THE BARBEL 

 fried bacon and toasted cheese are tasty morsels and pleasanter to use 

 than worms, greaves or green gentles — as a good bait for barbel, especially 

 when float fishing in the Nottingham style, i.e., letting out line gently 

 as your float travels down stream, holding it back a little so that the bait 

 trips along close to the bottom. It is an interesting style of fishing, as after 

 each swim down you wind in the line and let the float travel down again 

 for perhaps twenty or forty yards or more. In this long distance float 

 fishing it is usual to have the sliding float, i.e., a fixed wire eye at the 

 bottom standing out at right angles, and another on the porcupine end 

 above the long cork body of the float an inch from the top — through these 

 projecting rings the line passes, and, as already explained, by fixing 

 a little bit of an elastic band on the line above the float at the depth you wish 

 to fish you get a better strike, and can fish deeper than you could with a 

 fixed float. A bit of elastic will pass through your rod rings if necessary, 

 whereas the stiff bit of match recommended by some angling writers 

 would stop at the end ring — unless as big as that on a sea rod, and thus 

 one of the advantages of the slider flat is neutralized. 



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