BARBEL AND BREAM. 249 



for legering, to worms for all kinds of BarbelHng, and I 

 prefer the swim to be baited beforehand (if possible 

 twenty-four hours). Still I have had excellent sport with 

 both kinds of baits, and both systems of using them. 

 * Ground baiting as you fish' has, however, this advan- 

 tage, that if Barbel do not come on to bite at one swim 

 there is no disappointment felt in moving to another. 

 A fisherman — especially a professional fisherman — hates 

 quitting the hole into which he has thrown so much time 

 and so many pints of worms. If it is intended to fish the 

 same swim a second day, the ground should be re-baited 

 on quitting. 



The mode of preparing and using greaves for ground bait 

 is described at p. 227. If worms are used for baiting a 

 Barbel swim in anything but dead water or a very slow- 

 stream, I recommend their being enclosed in hollow clay 

 balls of about the size of a man's two fists. These, if 

 the swim is to be fished at once, should be thin enough 

 to break almost directly they touch the bottom, and the 

 worms, of which a couple of handfuls are enough to begin 

 with, should be broken into two pieces^. If the swim 

 is to be baited twenty-four hours or more beforehand, a 

 quart of worms is not too much — two days, two quarts. 

 In this case — say a twenty-four hours' ground baiting — 

 the worms should be used whole, and enclosed in clay 

 balls, of which a few ought to be thin enough to break 

 or wash open almost immediately they touch the ground, 

 the majority being strong enough to resist the action of 



