106 THE PKACTICAL FISHERMAN. 



with ravenous avidity, and, being a rapid feeder, requires, therefore, rapid 

 hooking. 



Perhaps, however, the most artistic kind of angling for dace is with 

 the Nottingham tackle, using a worm for bait. Wells, of Nottingham, 

 the well-known tackle maker, sends out a magnificent dace rod at an 

 absurdly small price; and with it and the tackle he furnishes, made 

 specially for dace, i.e., finest twist line, a tiny quill float, and gut bottom 

 of beautiful silk-worm gut, dace fishing becomes a science to be pursued 

 with a maximum of numbers and sport. With this tackle the bait I use 

 is, in early season, the cad bait ; in late season especially in flood time, 

 when, like barbel, these fish frequent the sides of the river and rejoice in 

 the submerged green turf the tail of a lobworm, or, better still, of the 

 dew worm. A red worm is also occasionally very effectual, but commend 

 me to the opaline tail of a well-scoured dew worm. I cannot understand 

 a dace ever refusing this bait. The cad bait is, of course, a confrere 

 of the caddis bait, and equally, of course, a close relative of the straw 

 bait, or porte bois of the French angler. It is, no doubt, the stock bait 

 of the dace fisherman, although flies or gentles are good lures. 



Next to the Nottingham, I prefer the blow line style. I know of 

 no more enjoyable method, indeed, in the soft evenings of summer, 

 when the dace do not lie in deep water, but approach the shallows 

 to feed. There is also the chance of additional sport in the Thames 

 from a trout on the fine tackle ; not large, perhaps, but game. The rod 

 had better be from 12ft. to 16ft. in length, and the line of soft silk 

 twist or cotton, the bait an artificial or a natural blowfly. A stonefly, 

 with its bunch of ova exuding from the body, artificial black gnat, the 

 hook tipped with a gentle, are famous baits. It is needless to say the 

 wind must be consulted more carefully with reference to this tackle than 

 with any other. 



Well do I recollect my first lesson in this style and with somewhat more 

 than ordinary regret do I remember my instructor. He was an old 

 gentleman who had passed his life in active business, and in the autumn 

 of his days had settled at Chertsey Bridge, with but one aged servant, to 

 enjoy the remainder of his life in fishing and communion with Nature 

 and a profound angler and naturalist he was. Some of my readers 

 will remember him as they passed the Domesday deeps or the shallows 

 of the Chertsey meads, sitting in the golden eventide, calmly smoking the 

 calumet of peace (he was a great smpker) and watching with imperturb- 

 able calmness the tiny float, or strolling leisurely, rod in hand, home- 

 wards when the night shadows had gathered on the distant Woburn Hill 

 and the evening star had peered out over the Shepperton Eange. This 

 gentleman took me in hand, and showed me the making of a fly and 



