108 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



out by the Proprietor of the Fishing Gazette, called the 

 " Fishing Gazette Spinner ; " and is a capital contrivance with 

 which to spin a dead bait. The triangles of an ordinary flight 

 are simply inserted in the sides of the bait, without bending 

 the tail, and the " Spinner " performs the spinning operation 

 itself, which it does to perfection. 



The baits for spinning are dace, gudgeon, bleak, and small 

 roach. A bleak I may say is more frequently called a whitling 

 on the Trent ; it is a brilliant bait, but soon wears out on the 

 hooks j the others being tougher last longer. A Thames 

 spinner when he throws his bait pulls off the reel a suffi- 

 cient quantity of line, and either gathers it in the palm of 

 his hand, or else lays it in coils at his feet ; the Trent spinner 

 avoids this by casting directly from the reel ; he winds up 

 all the spare line till only the trace and bait hang from the 

 point of the rod ; he has the forefinger of one hand laid 

 lightly on the barrel of the reel, and then brings the point 

 of the rod behind him, and makes his cast by sweeping the 

 rod and bait smartly over the river, in the direction he re- 

 quires. If the angler is not careful the reel is apt to turn so 

 much faster than the line can travel through the rings, and a 

 sad tangle is the result ; this can be avoided, however, and re- 

 gulated by the forefinger that is on the barrel of the reel. When 

 the cast is made the forefinger is lifted off, and if he sees it is 

 likely to travel round too fast, he can check it by again laying 

 the forefinger lightly on the edge of the revolving part of the 

 reel. So soon as the bait strikes the water it can be stopped at 

 once by pressing a little harder. It is rather difficult to get 

 into the throw all at once, but as the saying goes, " it is easy 

 when you know how ; " a little practice will soon put you up 

 to it ; and when you do get into it, you can throw your bait 

 anywhere you like to within a foot or so ; and thirty or forty 

 yards are by no means uncommon distances. When you have 

 thrown your bait, you wind up the line on the reel, and the 



