HOW TO ANGLE FOR SMELTS, &C. 



strike immediately and strong. Smelts will some- 

 times take blood worms. Shrimps, or pieces of Lob- 

 sters, &c., and also red worms. The pieces of Smelt 

 or Eel for bait, should be about the size of a finger- 

 nail.* 



They are very frequently fished for without a float, 

 but with hooks, lines, &c. as above described, and 

 with a small piece of lead at bottom, which you occa- 

 sionally let dip or touch the ground, gently raising 

 and sinking it, till you feel a bite : this is called dip- 

 fishing, from the name of the lead, (which may be 

 procured at the tackle- shops,) and is the most destruc- 

 tive way of killing Smelts. You always find Smelts 

 in deep water, therefore a long line is necessary. The 

 best place to catch these Fish, near London, is in the 

 canal that runs from Limehouse-hole to Blackwall, 

 through the Isle of Dogs : they are also, sometimes, 

 taken off the logs lying in the Thames, and in all the 

 wet docks below London-bridge. You may fish for 

 Smelts from July to November and December — very 

 early and late is the most suvicessful time : many will 

 take twenty or thirty dozen in a day. — Note, when 

 you angle with a dip instead of a float, put a small 

 piece of white feather at the top of your rod, you will 

 then see, if you do not feel, a bite. 



* Smelts will bite, although the hook shows through the bait ; 

 which is fortunate for the Angler, because every time he strikes, 

 the points of the hooks are forced through the bait, in consequence 

 of his being obliged to strike with much force and quickness, or 

 he loses a bite. 



