58 ANGLING FOR COARSE PISH. 



the ground, half fill the pot with fresh moss, and put the old 

 moss and worms on the top. The live worms then work down 

 into the fresh moss, and the old moss, containing the dead 

 worms, can be easily removed. The pot should be kept in a 

 cool place. A little milk poured over the moss is supposed 

 to hasten the scouring process. In three days the worms 

 are generally ready for use. Need I say that the cleanest and 

 most lively ones, especially those without knots in them, 

 should be placed on the hook, and the coarser ones thrown in for 

 ground-bait ? 



Persons who do a good deal of fishing, most especially in the 

 winter, will find it well worth their while to start a " wormery." 

 Collect a number of worms when the weather is favourable, 

 and place them in a large chest or box nearly filled with 

 garden soil. A few leaves, straw, hay, or any garden litter, 

 placed on the top of the soil, will afford food for the worms, and 

 the soil must not be allowed to get dry.* 



I have gone so deeply into the various methods of roach-fish- 

 ing that very little remains to be added on 



Winter Roach-fishing in Rivers. — Everything that I 

 have said relating to fishing with lobworms when the rivers 

 are high and coloured, applies with as much force to winter as 

 to summer fishing. The great winter bait is the tail of a lob- 

 worm ; but if the season should happen to be dry, and the water 

 low and bright, gentles or redworms will sometimes kill better. 

 As a general rule, light leger float tackle (see Fig. 21) will be 

 found most killing for roach-fishing in winter with the lob- 

 worm, and ordinary float tackle (see Fig. 13) when gentles or 

 small worms are the bait. 



Eddies are very easily fished in winter, being then free from 

 weeds, whereas in summer these weeds are very much en evidence, 

 and a great nuisance. What is an eddy when the river is high, 



*Lobs are sometimes called dew-worms. The largest usually have a thick ring 

 of colour round them, near the head. The smaller ones, without this ring, are 

 termed maiden-lobs, and are the best hook-baits. Two other common and useful 

 worms are brandlings, or gilt- tails, and redworms, called on the Trent cockspurs. 

 They are smaller than lobs, and are found in rotten dung and decayed vegetable 

 refuse, if old and not very moist. The brandling is the larger of the two, and may 

 be known by its being partly covered with small rings, and being less red than the 

 redworm. The so-called meal worm is the larva of a beetle found in mills, and is 

 a first-rate bait for most kinds of fish in mill-tails. 



