22.5 



"be necessary to keep your line as tight as the wind may 

 permit, and to give a gentle twitch whenever your float 

 sinks in the least : this requires some judgment, a quick 

 eye, and an obedient, delicate, hand. 



In large waters, especially if you cannot approach the 

 chief haunts, you should bait the spot where you intend 

 to angle, for some days previously, with malt, grains, 

 Iran, Hood, or refuse worms. 



The carp will sometimes take a piece of salmon's roe/ 

 or its substitute ; but I never knew one to rise at a fly. 

 "When about to spawn, they generally lay near to the sur- 

 face, with their noses out, or under such parts of the 

 dock, or other leaves, as do not lie close down upon the 

 water. In such situations they may be heard to pout all 

 day, but especially towards the evening, in close weather. 



When this is the case, you will have little or no sue* 

 cess with a float, or by sinking your bait low down j on 

 the contrary, you should put a very fine worm, or a 

 gentle, or a cadiate, or a green caterpillar, on rather a 

 small stiff hook, without any shot on your line, or, at 

 most, only one, and cast, or rather gently drop, your 

 bait, so as to hang over the edge of a leaf, and to be only 

 in part immersed in the water : observe, that the carp 

 has a very small mouth. 



If you manage this point dexterously, you wifl hook 

 many fine fishes ; but as to getting them out, that is 

 quite another affair. The moment the carp feek the de- 

 ception, he will give either a desperate splash on the sur- 

 face, or dart down like an arrow, leading your line into 

 many an awkward labyrinth. 



The contest in general ends wrth his escape ; unless, 

 indeed, you can, by more than common good luck, bear 



