128 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



and heavy rains on the hilly districts causes it to rush along 

 in a tearing, foaming flood, sometimes obliterating well-known 

 and familiar landmarks, undermining the banks, till with a 

 gurgling splash, great masses roll into the depths below, 

 and often altering completely the character of what had 

 been well-known swims till then. 



When we take into consideration all these facts, and prac- 

 tical experience has taught us that the tackle that can be 

 comfortably used in one stretch would be next to useless in 

 another, perhaps it would be difficult to lay down a hard and 

 fast line as to the tools required for this especial business. 



The old saying that " When doctors differ who can 

 agree ? " can be applied to salmon fishing with much more 

 force than to any other branch of angling ; for even in such 

 a simple method as the Nottingham style we find great 

 authorities differ very widely in the general mode of pro- 

 cedure. Some of the Derby men and they are considered 

 good hands at this particular business use cane rods fifteen 

 or sixteen feet in length, and consider none others will do 

 so well, as a swim fourteen feet deep cannot be fished with 

 a shorter rod, utterly forgetting when they bring in a verdict 

 like this that the Slider float is specially made to meet a 

 case of this kind, and to render it comparatively easy to fish 

 a swim even double and treble as deep as the rod is long. 

 Then, again, some great authorities assert that in order to fish 

 for salmon in the Nottingham style it is necessary to have a 

 heavy and long greenheart rod; others say that the line 

 must be fished as a tight line, while others go quite opposite, 

 and say it must be loose ; another will say that you must 

 have a float, and still another that a float is of no earthly use 

 at all. In the face of all these conflicting opinions, the 

 novice is apt to get puzzled, and scratch his head in sheer 

 despair. In this short chapter I shall try in the plainest 

 possible language to put him in possession of what I by 

 practical experience consider to be the best and safest plan. 



I don't want it to be understood for a moment that the 

 plan I describe will answer well in any and every salmon 

 stream, for there is a wide difference between a navigable 

 river like the lower Trent and one of those famous northern 



