteed. 
 
 WI^ITE FOR A price; X^^^^^^^ 
 
 NOTE THE ADDRESS- "''■ 
 
 4, Northern Buildings, Lovers' Lane, 
 NEWARK-ON-TRENT. 
 
 M 2 
 
1 D. SLATER, nrs 
 
 9 & 10, PORTLAND STREET. l\IEWARK-ON-TRENT. 
 
 Fishing Rod, Reel, and Taclcle lianufacturer. 
 
 National Fisheries Exhibition, Norwich, 1882 : — Prize Medal ; 
 Diploma of Honour for Cheap and Good Hods and Tackle ; 
 also Special Prize of £10 for Collection of Inland 
 , Fishing- Tackle. 
 
 SUPERIOR TROUT FLY RODS 
 
 in Greenheart, from 10^. Qd. to 21s. ; 16-feet Salmon Eods, 
 Greenheart, from 165. to 255. ; 18 ftet, from 185. to 305. 
 
 VERY GOOD NOTTINGHAM RODS, 
 
 3, 4, 5, or 6 joints, from Qs. to 85. Qd. ; very superior Nottingham 
 Hods, 3 or 4 joints, bronze fittings, partition case, tubular rings 
 and stoppers, IO5. (^d. each. 
 
 GOOD NOTTINGHAM WOOD REELS. 
 
 2-| inch, I5. Zd. ; 3 inch, Is. Gd. ; SJ inch, 25. ; 3f inch., 25. Gd.; 
 4 inch, 35. Very superior Star Backs, 3 inch, 3*. ; 3 J inch, 35. Gd.; 
 
 4. inch, 45. ; 4|- inch, 45. Gd. ; 5 inch, 55. 
 
 VERY SUPERIOR CENTEE-PIN REELS. 
 
 3 inch, 95. Gd. ; SJ incli, IO5. Gd. ; 4 inch, II5. Gd. ; 4|- inch, 
 125. Gd. ; 5 inch, 135. Gd. ; with Check Action, 35. Gd. each extra. 
 
 NOTTINGHAM YARD TACKLE, 
 
 hooked and shotted, 25. and 25. Gd. per doz. ; 80 yards superior 
 Silk Line, I5. Sd. ; stouter, I5. Gd. 
 
 VERY SUPERIOR NOTTINGHAM ROD, 
 
 either for Roach, Bream, or Barbel, Si inch superior Star Back 
 Reel, 80 yards Silk Line, and half a dozen best yard Tackle for 155. 
 
 ANY KIND OF RODS, REELS, AND TACKLE MADE TO ORDER. 
 
FISHING RODS AND TACKLE. 
 
 THE LAEGEST AND FINEST STOCK IN LONDON. 
 
 ■WOBTH A VISIT TO SEE THEM. 
 
 SPECIAL ATTENTION IS DRAWN TO THE 
 
 TOURISTS' POCKET GENERAL ROD, 
 
 11 feet long, G joints, 3 tops, double bi'azed throughout, 
 WITH SOLID WINCH FITTINGS, VERY FINEST QUALITY, 
 
 £1 10s. Od. 
 
 WATSON'S GUINEA FLY ROD, 
 
 Has 3 joints, 2 top.", is double brazed throughout, 
 
 £1 Is. Od. 
 
 This Rod is unec[iialled at the jorice. 
 
 SOLE MANUFACTURERS OF 
 
 THE CELEBRATED ANGLERS' KNIFE, 
 
 Has Two Blades, Saw, Dis:^orger, Vice, Strong Scissors, Pricker, Tweezers, 
 Corkscrew, Pincers, and Shackle to hang on Belt. 
 
 Finest Quality, £i 5S. Od. 
 
 Descriptive Catalogue of Rods and Tackle of every description, 
 equally moderately priced, Free on Application. 
 
 W. WATSON & SONS, 
 308, HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON, 
 
 Establislied 1837. Two Doors from Chancery Lane. 
 
IF YOU WANT TO SELL, EXCHANGE, OR BUY 
 
 FISHING RODS AND TACKLE, 
 
 OR ANY OTHER SPORTING APPLIANCE, 
 
 Get a Copy of *' THE BAZAAR, EXCHANGE, AND 
 
 MART," 'published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, price 2d. 
 
 Advertisements at the rate of Id. for three words. 
 
 Specinleii Copy lor T-vro Penny Stamps. 
 
 . Offce: m, STRAND, LONDON, W.C. 
 
 THE MOST EXHAUSTIVE WORK ON ANGLING. 
 
 481 pp., in cloth gilt, gilt edges, price IQs. Qd. ; ly post, lis. 
 THE PRACTICAL FISHERMAN: Dealing with the Natural History, 
 the Legendary Lore, the Capture of British Freshwater Fish, and Tackle and 
 Tackle Making. Beautifully Illustrated. By J. H. Kebne. 
 CONTENTS: 
 Chap. 15.- The Chub. 
 Chap. 16.— The Ide and 
 
 Graininir. 
 Chap. 17.— The Rudd or 
 
 Eeii-eye. 
 Chap. 18.— The Azurine or 
 
 Blue Roach. 
 Chap. 19.— The Bleak. 
 Chap. 20.— The Minnow. 
 Chap. 21.— The Loach. 
 Chap. 22,— The Pike, Jack, 
 
 or Luce. 
 Chap. 23.— The Salmon. 
 Chap. 24.— The Bull Trout, 
 Grey Trout, Sewin, or 
 Round-tail. 
 Chap. 25.— The Sea Trout, 
 White Trout, or Salmon 
 Trout. 
 
 Tackle awd Tackie Making. 
 
 Ch<>p. 1.— Introductory. 
 
 Chap. 2.— The General His- 
 tory of Angling, Tackle, 
 and Baits. 
 
 Chap. 3. — Notes on Ichthy- 
 ology, or the Science of 
 FishVs. 
 
 Chap. 4.— The Perch. 
 
 Chap. 5.— The Ruffe or Pope. 
 
 Chap. 6.— Miller's Thumb, 
 or Bullhead. 
 
 Chap. 7.— The Stickleback. 
 
 Chap. 8.— The Carp. 
 
 Chap. 9.— The Barbel. 
 
 Chap. 10.— The Tench. 
 
 Chap. 11.— The Gudgeon. 
 
 Chap. 12,— The Bream. 
 
 Chap. 13.— Tlie Dace. 
 
 Chap. 14.— The Roach. 
 
 Chap. 26.— Common Brown 
 
 Trout. 
 Chap. 27.— Thames Trout. 
 Chap. 28.— The Great Lake 
 
 Trout, 
 Chap. 29.— The Loch Leven 
 
 Trout. 
 Chap. 30.— The Charrs. 
 Chap. 31.— The Grayling. 
 Chap. 32.— The Gwyniad. 
 Chap. 33.— The Powan. 
 Chap. 34.— Tte Pollan. 
 Chap. 35.— The Vendace or 
 
 Vendis. 
 Chap. 36.— The Burbot or 
 
 Eel Pout. 
 Chap. 37.— The Eel. 
 Chap. 38.— The Lamprey. 
 
 Chap. 1. — Introductory. 
 Chap. 2.— Rods and Rings. 
 Chap. 3.— Hooks. 
 Chap. 4. — Running Lines. 
 Chap. 5.— Gut, Hair, and 
 
 Gimp. 
 Chap. 6. —Reels & Winches. 
 
 Chap. 12.— Fly Making. 
 Chap. 13.— Tackle for the 
 
 Carp Family, &c. 
 Chap. 14. — Miscellaneous 
 
 Items of Outfit.— Conclu- 
 
 Bion. 
 
 Chap. 7.— Floats. 
 
 Chap. 8.— Knots and Ties. 
 
 Chap. 9. — Wax and Varnish. 
 
 Chap. 10. — Tackle for Spin- 
 ning and Trolling. 
 
 Chap, 11,— Tackle for Live 
 Baiting. 
 
 FISHING DIARY, Complete and Compact, see " Country Pocket Book." 
 
 Roan, 3«. Qd. ; Russia, 6«. M, ; postage, 2d. 
 NOTES ON GAME AND GAME SHOOTING. By J. J. Manlet. 
 
 Illustrated by J. Tbmple. 400 pp., cloth, 7«. Gd. ; by post, 7*. lod. 
 BOAT SAILING. Illustrated. By Cheistopheh Uavies. Cloth, 5*. ; 
 
 by post, 5». 4d. 
 BOAT BUILDING. Illustrated. By DiiON Kemp and Adeien Neison, 
 
 Cloth, 2». Qd. ; by post, 2«, M. 
 MODEL YACHTS. Illustrated. By J. DU V. Geostenoe. Leatherette, 
 
 5«. ; by post, 58, 4d 
 PRACTICAL TAXIDERMY. Illustrated. By Montaqtj Beowne. 
 
 Cloth, 3*. Qd.; by post. 3.-. 9d. 
 TIPPER THAMES (From Richmond to Oxford). A Guide to Boating- 
 
 Men, Anglers, and Others, Cloth, with Pockets, 2*. 
 
 *#* Full Catalogue of Practical Handbooks on Application. 
 London 
 
 L. UPGOTT GILL, 170, 
 
 Strand, W.G. 
 
YU^= -^AH0X3 ,JJ38 OT THAW UOY 1i 
 
 ^.^■2 -I VIA 
 -•ti 
 
 THE FISHING GAZETTE, 
 
 DEVOTED TO . >'-^ «'>Anrr^»i|>; 
 
 ANGLING OF ALL KINDS, RIVER, LAKE, AND SEA FISHING, 
 AND FISH CULTURE. 
 
 ^Proprietors : 
 SAMPSON LOW, MAKSTON, & Co., Crown BuilJings, 18S, fl^ct Street, lonJoa. 
 
 Editor, R. B. MAHSTON. 
 
 PUBLISHED EVERY WEEK, FOLIO, 16 PAGES, PRICE iiO^j 
 
 Articles on all kinds of Angling and every /n formation useful 
 
 to Anglers. , *^ 
 
 . ■>'ij ■■ ■ .■■ 
 
 The Best Medium for Advertisements addressed to Anglers. 
 
 TO ANGLERS. 
 
 All Anglers who subscribe to the Fishing Gazette are at liberty 
 to use its correspondence columns to make inquiries respecting 
 any matters relating to Angling on which they may want in- 
 iormation ; — in fact, any information au Angler can yeq;iiire 
 may be got by writing to the Gazette. "^ '^. 
 
 If you have not seen the paper, try it for three months (2^. 8d. 
 post free from Office, Crown Buildings, 188, Fleet Street, London). 
 
CANNON'S GLUE POWDER. 
 
 SOLD IN Id. PACKETS. 
 
 Equal in strengtli and quality to the best Gluo made. Useful in every house. 
 
 Dissolves iinniediatelv iti boiling' water. Sold by Chemists, Grocers, Oilmen, 
 
 and Stationers. Can be obtained wholesale from 
 
 "W. B. PORDHAM & SONS, York Boad, St. Pancras, liOndon; 
 
 OK FUOM 
 
 B. CANNON & CO., Manufacturers, Witham Leather, Glue and 
 Parchment "Works, liincoln, Eng-land. 
 
 ESTABLISHED OVER HALF A CENTURY. 
 
 JOHN COOPER <narMr?oK;?pTrr,' ''° 
 
 BIRD AND FISH PRESERVER 
 
 To H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh, 
 
 28, RADHOR STREET, ST. LDKE'S, E.G. (near the Church, Old Street). 
 
 SILVER MEDALS IN 1878, 1880, AND EDINBURGH EXHIBITION, 1882. 
 
 The Silver Medal, 1878, was awarded to Mr. John Cooper at the Piscatorial Exhibition 
 
 at the Westminster Aquarium for the best specimens of Stuffed Fish. 
 
 C. J. GREENE, 
 
 454, XuOlSJyOlS STJKEET, IVOJEft^V^ICH, 
 
 Hon. See. to the Yare Freservation Society, 
 
 Invites inspection of his Large and Superior Stock of 
 
 FISHING RODS AND TACKLE 
 
 Of every description. 
 
 National Fisheries Exhibition, 1881. — Special 
 
 Prize of £10, and Prize Medal awarded for the Best Collection 
 of Eods and Tackle suitahle for the Norfolk and Suffolk Inland 
 Waters. 
 
FISHSNG-N0RF0LKa3 
 
 Ormesby Broad abounds in Roach, Bream, Perch, lludd, &c. 
 
 Pike Fishing in Winter Months. 
 
 Good boats, bait, &c., to be had at the '' Sportsman Arms," 
 Ormesby Broad. — S. Kichmond, Proprietor. 
 
 Five miles from Great Yarmouth, via North Norfolk Railway. 
 
 STRAWSON'S WATERPROOF, 
 
 For Boots, Shoes, Le^gin^s, Harness, &c. 
 
 Used by all 
 
 Sportsmen, 
 
 Travellers, 
 
 and Explorers, 
 
 Alpine and otlier 
 
 Tourists, 
 
 Miners and 
 
 Engineers, 
 
 and is 
 
 Unrivalled 
 
 for 
 
 Boots & Shoes. 
 
 Used by all 
 
 Sportsmen, 
 
 Deerstalkers, 
 
 and Punters, 
 
 Tlie Army and 
 
 Navy, 
 
 Volunteers, 
 
 Fishermen and 
 
 Sailors, 
 
 and is 
 
 Unrivalled 
 
 for Harness, &c. 
 
 REGISTERED TRADE MARK 
 
 This Waterproof has obtained a world-wide reputation, aud has been used bv the Icad- 
 im? Sportsmen for upwards of T WENT Y YEARS. 
 
 Shooting and other Boots dressed with it will resist Dew, Rai-^, Snow, and Sea Water. 
 It is especially good for keeping the soles of Boots and Shoes Waterproof, increases the 
 comfort of the wearer by its softening effects on the leather, helping to prevent blisters 
 and chafing to the feet. 
 
 Testimonial from H. C. Pennell, Esq., Author of " The Practical Modern Angler " and 
 other scientific works. 
 "5, Cadogan Terrace, London, S.W., September 20th, 1880. 
 "Dear Sir, — Pray make use of my name. I have often stated (and always asserted in 
 my books) my belief that your Waterproofing is the best in thk Wokld for Sporting 
 purposes, and indeed the only one which will ke*^p out Melting Snow. 
 
 "Yours truly, H. CHOLMONDELEY PENNELL 
 "Mr. H. Strawson." 
 
 Sold Retail by all Boot and Shoemakers, Saddlers and others, in Tins, 
 price 2d., M., Si., 1«., 2«., 5s., and 10». each. 
 Ask your Bootmaker or Saddler to procure it for you, or send stamps for a sample to 
 
 JOHN BLAKEY. Sole Proprietor, Lady Lane, Leeds. 
 
KING'S " NATTJEAL " BAIT 
 
 (REGISTERED). 
 
 The most perfect and suacessful Bait for Bottom Fishing ever 
 introduced, seldom failing to ensure a Heavy Creel of Fish. 
 
 Strongly recommended by the Editors of the " Fishing 
 Gazette," "Hackney and Kingsland Gazette," &c., 
 and by all the leading Anglers of the day. 
 
 TESTIMONIAL FROM J. H. KEENE, Esq. 
 
 "Mt DKA.R SiK, — I have ti'sted your ' Natural ' Bait, with admirable results, 
 amongst roacli, bream, and chub. I cannot speak too highly of its attractive- 
 ness as a bait and its tenacity on the hook. — Yours truly, J. H. Keene." 
 
 FROM A WHOLESALE TACKLE DEALER. 
 "Dear Sir, — I have irivi'ii the samples of ' Natural ' Bait to several of my 
 customers, and each one «j)' nks very highly of it. My son, who is only four- 
 teen years of age, tried a sample, and filled his basket with tench and roach." 
 
 Of Tackle Dealers, in Packets, 3d., 6d., & 1 s. each. Postage extra. 
 WM. KING, 1. mW ROAD, COMMERCIAL ROAD, LONDON, E. 
 
 BULLMER'S "GOSSAMER" DRAWN GUT LINES. 
 
 Three yards, 8d. each. 
 
 These are the lines which have been so often most 
 favourably spoken of by the Editor of the " Fishing 
 Gazette" (Mr. R. B. Marston), who has used them in 
 Fly Fishing for Trout and Grayling for the last two 
 or three seasons, and also for Roach Fishing, &c. 
 See his notices in the " Gazettes " for Dec. 17, 1881, June 
 24, 1882, July 1, 1882. 
 N.B.— To be had stained to suit the tint of any water. 
 
 Gossamer Hooks to match Lines, 8d. per dozen. Best Gut 
 Hooks, 6d. per dozen. Gut Lines, 4d. and 6d. each. 
 
 PRICE LIST POST PREE. 
 
 A. BULMER, 62, WANDSWORTH ROAD. 
 
 A specimen " Gopsnmer" cast sent post free to any part of the country on receipt of 9d. 
 
 in stamps. 
 

 
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 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS 
 
 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
 DAY AND TO $1.00 ON THE SEVENTH DAY 
 OVERDUE. 
 
 
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 SEP V. 1935 
 
 
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Float 
 
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 403, OXFORD STREET, 
 
 (I5ETWEEN Duke Street and Orchard Street,) 
 LONDON, W. 
 
 ALFRED YOUNG, 
 
 MANUFACTURER OF 
 
 SUPERIOR FISHING RODS k TACKLE 
 
 OF EVERY DESCRIPTION. 
 
 SaIm0iT, Cr0M;t, Ipth^, St0at^, aitir 0t^er §l0!trs. 
 A large assortment of Trout and Salmon Flies. 
 
 RODS, TACKLE, and every Requisite for the NOTTINGHAM 
 STYLE, as described in this WorK;. 
 
 FLIES TIED TO PATTERN. RODS & TACKLE REPAIRED. 
 
 f- 
 
 *'THE ANGLER'S HANDBOOK," and Catalogue of Prices, with 80 
 Illustrations of Rods, Fliet;. Baits, Tackle, etc., post free, 3^. 
 
 ALFRED YOUNG, 
 
 ^t (BoSim Dmfr, 
 402, OXFORD Sa?EEET, LONDON, W. 
 
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