FISHES AND FISHING. 259 



I have always found it advantageous to ground bait 

 over night, for the morning's fishing ; and on leaving 

 off, to throw in the remainder of my ground bait and 

 paste, gentles, or worms, particularly if I intended to 

 angle the next day. 



Some authors advise boiled potatoes, to be mixed 

 with bread, bran, and barley-meal. Depend upon 

 this as a fact, that judicious ground-baiting is the 

 most sure method of obtaining sport in bottom- 

 fishing. 



A good paste for chub, in the cold months, when 

 they lie at the bottom, is the crumb of a roll, honey, 

 and the strongest-smelling cheese [you can obtain ; 

 work these well together with saffron, to colour, or 

 without it; make small balls of scalded bread, a little 

 clay, and strongest cheese ; fish in an eddy, and throw 

 in small balls, or rather pellets, occasionally. 



Or a very killing bait for chub is, sheeps' or bul- 

 locks' brains boiled, and made into a paste, with a 

 little strong cheese, and bread just dipped into water, 

 throwing in little pellets of the same continually. 



Gudgeons are in season in the spring, as soon as 

 the weather becomes warm. They are not allowed 

 to be angled for in the Thames before the first of 

 June, and they will bite from an hour after sunrise 

 until an hour after sunset. The small ones of this 

 fish are used either as spinning baits for trout, or alive 



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