THE BARBEL. 85 



full instructions for throwing the float and hait to any dis- 

 tance required in Chapter II.), but if the water is over eight 

 feet deep I should use a slider or " traveller " float. At the 

 beginning of the barbel fishing season, say during the month 

 of July, two caddis on a No. 7 hook and a light float and 

 tackle will be found a good bait, especially in such places as 

 the piles or at the bottom of the woodwork of old bridges, 

 or in the eddies and streams that run from a weir. Barbel 

 will sometimes take a lump of cheese or a bunch of gentles, 

 or in fact almost any bait, for I have known them to take 

 a bit of paste or a grain of creed wheat or malt, when roach 

 fishing, and the sport a three-pounder will give you on fine 

 roach tackle is something for you to remember. Worms 

 and scratchings are, however, the principal baits for barbel, and 

 as I have said and directed, it is necessary to well ground bait 

 for them. Fair catches of barbel have been made without 

 any previous baiting, a dozen worms or so being clipped up 

 and thrown in as you go along, but it is not a very safe plan. 

 Indeed, it may be said that even after a pitch has been well 

 baited it is not certain that one will catch fish, and the angler 

 is more often disappointed than not. Barbel fishing now-a- 

 days is a very precarious job, for barbel are more often " off" 

 than " on." Years ago they were nearly always " on " during 

 the months of August, September, and October, but of late 

 years the angler has to put up with two or three disappoint- 

 ments for one success. 



If you find it is not possible to fish the place with a float, 

 if, for instance, the stream runs too fast, or you wish to fish 

 in the rushing, boiling waters of a weir tail which latter 

 place I may impress upon my readers is a capital one for 

 barbel (there are generally two or three lazy eddies in the 

 close vicinity of a weir, and in these the big ones love to lie), 

 you will have to do what is locally known as plumbing or 

 ledgering. For this plan a bottom tackle about a yard long 

 with a few split shots on it is required, and the " ledger " is 

 either a long pear-shaped lead, or a flat triangular one. Some 

 anglers put this lead on their lines and pinch a split shot 

 below it close to the loop of the tackle, but I think it is best 

 to put the ledger on a small length of fine gimp, and make 



