76 



ANGLING FOR COARSE FISH. 



the fish. If the river is clear, the angler should cast to A, where 

 the water is probably deep. If the water is coloured, he should 

 cast to B, where the pool usually shallows a little. Of course, 

 all pools are not alike, but there is, in most cases, a family like- 

 ness. The punt might be the other side of the lasher (L), in the 

 eddy (E), moored near the bank; or the barbel might lie just 

 where I have placed the punt, in which case the punt should be 

 moored at F. Local fishermen know from experience just where 

 the fish are, and will sometimes give information on the subject, 

 if it is clearly to their interest to do so ; but the angler should 



always personally superin- 

 ^^!CL tend the "baiting," or he 

 may not get the worms 

 thrown in he pays for. 

 Sometimes there may be 

 only one clean piece of bot- 

 tom in a pool, and to find 

 this the services of the local 

 man are absolutely essen- 

 tial. If the bottom is 

 covered with big stones, and piles stick up here and there, 

 any amount of tackle will be lost, and very few fish taken. 

 The foulest bottoms always bear the most fish. A rypeck 

 should be put in, at least a day before the fishing takes 

 place. The punt can then be moored without disturbance, a 

 stone or weight being dropped quietly over the end where the 

 pole is not. The running tackle for legering should be as fine* 

 as can safely be used, dressed if the angler casts Thames fashion, 

 undressed if he casts off the reel. The stouter of the rods 

 mentioned on page 13 is best for this fishing. 



A word now as to ground-baiting. About a thousand lob- 

 worms are required. Pick out a hundred small ones without rings 

 (maiden lobs) for hook-baits, and scour them carefully. Throw 

 five hundred above the swim (see pages 9, 10, and 62) early one morn- 

 ing, three hundred the next, and try the swim the morning after, 



Fig. 30. Position of Punt in Weir- 

 pools, FOR Barbel-fishing. 



* The late Francis Francis once caught a barbel -weighing 6ilb. on a single 

 hair. The fish was hooked in the back fin, and took three and a half hours to kill. 

 I know of no more remarkable feat in the annals of angling. 



