BOBBING FOR EELS 



hauling forth great worms that resisted 

 and hung on valiantly and stretched like 

 red rubber, might well have said that here 

 was voodoo worship or a Dickey initiate 

 gone mad. But it was nothing of the sort, 

 merely the crack local fisherman get- 

 ting his bait. 



I have looked in vain in Izaak Walton 

 for a paean on angleworms or a descrip- 

 tion of a proper method for making a bob 

 for eels, and I thereby find the " Compleat 

 Angler " incomplete. However, Izaak 

 was an admirable fisherman in the rather 

 patient and conservative way of the Eng- 

 land of his time. He advises to bait for 

 eels " with a little, a very little, lamphrey, 

 which some call a pride, and may in the 

 hot months be found many of them in the 

 river Thames, and in many mud-heaps in 

 other rivers ; yea, almost as usually as one 



finds worms in a dung-hill." 

 231 



