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, n, 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. 



