302 PIKE AXD OTHEk COARSE FISH. 



Nottingham fishing with the lob-worm, or tail of a lob-worm, 

 which is generally preferred, a No. 9 hook will be found about 

 the best size, and when the bait used is gentles a No. 5 or 6. 

 The bait should just be carried by the current dribbling along 

 the bottom. A No. 9 hook is about the best size when greaves 

 or scratching is the bait. 



Strike the moment the float disappears. In ordinary float 

 fishing for barbel which, on the Thames, at least, where I have 

 principally seen it practised, is constantly combined with roach 

 fishing a somewhat smaller hook and even finer tackle may be 

 employed with advantage. In deep water a No. i float of 

 larger size than that represented in the engraving is as good a 

 pattern as any that can be used. The stroke in this case also 

 should be, if possible, contemporaneous with the disappearance 

 of the float. 



The speciality, however, of barbeling, by which also heavy 

 bream, chubb, and perch are not unfrequently taken, is what is 

 commonly known on the Thames as ' legering.' In this case 

 no float whatever is employed, and the bite is detected by the 

 hand, it being generally advisable to wait until the nibbling 

 becomes a more decided tugging before the stroke. 



A leger-lead of improved form, shown at the late Fisheries 

 Exhibition, is represented in the woodcut. The object of the 

 flattened shape of the lead is to enable it to 

 rest steadily on the bottom, and the ' rounded 

 angles' prevent it being so likely to get fast 

 in stones or other obstructions. The object 

 is that the line should run freely through the 

 lead on being pulled by a fish, without which, 

 of course, it would be necessary for the fish 



LEGKK-I.KAD. ..... . , , ... 



to carry off the lead bodily in order that a 

 bite might be felt. The tackle for producing this result is 

 of the simplest. At the end of two links of fine salmon gut 

 attach a No. 9 or 10 hook and fasten the two links of gut to 

 a yard of fine gimp, attaching also a shot at the junction of the 

 two to prevent the lead slipping down on to the hooks. The 



