74 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



full instructions for throwing the float and bait to any dis- 

 tance required in Chapter II. page 34), but if the water is 

 over eight feet deep I should use a slider or " traveller " float. 

 At the beginning of the barbel fishing season, say during the 

 month of July, two caddis on a No. 7 hook and a light float 

 and tackle will be found a good bait, especially in such 

 places as the piles or at the bottom of the woodwork of old 

 bridges, or in the eddies and streams that run from a weir. 

 Barbel will sometimes take a lump of cheese or a bunch of 

 gentles, or in fact almost any bait, for I have known them to 

 take a bit of paste or a grain of creed wheat or malt, when 

 roach fishing, and the sport a three-pounder will give you on 

 fine roach tackle is something for you to remember. Worms 

 and scratchings are, however, the principle baits for barbel, and 

 as I have said and directed it is necessary to well ground bait 

 for them. Fair catches of barbel have been made without 

 any previous baiting, a dozen worms or so being clipped up 

 and thrown in as you go along, but it is not a very safe plan. 

 Indeed, it may be said that even after a pitch has been well 

 baited it is not certain that one will catch fish, and the angler 

 is more often disappointed than not. Barbel fishing now-a- 

 days is a very precarious job, for barbel are more often " off" 

 than " on." Years ago they were nearly always " on " during 

 the months of August, September, and October, but of late 

 years the angler has to put up with two or three disappoint- 

 ments for one success. 



If you find it is not possible to fish the place with a float, 

 if, for instance, the stream runs too fast, or you wish to fish 

 in the rushing, boiling waters of a weir tail — which latter 

 place I may impress upon my readers is a capital one for 

 barbel — (there are generally two or three lazy eddies in the 

 close vicinity of a weir, and in these the big ones love to lie), 

 you will have to do what is locally known as plumbing or 

 ledgering. For this plan a bottom tackle about a yard long 

 with a few split shots on it is required, and the " ledger " is 



