TACKLE FOR DACE-FISHIXG. 63 



Plate XIV. at Nos. 10, 11, and 12. The float is composed 

 solely of some eight inches of a good sound goose-quill, the 

 top of which is painted to make it watertight, the bottom 

 having a ring whipped on to it for the line to pass through. 

 The float has no caps, as being usually attached to the run- 

 ning-line (instead of to the tackle, as in the Thames fishing), 

 it is fastened on with two half hitches. This float carries 

 about from four to six No. 1 shot, the lowest of which is a 

 good foot ?bove the hook, so as to allow the bait to drag 

 for some inches on the bottom without catching; the 

 others are placed at intervals of six inches or so up the 

 tackle. This is far better and less visible, and the line 

 swims straighter and less wavily in the water, than in the 

 Thames plan, where the shot are all crowded together at 

 one spot (some six or eight inches above the hook). With 

 this tackle Trent anglers fish for roach, dace, perch, 

 gudgeon, chub, and bream, and in a light or slow water 

 occasionally for barbel ; though for regular barbel-fishing, 

 in the heavy streams, they have a set of heavier apparatus 

 altogether, which is called ' light corking tackle,' because 

 they use for it their lightest cork float ; the one above 

 described being but a quill. The barbel float has an 

 elongated cork body, more or less bulky, supplemented 

 over it. 



Now one of the chief objects of a Nottingham fisher- 

 man is, not to let the fish see or hear him, and therefore 

 he fishes as far from them as he reasonably can. Walking 

 along the bank of a river, if he has not already selected a 

 swim, he fixes upon a spot that looks likely to yield sport. 

 He decides to fish at a certain distance from the shore 

 where the stream is steady and not too strong, and the 

 water apparently of the right depth. The first thing is to 

 ascertain how deep it really is. A London angler would 

 drop in a lump of lead and work it about up and down all 

 over the swim, thereby scaring the fish, to commence with. 



