SEPTEMBER 151 



leaving the ground, and when the angler has overcome 

 the angle formed by the lead the fish has gone. (Fig. 33) 



How is one to know, then, of the bite before the tug ? 

 Very easily ; the bream on taking the bait begin to rise, 

 and a slight pull is given on the line which, if left slack 

 from the rod point, runs freely through the lead, 

 gradually tightening the main line. A corresponding 

 movement is given to the line depending from the rod 

 point, which is sometimes so slight as not to be felt by 

 the fingers, though easily noted by the eye. Strike at 

 once sharply and firmly, and the fish is yours. These 

 fish taken in daylight in the late summer are in the pink 

 of condition, and fight in a manner calculated to upset 

 the fixed ideas of the sportsman who looks upon such 

 fishing as unworthy of the name of sport. 



This is the fishing for which the bamboo cane one- 

 piece natural rod is so useful, as it will stand the 

 incessant striking, is sufficiently whippy to save breaking 

 the fine tackle in a heavy fish, and at the same time 

 sufficiently sensitive to show the faintest touch. Of 

 course, some days the bream feed madly all through the 

 day, running away with the bait, as old Walton tells, 

 but this does not last. In a day or two they begin this 

 furtive biting, which has been the despair of bream 

 fishers, but is now the delight of many. For those who 

 have never tried it a pleasure still remains, if they will 

 persevere till they acquire the knack. Hot dry weather 

 seems only to improve the fun. With the sun overhead 

 like a furnace, the earth hazy with heat, the woodwork 

 of the boat so hot that the hand could not rest upon it 

 for a moment, the river without a breath of wind 

 shining like a burnished mirror, the writer one tropical 

 August took one afternoon twenty fish, weighing 571bs. 



Of other methods of bream fishing, no doubt they 

 exist, but they are not known to the present writer, who 

 has written this article to prove that there are more ways 

 of catching bream than those given in the angling books, 

 which seem to give but two varieties, namely, the cart 

 ropes of Buckland and the " fish as for roach " of a well- 

 known angling author 



