THE CARP. 73 



The baits, as might have been supposed by the variety of food in which 

 Cyprinus carpio indulges, are many, and require discrimination in their 

 general ordering, as, indeed, they do for all fishes. More especially, 

 however, is it necessary to cleanse the worms from all impurity, and 

 to scour the gentles, if the latter be used. The first-named baits are 

 much the best,in my opinion, for general carp fishing, and although it is 

 certain that failure of sport must sometimes occur, yet I can eafely say 

 that when fishing in carp ponds I have never failed to get a fair day's 

 sport by judicious baiting and careful fishing. 



In order to give the reader some idea of the nature of carp angling, 

 I may be allowed to briefly narrate my own experience in the capture 

 of a 91b. fish. It is well known amongst anglers that some enormous 

 carp are to be found in Virginia Water, and I have seen them on calm 

 bright summer mornings basking at the surface with just the back fin 

 above water, rather resembling logs of wood than fish. I had for a 

 long time coveted one of these beauties, and for hours over a pipe had 

 pondered the ways and means, till, to quote Hood, my " heart was sick 

 and the brain benumbed." I had gut tackle, fine twist lines, suitable rods 

 galore, but a problem still eluded solution, and that problem was how to 

 get the bait to them. It must be borne in mind that their basking 

 water was usually quite two hundred yards either way from land. Of 

 course the punt was at my service, but the difficulty was approaching 

 within fishing distance. Immediately one got nearer than about thirty 

 yards they were non est. After much consideration, however, I decided 

 to try once again with different tactics. Behold me, therefore, reader, on 

 the morrow, just as the "eye-lids of the morning " were opening, equipped 

 with a Well's four-joint trout rod, a fine twist line, a spring reel, and fine 

 three-yard gut cast, to which was attached a single No. 6 hook, wending 

 my way towards the lake. This reached, I was soon within fifty yards 

 of the leviathans, slowly patrolling the water beneath the bright sunbeams, 

 and after carefully dropping the weight into 30ft. of water, I sat down 

 quietly to arrange the tackle. A breeze was softly rippling the water, 

 and my idea was to float the light tackle to the wily fish, and trust to my 

 skill in hooking and playing one at that great distance. My bait was a 

 fresh green pea, which I now extracted from its pod, and impaled on the 

 hook, so as to almost completely hide the shank, but leaving the point 

 just through. Taking a large chesnut leaf that happened to lie in the 

 punt, I slipped the gut through its centre, so that it would form a sort of 

 kite or sail for my bait. Eaising, then, the rod aloft, and rapidly letting 

 the line run from the reel, I had the satisfaction of watching the gradual 

 approach of my bait to the as yet unsuspicious carp. Slowly onward it 

 went through the air for twenty yards, and then softly dropped on the 



