PREFACE. 



Will you, my dear brother angler, oblige me by reading this 

 preface before you proceed to dip into and pick out pieces 

 in the various chapters, for in the preface the writer generally 

 explains the reason for his work. Some may say that there 

 is no valid reason for another book on fishing, there being so 

 many already, but I would explain in justification that there 

 is a vast army of bottom fishers in the kingdom, and the 

 great majority of them are working men who can only get a 

 day's fishing occasionally, and that it is to these working men 

 anglers I am more particularly addressing the remarks con- 

 tained in this little volume. I myself am a working man, 

 but I have had very considerable experience in Trent angling 

 when I could spare the time from my work. 



The large books upon angling treat so fully of salmon, 

 trout, and grayling, that they do not do justice to the so-called 

 " coarse " fish, and these books, moreover, cost so much that a 

 working man, as a rule, cannot afford to buy them, I must 

 confess, being a working man, I am in the same swim as my 

 fellows in regard to these, and I have a notion that a book 

 which contains the whole art of bottom fishing would be 

 gladly welcomed by those to whom I have referred, or by the 

 would-be anglers generally, if it could be published in a cheap 

 form. Now I am confident enough to hope that this volume 

 will meet the requirements of such persons. 



The instructions given here are the results of carefully 

 conned experience, and as the Trent angler is supposed to be 

 the most scientific of bottom fishermen in the kingdom, I 

 trust the tyro will derive some profit from the principles I lay 

 down. I have expended a good deal of time in the prepara- 



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