BOTTOM FISHING. 13 



it is felt at the rod point as sharply if not more so than if 

 there were no lead, because the line between the lead and 

 rod is kept tight. When a fish bites it is felt instantly, 

 an inch or two of line is yielded him to let him get the 

 bait and hook well in his mouth, and at about the third 

 try you strike, smartly lifting lead and all in the stroke. 

 A light pistol bullet with a hole in it is used in tight 

 corking. N.B. This is a capital method of fishing for 

 carp in rivers. There is one other way of stationary bait 

 fishing, and that is by what is called the clay ball. A 

 single hook, or sometimes a small triangle is used, or bit 

 of stick half an inch long tied on the line a foot or eighteen 

 inches above the hook. The hook baited more often than 

 not with six or seven gentles, a bit of clay and bran is 

 worked up as big as an orange, a handful of gentles put 

 inside it, the cross bit of wood in the line buried in it, the 

 clay worked about it, the line wound into it once or twice 

 till the hook bait only just protrudes from the ball (some 

 even bury it in the ball, and let the fish rout it out, but 

 this is quite needless delay), and the ball hanging on the 

 line is dropped to the bottom. The gentles wriggle their 

 way out of the clay. The fish come up and pick them off, 

 and in doing so rarely miss the hook. As soon as a bite 

 is felt and it is astonishing how distinctly you feel 

 one a strike sticks the hook in the fish and shakes off 

 the clay ball. A cut of this tackle is given in Plate 1, 

 Fig. 2. 



I have mentioned the method of bottom fishing pursued 

 by Norfolk and Trent anglers. The former differs little 

 from that pursued by the Thames anglers, save in the 

 position in which the punt is moored, which is lengthwise 

 with the stream. The two anglers facing either bank a 

 plan which avoids the rough boil and bubble caused by 



