80 LEDGERIXG FOR CARP. 



although assured of large takes made with it by friends : 

 perhaps the carp I offered it to ' had taken the pledge.* 

 A green-pea is a noted bait for carp. One carp-fisher I 

 know of swears by boiled beans, the large yellow haricots, 

 or the smaller broad-bean for the hook, ground-baiting 

 with boiled barley. Others get good results from knobs of 

 potato about the size of a gooseberry. The late Mr. 

 Goodwin, of Hampton Court, assured me that he made 

 some wonderful takes of very large carp, up to fourteen 

 or fifteen pounds weight each, with potato, in the canal in 

 the park there. His method was as follows : choosing a 

 clear place where there were no weeds at the bottom, he 

 would every evening for some days throw in two or three 

 handfuls of chopped potatoes (the red potatoes are sup- 

 posed to be preferable, but that may be only a whim). 

 Then, when about to fish, he would take, not a float, but 

 a rod with ledger tackle, with tolerably stout gut, and 

 baiting the hook with a piece of potato, he would throw in 

 the tackle in the usual way, and allow the lead to rest on 

 the bottom, slackening the' running line. In time a bite 

 would ensue ; the fish would carry away the potato, and 

 as he went off for two or three feet, the line would be 

 yielded to him easily and without check, and would run 

 freely through the bullet, when the strike brought matters 

 to an explanation ; and as the gut was pretty stout, he was 

 not allowed, even though a big fish, to have everything 

 his own way. The potato should be parboiled just suffici- 

 ently to make it stick well on the hook. In this way 

 Mr. Goodwin assured me that he used to take two or three 

 large carp whenever he went to fish for them, the evening 

 being the preferable time. Stout tackle can be used thus, 

 because the gut rests On the bottom, and the carp cannot 

 see it as he can when it runs directly from the bait up 

 through the water. It is for this reason that I always 

 recommend, in carp-fishing, that the bait should rest on 



