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and tackle come against the nose of the fish, and if he should happen 

 to see the bait, he has to turn round and swim after it before he 

 can take it, which he seldom will do unless he is very hungry. 

 I remember a keeper on the Trent sending for me to catch some 

 Barbel, his water being overstocked with this description offish. 

 I went and found first-rate Barbel fishing, and the fish a good 

 size. About the middle of the day, when I was catching them 

 very rapidly, the keeper came round and was much pleased with 

 the sport. He said, "you appear to catch them so easily that I think 

 I could catch one: will you letmehaveatry?" "Of course I will," 

 I said, and I put a fresh bait on for him. Now this keeper had at 

 least twenty swims and did not get a single bite. He was 

 fishing with the same kind of bait, in the same swim, and with the 

 same depth as I was, but not a nibble did he get. He gave it up 

 and went away, saying " It is no go, fisherman ; I can't catch 

 one ; they dont know me." Well, the first swim I had after 

 he was gone I got another, and many more before I had done. 

 Now what was the reason that the keeper did not get a bite ? 

 I knew, but did not feel disposed to tell him then. The simple 

 cause was that he allowed the line to swim before the float and 

 the tackle, and the bait dragged behind as I have already described ; 

 and, reader, if you do not remember to avoid this, you will meet 

 with no better success than he did. If but one little thing is 

 done wrong, all is not right. In nineteen cases out of twenty, 

 when the Angler returns home with his basket empty and his 

 mouth full of all sorts of absurd excuses, his want of success has 

 been entirely owing to some error on his own part some fault 

 has been committed. He has perhaps thrown too much ground 

 bait in at first, which is a serious mistake ; or he may have 

 thrown his ground bait too high up the stream, and it has sunk 

 before he thought it w>ould, in which case the fish would be all 

 above him ; or he may have thrown it too far down, and it has 

 gone out of his reach. To obviate this last mistake, I would 

 recommend the Barbel fisher to have a swim occasionally of 

 twenty or thirty yards. When he has discovered his mistake, 

 he can remedy it by throwing his ground bait a little higher up 



