THE BARBEL. 81 



well together ; on the other hand, if you take a barbel or 

 two the first few swims, you may congratulate yourself, 

 and know that the barbel have got it to themselves. And 

 now the angler must bait his hooks. Two of the maiden 

 worms will, in my idea, be the best ; roll the worms in the 

 bag of sawdust before mentioned, and put the hook in the 

 first worm about three quarters of an inch from the head 

 end, and work the worm up to the lip-hook ; leave about 

 half an inch of the tail end hanging below the bottom 

 hook, and then stick the lip-hook right through the head 

 end of the worm, and bring the points of both hooks out 

 of the worm. Take another worm smaller than the first, 

 and just hang the head on the lip-hook and the tail end on 

 the bottom hook, your bait will then be in the shape of a 

 link, with three or four ends to wriggle about in a most 

 lively manner; that, in my idea, is the best worm bait you 

 can use. Sometimes I have put the worms on the hooks 

 head downwards, and taken fish with them ; these were at 

 odd times when I had been an hour without a bite in the 

 ordinary way of baiting ; but whether this result was an 

 accident or not, I cannot say. Having your bait now ready 

 (and you must be sure that it touches the bottom of the 

 river), let it glide down the swim thirty, forty, or even fifty 

 yards from the boat or stand. When you have covered the 

 entire distance where you suppose your ground bait to be, 

 without a bite, wind up the line on the reel and repeat the 

 operation. If you have a bite, don't be in a hurry, give him 

 a second or two to take the bait, and then strike pretty 

 smartly to fix the hook well. Should your float be forty 

 yards away, you must strike a little harder than when it is 

 only twenty yards from you, as you have a good length of 

 line to lift off the water, and when you find you are fast in 

 a fish, wind him out of the hole as quickly as possible. Let 

 him run as near the boat as you can, and then he won't dis- 

 turb the others. When I say wind him out as quickly as 

 possible, I don't mean a sort of a pully-hauly system a 

 dragging out of the fish neck and crop, because your tackle 

 would not stand it, but as soon as you can, get him under 

 the rod's point ; keep a tight line on him, and when he is 



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