THE BARBEL. 77 



When night fishing for barbel, I prefer scratchings to 

 worms ; for in using the latter during the darkness, eels are 

 apt to bother you, and one of these gentry on your tackle 

 then, makes rather a curious performance ; but somehow or 

 other I always fancy that night fishing savours a trifle of 

 poaching ; still it is perfectly legal, and a nice bit of fun for 

 a change. The best of all ground bait, in my opinion, for 

 barbel is about a thousand or so of large lob- worms. These are 

 procured at night out of the meadows where the grass is short 

 after a heavy fall of rain or dew, by the aid of a lantern and 

 candle. In gathering them, step as carefully as you can, 

 and by the light from the lantern you will see the worms 

 stretched out on the grass, or at least partly out on the grass 

 and partly in their holes. Seize each one firmly but care- 

 fully, and draw it out of its hole. Drop them in a bag or 

 whatsoever you have with you, but be as still as you can, for 

 at the least noise they will disappear like lightning into their 

 holes. A pair of creaking boots are fatal to the success of 

 the worm-catcher ; he must be prompt in his actions and 

 move about as stealthily as a mouse. 



When you have a sufficient quantity of them, and they 

 have been scoured for a few days among some clean moss, 

 you may then proceed to bait the swim. To do this, some 

 cut them up in pieces and scatter them down the swim, and 

 also a little above the hole, if it be a hole you are going to 

 fish, so that the stream may carry them down fair and square 

 into it. If possible, the angler does this three nights before 

 he fishes the pitch. About five hundred the first, three hun- 

 dred the second, and two hundred the third is a good pro- 

 portion. When he comes to fish the next morning, he must 

 be sure, before he puts his rod and tackle together, to cut up 

 a dozen or so and scatter them down the swim. This is an 

 important point; the reason will be given further on. 

 Some anglers throw the worms in whole, for this reason 

 they say that they live longer in the water and will attract 

 the fish better, whereas the cut-up worms soon turn bad. I 

 think myself it is the best to use whole worms, but I prefer 

 to bait the place first thing in the morning, before or at sun- 

 rise. The reason of this is obvious, for eels and other 



