ANGLING FOR CARP, AND SOME HINTS AS TO 

 BEST MODE OF COOKING. 



BY S. V. BAllTLETT. 



In compliance with a request of the Corresponding Secretary, 

 I have the honor of offering a few suggestions as to the catching 

 of cai-p with hook and line, and some of the popular ways for 

 preparing them for the table. 



The question has been asked me a great many times why it 

 was that carp cannot be taken with the hook and line. A great 

 many persons have told me that they have used all kinds of bait 

 and failed to get them to take it. These inquiries came to me as 

 a surprise from the fact that hundreds daily fish for carp with 

 hook and line on Quincy Bay and all along the Illinois river with 

 great success. 



I have found the best bait to be a dough ball made by boiling 

 cornmeal to a good stiff mush, and then work the ordinary cotton 

 batting into it until it becomes hard and stiff, and then rolling 

 into little round pellets about the size of a marble. Bait pre- 

 pared in this way will not be easily dissolved by the water. 1 

 use the ordinary Carlisle hook fastened on the end of a good 

 strong line and three or four inelies above the hook, att^ich quilo 

 a heavy sinker whicli will take the line to the bottom and allow 

 the bait to flow up away from the bottom. Another good bait 

 is the ordianry ship stuff from the mills, boiled stiff and dough 

 rolled out in sheets, and then cut up into little spuares, perhaps 

 three-fourths of an inch square. Fried potatoes, sliced raw and 

 fried until they become stiff, not brittle, also is a fine bait. Any- 

 one conversant with the hook and line at all, will have no trouble 

 in catching carp if tliis bait is ust'd as indicated. 



On Quincy Bay, I have seen as many as two hundred ])(^o])le 

 fishing for carp along the shores, and nearly all of them get 

 good fair strings. The carp when hooked is a very vigorous- 

 fighter, and care must be used that he does not break the hook or 

 break out the hook from his mouth. I would advise the use of 

 tbe landing net. They are daily taken on trout lines, using the 

 .same kind of bait. 



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