120 ANGLING FOR COARSE FISH. 



but let him drop on tlie ground, or floor-boards of the boat, and 

 at once cut the gut close to liis nose. The cook will get the hook 

 out when the eel is dead. It is decidedly less trouble to cut 

 the gut, and put on a fresh hook, than to get out the hook your- 

 self. If you will do it, have ready a piece of flannel with which 

 to grasp the eel, or wear a woollen glove on the left hand. To 

 kill the eel, sever his backbone, just behind his head, with a 

 penknife ; but first, if you conveniently can, give him a sharp 

 blow on the tail, which will have a very quieting eifect. Eels, 

 by-the-way, when in a difficulty — such as a creel — invaria])ly 

 try to get out of it tail first. If you want to get a live eel into 

 a basket, induce his tail to enter the receptacle, and the rest 

 of his body will surely follow. This may seem a contradiction 

 to the previous sentence, but is, nevertheless, correct. 



I need hardly say that eels may be caught on float-tackle, or, 

 indeed, on any tackle the angler chooses to use for tlem, 

 provided the bait lies close to or on the ground, where iu can 

 be noticed by the fish. Ground-baiting is not often practised for 

 eels, but long-continued feeding is certain to bring them 

 together in one spot. Blood should be introduced into any 

 ground-bait intended for eels. Fresh rabbits' entrails are said 

 to be wonderfully attractive. There are several 



Other Methods of Taking Eels, which can hardly be 

 termed angling, but to which I think I ought to refer. The 

 bulk of the English eels sent to market are caught in nets, or 

 huge baskets, which are set out at openings in weirs, or are 

 placed in narrow side streams, and into which the eels tumble, 

 sometimes in thousands, during their migration seawards. 

 Everyone who has visited the upper Thames must be familiar 

 with the picturesque eel-bucks, as they are termed. 



Smaller baskets, called wheels, are laid in spots frequented by 

 eels, and, being baited with gudgeon or other small fish, or offal, 

 are entered by the eels when searching about for food. 



Long lines arrayed with any number of hooks, from two to 

 two hundred, are also used for taking eels ; but as they prove 

 deadly to every kind of fish, unless baited with dead minnows 

 or gudgeons (somehow or other the professional fisherman does 

 not use these two baits, though they are quite as good as worms 



