54 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



wrong here. I always was under the impression that these 

 worms were called blood worms, hut the blood worm proper 

 is more of a larvae than a worm, and is found among the mud 

 at the bottom of old ponds. It is a very delicate thing, and 

 rather difficult to put on the hook, but a capital bait for 

 roach, &c., when the angler has fairly mastered its pecu- 

 liarities. So the worm that is found under the excrement of 

 horned cattle must be called a red worm ; but, however, call 

 it what we may, I know that three or four of them are a 

 splendid bait for chub. 



The leen worm is another splendid worm, somewhat similar 

 in shape and colour to that just described, but a nice lot 

 larger, and is found in rather peculiar situations. When a 

 heavy flood has swept down the Trent, and the water has 

 subsided to its ordinary level, a lot of old rubbish is generally 

 left in odd, out-of-the-way and low-lying corners. These 

 corners are high and dry during fine weather and low water, 

 but are generally submerged during a heavy flood. After 

 this old rubbish has lain there for a few weeks, and no other 

 floods have come down to disturb it, the angler should with 

 a stout stick turn it over to the bottom, and he will gene- 

 rally find a lot of these worms between it and the ground. 

 Sometimes, during the autumn, when " the earth has been 

 like iron, and the sky like brass," when lob-worms could 

 scarcely be procured for either love or money, I have gone to 

 a low-lying marshy ground, in an osier holt by the river-side, 

 and got by the above means as many of these worms as 

 lasted me for the day's fishing. I have found that these 

 worms are more attractive if they are used as soon as got, 

 without any scouring at all; but they are rather tender, 

 and must be handled and put on the hook very carefully. 



If the angler is fortunate enough to have a back garden, if 

 only a very small one, he would find it to be very much to 

 his advantage to have a breeding-heap for cockspurs and 

 brandlings, and this need not be a very large one. The best 

 plan would be to dig a hole in the dampest corner, about a 

 yard square, and a foot or so deep, and into this hole put all 

 the rotten leaves and decaying vegetable matter he can find, 

 mixed up with some well-trodden-down manure, till he gets 



