92 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



that new bread is nothing like so good as bread a day or two 

 old, and home-made bread is not so good as that from the 

 baker's. 



The ground bait that I have described can be used in this 

 fishing, but anglers generally take a few pieces of bread with 

 them, and chew them up and spit into the swim, or rather 

 blow them out of their mouths, and some good catches of 

 roach are sometimes made by this plan without any previous 

 baiting. Creed wheat and malt are very good baits during 

 the months of August and September, and are used a good 

 deal on the Trent. An old angler has often told me that he 

 does not consider the roach are in condition until they will 

 take malt, and I agree with him. When I cook my malt 

 and wheat I put it loosely in a calico bag and boil it in the 

 kitchen boiler. Be sure you allow the corn to have plenty of 

 room to swell however, that is, don't tie the string of the 

 bag too close to the corn. I boil it in the boiler, because it 

 then has plenty of water, and after two or three hours, when 

 the skin cracks open and shows the white inside, it is ready. 

 It looks nice, white, and clean when it is cooked like that, 

 whereas some anglers stew it in ajar ; and when cooked like 

 that it looks black, dirty, and disagreeable. This bait is used 

 in the same manner as the paste, one or two corns being put 

 on the hook ; for ground bait use brewers' grains. Beware, 

 however, of overbaiting with brewers' grains, for many a good 

 day's sport has been spoiled by a too free use of this ground 

 bait. I have seen anglers come down to the river with a huge 

 bag of grains and dash them in by the peck, when about as 

 many as would fill a quartern measure would be ample ; the 

 roach feed on these grains, and when fishing with malt I have 

 taken roach with their mouths full of it. It is of no use 

 fishing with malt and wheat before August. We don't 

 expect cherries and plums on the trees in January, and the 

 fish don't expect grain to be coming down the river only at 



