FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD 

 and wait — ^wait as I have done, for three, or even more, days on end, 

 from absolutely morn (3 a.m.) till dark — ^wait for a bite, and be thank- 

 ful when you get it, humour the tackle, fish, and rod, and land him 

 if you can, if not, well — return to your book when your circulation 

 has again become normal. 



" One of several things is impossible in carp fishing — ^namely, to 

 walk on the bank, which I have observed they notice, and fly from, 

 at once; also talking and, shall I add, smoking (being a non-smoker 

 myself), in deference to what I referred to in their powers of scent 

 and their not unnatural dislike of our perfidious species. 



BEST MONTHS AND BAITS FOR CARP 



" The two last weeks in September and two first in October — after 

 which they retire into the mud for the winter — ^are, to my way of 

 being brought to believe, the only times to get them. It is then still 

 too warm to retire, and food lessens when paste tempts them. Boiled 

 potatoes (whole) tempt them too, and they may be caught by them, 

 threading the gut through the centre with a baiting needle and then 

 mounting it. We have heard of cherries, (strawberries), plums, (black- 

 berries), peas, (beans), (bananas), (apples), (pears), (grass), and 

 can do nothing with them. Those in parentheses I have failed with. 

 They never touch worms or gentles here, probably because perch 

 get them first, and so one is driven (in order to keep the line quiet) 

 to use a bait only perhaps tench besides will touch." 

 After giving a long account of a fight with a monster carp, which 

 he lost, Mr Overbeck goes on to describe the capture of a seventeen- 

 and -a -half-pounder upon an eight-ounce fly rod and No. 12 roach hook 

 and fine gut. 



*' This fish I went at once into the pond to master, as guessing from 

 the long rush that he must be a big one; a smaller one cannot keep 

 this strain on so long. 



" The moment the reel started I lifted the rod, allowed him to run 

 out, and being alone, when he was well out and quiet, pulled some line 

 free and took off shoes and stockings. The mud here is only perhaps 

 four inches and water eighteen. I tried three times to get him over 

 the ten feet long and two feet across ringed net, which is alone very 

 heavy, but quite in vain. Then a friend turned up, a trustworthy 

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