94 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



plug of wood in the middle, in the bottom piece of quill two 

 or three small shots are placed. This float should be about 

 four inches long, and it can be fastened to the line with 

 a quill cap on each end ; to make this float watertight, 

 it should be bound where the join is, tightly and closely, 

 with a bit of well waxed silk or cotton. The utility of this 

 float is apparent to all thoughtful anglers, because when you 

 scatter your ground bait in a still water it breaks up and 

 sinks very gradually ; and then if you plump the hook bait 

 in, and there is a long necklace of split shots on the tackle, 

 the bait sinks so much differently to the way in which the 

 ground bait did, and the shy and suspicious roach would see 

 the fraud at once. When the water is clear in these still 

 quiet places, the nearer you approach nature the greater is 

 your chance of success. The ground bait as just noticed 

 sinks down gradually, and the hook bait ought to do the 

 same ; so if the weight is in the float, without there being 

 any on the tackle, the hook and the bait will sink down as 

 gradually as did the ground bait, and be more likely to de- 

 ceive the fish. The float for reaching in ordinary swims on 

 the Trent will carry about half a dozen split shots ; and I 

 must again impress upon the angler, that he ought not to 

 have one of them less than eighteen inches from the hook. 

 The others also ought to be down the tackle at distances of 

 six inches or so from each other ; the bait will then swim 

 straighter in the water, and the fish will be less wary than 

 if all the shots were huddled together in one place on the 

 gut. The float of a roach fisher should be so nicely weighted 

 that it will indicate in an instant a roach bite. The angler 

 may ask himself the question, What is a roach bite ? The 

 answer would be, " When the fish snaps at the bait and 

 takes it;" but I believe that in quiet or semi-quiet waters, 

 a roach does not snap at a bait and swallow it instantly ; in 

 paste fishing this is so especially. I remember reading some 

 time ago of experiments tried with different fish in an 

 aquarium. Dace and trout snap at the bait ; but the roach 

 generally took it in a different way ; he would swim up near 

 the bait, open his mouth and draw in a current of water, to- 

 gether with the bait. Should it please the fish, it is imme- 



