THE CARP. 175 



common carp, it often affords the angler some amusement without 

 much trying his patience, making up in some degree by numbers 

 for what they are individually deficient in weight. 



The best bait is a moderate sized red worm without a knot, but 

 any worm that is not too large and is well scoured will generally 

 answer the purpose. Yet in some ponds they bite far less freely 

 than in others ; and like most other fishes they are often so capri- 

 cious as to abstain from biting altogether, for several days succes- 

 sively, without any assignable cause. No fish indeed are so 

 remarkably capricious in this respect as both species of the 

 carp. 



A singular instance of this occurred a few years since to two 

 young friends of mine. They knew little of the art of angling, 

 but hearing there was a good trout stream in the neighbourhood 

 they bent their footsteps thither, and continued to fish away for 

 several hours with most praiseworthy assiduity under a hot July 

 sun, without getting even a bite, the waters having been so dimi- 

 nished by a long drought, as merely to trickle from pool to pool, 

 so that no trout would venture to shew out from his hiding place. 

 At last these two anglers chanced to light upon a deep pool, the 

 waters of which were somewhat discoloured, either by cattle or 

 some other cause, and here casting in their lines baited with worms 

 of some kind or other, each of them had a bite instantly, and both 

 succeeded in hooking a fish ; which, attempting to throw out 

 right over their heads, one broke first his rod and then his hook, 

 whilst the other, though for that time he saved his rod, yet it was 

 only at the expense of losing one half his line. But as both these 

 young gentlemen were possessed of spare line and other tackle, 

 the broken rod was mended after a manner, and new lines and 

 hooks fitted, which were carried off one after another in a truly 

 wonderful manner, till at last by some accident or other one of 

 them did manage to lug out a carp of between four or five pounds 

 weight. But this was all they caught, though the fish continued 

 to bite away as freely as ever, till at last the whole stock was ex- 

 hausted, and that amidst such a splashing both in casting in and 

 pulling out, as I suppose no pretenders to the science of angling 

 were ever before or since guilty of. The carp they did catch I 

 myself saw on the same evening it was taken, and well do I re- 

 member the expression of countenance of a shrewd and skilful 

 angler as also his peculiar kind of short dry cough, so like that of 



