136 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



ham style of salmon fishing. It sometimes happens that the 

 angler sees a salmon roll up out of a sharp, rattling stream 

 that is not above four feet deep, and has a tolerably level 

 sandy or gravelly bottom without any big stones or obstruc- 

 tions in its course. A place like this is best fished with a 

 rolling lead, and no float at all. For this plan the tackle 

 can be the same as for float fishing, except that it need not 

 be above a yard in length, with two or three swan shots on 

 it at intervals. The hooks and the bait are exactly the 

 same as before, and the lead can either be a flat ledger or a 

 couple of the long pike leads ; I should prefer the latter, as 

 they will be less likely to catch over any obstructions on the 

 bottom, and easier set free if they do catch. These leads 

 can either be threaded on the line close against the loop of 

 the tackle, or they can be done as recommended by some of 

 our very best fisherman, i.e. fastened on a separate short 

 bit of gut, a lot thinner and weaker than the rest of the 

 tackle, so that they hang independent of it ; a short bit of 

 gut will do with a loop at one end, so that when the angler 

 fastens his reel line to the loop of his bottom tackle he can 

 fasten the leads on at the same time. If during the passage 

 of his bait down the stream the leads should happen to get 

 firmly hitched under a stone, why, by the gut there being 

 the thinnest it would break first, and the angler only lose 

 his leads, instead of both leads and tackle, as he would do 

 if they were threaded on the line. This bait is thrown 

 direct from the reel as described in ledgering and spinning 

 for pike, and is allowed to travel down the stream (the angler 

 will feel the leads roll along the bottom), letting the line run 

 off the reel so as not to check the bait, but remembering 

 always to keep a tight line as the bait runs down the swim. 

 After it has travelled the required distance, which need not 

 be above forty yards unless special circumstances require it, 

 the angler winds up the line on his reel and repeats the cast. 

 This plan of fishing a salmon swim is in my opinion a very 

 good one, but it must not be confounded with plumbing and 

 ledgering, in which the bait is fished as a stationary one ; it 

 is, as I have just hinted, a travelling bait, pure and simple 

 your bait is all the while travelling or rolling down the swim 



