BARBEL-FISHING 123 
is favourable, sport on the morrow after ground-baiting 
may be fast and furious, and it behoves you to keep a cool 
head and a steady hand in order to avoid mishap. To hook a 
good fish and to lose him through broken tackle causes anguish 
intensified by shame, for at least seventy-five per cent. of 
breakages arise from the angler’s fault—(I speak not of salmon 
in a Norwegian torrent where the fish cannot be followed). The 
deerstalker knows what remorse is when he sends away a good 
stag wounded ; not less keen, perhaps, is the humble barbel- 
fisher’s bitterness of spirit when a bold fish escapes with a hook 
in his throat and a yard of salmon gut hanging from his lips. 
Honest Izaak Walton warned his pupil that the barbel “ is so 
strong that he will often break both rod and line,” and I 
am inclined to think that he avoided risk of disaster with this 
fish, by refraining from angling for it. In this case, as in that 
of the salmon, he wrote upon hearsay ; for how should he 
adventure forth against such barbel as the Thames contained 
in his day, without the furniture of a reel and running line? 
The properest tackle to use with a lobworm bait consists 
of one rather large hook (Nos. 10, 11, or 12), with a smaller 
hook tied on the gut about an inch above the first. The 
object of the smaller hook is to hold the worm straight, and 
prevent it doubling up into an unsightly bunch in strong water. 
When barbel are well on the feed, it is not good to lose 
much time in playing the fish. ‘ Hold your barbel as hard as 
you dare,” is Mr. Wheeley’s advice, “‘and get him out as soon 
as possible ; slip on another worm, and down with it; if the 
fish are well on, it will most likely be taken as soon as it 
is on the bottom.’’* 
Well, and what are you to do with your barbel when you 
have got him? That is just the least satisfactory part of the 
performance. Were barbel a culinary prize, like salmon, the 
sport would be a noble one; but most people account the fish 
* Coarse Fish, by Charles H. Wheeley, p. 5. London: Lawrence 
& Bullen, 1897. 
