Eels. 



CHAP. XVII. 



from its being dead. They will afford them a good meal, and you 



beaming countenances to look upon ! 



The plan is to set night lines with dead fish. Take your dead bait 



of 4 inches more or less in length, and string one on to a common 

 double eel-hook on wire, by passing the baiting 

 needle down the throat and out at the centre of the 

 tail, and drawing your hook after it till the hooks are 

 well home to the mouth of the bait. Then attach the 

 hook to the line, and having tied a bullet or other 

 good sized sinker to the line, throw it well into the 

 middle of any good, large, deep, still pool ; make 

 well fast to the shore, and leave it all night. If you 

 have set half-a-dozen of these, you will probably find 

 two or three eels on in the morning. 



These common double eel-hooks are to be bought 

 in India. Messrs. Oakes and Co., at Madras, have 

 them, and so doubtless have the tackle shops in 

 Northern India and Bombay. But a neater arrange- 

 ment is a common pike gorge-hook, because there 

 you have the weight neatly stowed away inside your 



bait ; and the hooks are shaped so as to sit closely against the mouth 



of a bait, and consequently to go comfortably down the throat. 



Fatilis descensus Averno est. But as to coming up again, sed revocare 



gradum, that's quite another business. 



Your night line must be a good stout one, and well made fast, for 



the fish is strong, very strong, and has the whole night to himself to 



work his wicked will. 



They are all fish-eaters, so the more your servants catch, the better 



for the little Mahseer, the youthful Barils, and the unsophisticated 



young of the other sorts of game fly-taking fish. Encourage them, 



therefore, to go in at them heavily, and show them how to draw the 



hook home so as to lie neatly against the lips of the bait, and so, in 



fact, that it shall offer no obstacle to a fish that gradually swallows 



your bait head foremost. 



Be wary how you handle Mastacembli because of the sharp spines 



on their backs. Their fry may be seen in the rice fields. They are 



widely distributed. 



I see no sport in this style of fishing. 



