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the water cautiously. Take a bit of soft white scratching and 

 put it on your hook, lapping it round the point, and use as much 

 as will press into the size of a common nut. You must not 

 throw any .ground-bait in until you have got the right depth. 

 Throw your tackle in, putting it deeper and deeper until the 

 float goes under, then alter it back a little at a time, until your 

 bait swims clear, and about three inches from the bottom. 

 You had better fish with your bait a foot from the bottom than 

 one inch on it. It is quite a mistake to allow the bait to drag 

 on the bottom for any kind of bottom fishing whatever in a 

 stream. The Barbel and Gudgeon require the bait to swim as 

 close as any fish that I know, but even in fishing for them the 

 bait ought not to drag. Did you ever notice the eye of the 

 Chub ? If you have, you must have seen that it is so fixed as 

 to enable him to see better above than below him. Go and 

 stand on a bridge, from which you can see Chub lying on the 

 bottom, in three or four feet of water, and throw in a bit of 

 scratching, and if you keep out of sight you will see them rise 

 and take it before it has sunk a foot, proving that they can see 

 anything thrown in long before it gets to the bottom, and that 

 you can catch more fish by allowing your bait to swim three 

 inches from it. Well, having got the proper depth, take a 

 bit of scratching about the size of a walnut, and cut it 

 into very small pieces, for you must remember that although 

 Chub are particularly fond of it, a very little will satisfy them, so 

 that if you were to throw in a number of large pieces, there 

 would not be much chance of your getting a bite, especially if 

 each fish managed to get two or three lumps, which would quite 

 satisfy them for the day. By giving them only a little at a 

 time, you keep them hungry, and are sure to catch them, if you 

 fish in the right style. Now throw in your small crumbs of 

 scratching three or four yards above you, watching the course 

 of the stream, and the direction the stuff takes, so that you may 

 follow it with your bait to a nicety, calculating also the distance 

 it will swim before it gets to the bottom perhaps ten or fifteen 

 yards. If you can get the fish to bite at fifteen yards, all the 



