40 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



fisher, it will "be as well to give some idea as to tlie method of 

 using it. Now the tyro must bear in mind that the motto of 

 a Nottingham angler is "fine and far off," the chief object 

 being not to let the fish see or hear him if he can help it. If 

 he has not already selected a swim, he walks along the bank 

 until he sees a spot that looks likely to yield sport, where the 

 stream is steady and not too strong, and which looks about 

 the right depth. The first thing he does is to ascertain how 

 deep it really is. Now, a London angler would drop in a 

 lump of lead, and work it up and down all over the swim, 

 and scare the fish to begin with. A Nottingham fisherman, 

 however, adjusts his float at w T hat he thinks to be about the 

 right depth, and casts his tackle out to the exact distance 

 from the bank at which he intends to fish, and allows his 

 float to travel down the stream. If it floats in an upright 

 position without either dragging or bobbing, he is not deep 

 enough, and so he loosens the cap on the float and increases 

 the length below it. If now the float bobs under, the shots 

 are on the ground, and the line must be shortened under the 

 float After he has had a swim or two, he can by this means 

 hit the proper distance between hook and float, which allows 

 the bait to trip along the bottom without any of the shots 

 coming in contact with it. Should the bait during its pas- 

 sage down the swim at any time hang, the raising of the rod 

 point will loosen it. 



Now, having found the exact depth and had a swim or two 

 down the entire length he intends to fish (for a Nottingham 

 angler's swim is very often twenty or twenty-five yards in 

 length), our fisherman throws in his ground bait so that it 

 is distributed over the swim. Considerable judgment is re- 

 quired for this, according to the strength or set of the stream, 

 for it is necessary to fish over your ground bait, and you must 

 calculate carefully whereabouts your ground bait is likely to 

 fall. If it is thrown up the stream too high it will ground 

 too soon, or if too low, it grounds out of your reach below 

 the swim. There is a good deal in this, and many a bad day's 

 sport has been ascribed to any other cause but the right one 

 in consequence of a miscalculation on this important point. 

 We will now suppose the swim the angler has selected is from 



