150 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



his chin to his feet, for the bream in that place were very 

 slimy and dirty. Another bream fisherman who fished in a 

 similar place to 'ue one just noticed, used to ground bait 

 with a still queerf ,. mess. He used to go to the butcher's 

 and beg the contents of a slaughtered bullock's stomach, and 

 mix this up with boiled potatoes, bran, and barley flour. He, 

 too, used the tail end of lob-worm for the hook, and very often 

 made some tremendous bags. 



The most successful ground bait for bream on the Trent 

 seems to be lob-worms, either cut up small or thrown in 

 whole, the same as directed for barbel fishing in Chapter IV., 

 and the best bait is the tail end of a well scoured maiden 

 lob-worm ; a small cockspur or brandling twisting about on 

 the point of the hook sometimes is an improvement, and 

 can be tried if the bream does not come very freely to the 

 tail end of lob. The large brandlings as described elsewhere 

 are a beautiful bait for bream. 



The hook should be a No. 7 or 8, as bream have rather a 

 small mouth, and you should fish as near the bottom as you 

 can ; in fact, the directions for worm fishing for barbel will 

 answer to the letter for bream, so it would only be a waste of 

 time to repeat it. But I should just like to mention that 

 the new sliced hook (Mr. K. B. Marston's patent) looks to 

 me to be beautifully adapted for worm fishing for bream, that 

 is, if that patent could be applied to an ordinary No. 7 or 8 

 round bend, bright Carlisle hook, and I don't see why it 

 should not. In fishing with the tail end of lob it often slips 

 down to the bend of the hook, and part of the shank is ex- 

 posed ; now this slice on the upper part of the shank would 

 hold the worm nicely in its place, without any chance of its 

 slipping down. This is an important matter, and deserves 

 careful attention, as a tail end bait only just covers the hook 

 or, I should say, there is only a quarter of an inch above 

 the shank top, and a quarter of an inch below the point to 

 hang loose. 



When a bream takes the bait give him a second or two 

 to get it well into his mouth, he is rather a nibbling biter 

 and likes to suck at the worm (and that is the reason I like 

 most of the worm on the hook, and not much of a long end 



