102 ANGLING FOR COARSE FISH. 



easily seen. At sucli times they often make a peculiar sucking 

 noise. In rivers, tliey like quiet holes among weeds, and are 

 sometimes found in barbel-swims. They hardly feed at all in 

 winter, the best fishing being during the summer months. 

 They sometimes bite well after a thunderstorm. 



The following are good carp-baits: Redworms and brand- 

 lings, paste sweetened with honey, gentles, parboiled potatoes, 

 green peas, boiled wheat, green wheat, wasp-grubs dipped in 

 honey after having been put on the hook (I read this in the 

 Fishing Gazette), paste made of old cheese, paste made of bread, 

 soft roe of herring, and a little wool, cherries, and almost any 

 kind of grub, worm, or grain. Any bait used must be perfectly 

 clean and sweet. The ground-bait should resemble the hook- 

 bait, but should be coarser. 



Float-fishing for Carp is an amusement at which many 

 anglers have failed for want of proper precautions. It is the 

 method best suited for lakes and ponds, where the angler fishes 

 from the bank. For fishing from a boat or punt for carp, the leger 

 is usually more suitable, as the bait has to be cast some distance 

 away. We will suppose now that we are on a visit to a friend 

 who has a fine sheet of water well stocked with very large and, 

 consequently, very shy carp. Few of these fish have ever been 

 taken, and their favourite baits are not known. "We decide to 

 devote one day to float-fishing, and the next to fishing 

 with the leger, and to try sweet paste, worms, and potatoes — 

 the latter on the leger. On our arrival om* host laughingly 

 says we shall catch nothing — a remark which puts us on our 

 mettle, and we straightway sally forth and examine the water- 

 The keeper joins us, and after a chat with him we select four 

 places for float-fishing from the bank, and also decide to bait 

 up with potatoes two deep holes some distance from the shore. 

 It is now about 11 a.m., so, not to lose any time, we have some 

 potatoes boiled in their skins, all the bits of crust in the bread- 

 pan scalded, and set a boy to dig diligently for worms of all 

 descriptions. The scalded bread, when soft enough, is kneaded 

 up with some bran and meal, the potatoes are chopped up as 

 soon as they are half -boiled, and the best of the redworms and 

 brandlings are picked out, and put to scour in moss for hook- 



