16 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



CHAPTER II. 



TRENT FISHING. 



AT the outset of this chapter, we will suppose that all 

 anglers, no matter where they hail from, are sportsmen tried 

 and true, from those who wave the long rod over the great 

 salmon streams of Scotland and Ireland, or capture the dashing 

 trout in mountain stream or Scotch loch, to the more humble 

 follower of old Izaak, who must needs be content to follow 

 his avocation by the side of the less pretentious stream or 

 canal, and who thinks himself well rewarded if he only 

 succeeds in capturing half a dozen roach and dace. I am 

 aware there are black sheep in every flock, and there are 

 some well, shall I call them anglers 1 who are not particular 

 to snaring or snatching a jack, or netting a few barbel and 

 chub out of the weeds during scouring time ; but we will 

 say that ninety-nine out of a hundred are sportsmen in very 

 truth, each one of them having his own peculiar notion or 

 means of capturing his finny prey. A Thames angler thinks 

 his style is the style par excellence ; and some of them 

 would be apt to look on any other style with supreme con- 

 tempt ; but I have read that the introduction of the Trent 

 or Nottingham style of angling on the Thames marked a 

 new era in the history of that river and its fishing. Before, 

 however, I proceed to describe the rods, reels, lines, and 

 tackle of a Nottingham bottom fisher, and the method of 

 using them, perhaps a slight digression, in the shape of a few 

 words on a style that was practised in a remote country 

 district will be interesting, as bearing on my present object. 

 A remote village in the Fens of Lincolnshire, where the 

 country round was intersected with canals and a few drains, 

 was the place of my nativity, and where the earlier portion 



