162 Bottom Fishing for Labco. Chapt. xil. 



at 15 yards for a shilling. It is so easily accommodated to the 

 exact weight you want, and with these thievish fish you should 

 weight to a nicety. An inch or so of the lead wire is sufficient, so 

 that it will take you two or three lifetimes to use up 15 yards 

 unless you are philanthrophic to your brother anglers, whether 

 white or black, as a fisherman should be. For hook I have pre- 

 ferred No. 6 Kirby or Sneck bead. 



You will find it advantageous to ground-bait beforehand, and 

 a little while fishing, just to keep them together. 



Before you begin, plumb the depth carefully by putting a 

 weight on your hook, and arrange your float so that your bait shall 

 lie an inch or two off the ground, not more. 



Bait with paste or dough such as you fancy. Dough made up 

 of wheat flour and water kneaded together cold will do, but it 

 is easily stolen. Cheese mashed very fine with a fork and mixed 

 with the above dough, gives it additional consistency, and what is 

 of much more importance, smell. The natives scent their paste 

 with the most offensive, untouchable, unmentionable matters. I 

 daresay aaafoetida would answer the same purpose; I never tried. 

 It is undoubtedly right to trust much to the sense of smell in fish 

 when you wish them to find your stationary bait as in bottom 

 fishing ; and their preferences are the reverse of Rimmel's. Newly 

 baked bread may also be kneaded up and used. It is not so liable 

 to be stolen as paste, hut I think it is a little too hard, offer- 

 ing, therefore, a little too much resistance to the passage of 

 the hook through it when you want to strike the fish. I 

 found the cocoamit rice-flour cakes commonly made by old 

 women at corners of streets, and called by Madrassees hoppers 

 (Tamil, appam) to be very convenient and effective when kneaded 

 up. Did'nt I say old women, they have never been known to be 

 made by young women, that's a peculiarity of them. I have used 

 a bait the size of a man's little finger nail ; the natives use it as 

 big as a thumb nail. They use also paste made of the flour of ragi 

 (Tamil, kevaru or kevaragu. the botanical name would'nt help you) 

 mixed with rice bran, not paddy husk, and boiled up with a little 

 water, stirring the whole till it thickens ; and they ground-bait with 

 the same. It is douhth <s of a very suitable consistency, and has 

 a strong smell about it. and is as cheap as anything they could use 

 When to strike is a very important point. These fish bite very 



