THE BREAM. 77 



years ago, and even less, a proverb was often quoted to the 

 effect that " He that hath bream, in his pond hath always a 

 welcome for his guest." Just fancy nowadays a man wel- 

 coming his guest with a dish of pond breami. I reckon he 

 would not have a chance of welcoming them a second time, 

 for most assuredly they would keep out of his reach for the 

 future. I know of a sheet of water in Nottinghamshire that 

 contains a lot of large bream, but so filthy and slimy are they 

 that if caught in the early morning and kept in the bag or 

 basket till night they become nothing more nor less than a 

 mass of corruption, more particularly if the weather is* hot. 

 Far different, however, is a good Ouse bream; nicely fried 

 and browned crisp with bread crumbs it is anything but bad 

 eating. They should be scaled, beheaded, the fins and in- 

 sides carefully removed, and scraped well all along the in- 

 side of the backbone ; a little salt should then be rubbed well 

 in, both outside and inside ; and after standing for an hour 

 or two to drain, carefully washed again, and thoroughly dried 

 with a cloth. A lump of good lard should be melted in the 

 frying-pan first, and the bream dropped in among the boil- 

 ing fat, turning it over when sufficiently cooked on the 

 under side. It should be served and eaten as hot as pos- 

 sible. I might add that bream are all the better if cleaned 

 as soon after capture as possible. I must confess that after 

 my experiences with the Trent bream I was most agreeably 

 surprised at the flavour of a good sample from the Ouse; 

 indeed, many of the people who live on the banks of that 

 river would sooner have a good bream than the best beef- 

 steak that could be purchased ; a three-pounder will easily 

 fetch sixpence. 



Bream are captured in several ways. On the Trent the 

 angler uses the same rod, reel, line, and tackle as recom- 

 mended for barbel, except the float is a shade less and the 

 hook a trifle smaller. The haunts of bream^ in the Trent are 

 deep holes, where the stream is very sluggish. The hook 

 bait, which is generally a worm — and any of the worms re- 

 commended in the chapter on barbel will do^ — is allowed to 

 trip along the bottom. Stret-pegging is also another good 

 method of bream fishing. For ground bait worms are some- 

 times used, and these are clipped up and thrown down the 



