14 ANGLING. 



the Thames plan of mooring across stream though it is 

 quite possible that this boil and bubble serves to hide the 

 angler from the fish, and to make them bolder in their 

 biting and this when the water is only five or six feet 

 deep is certainly an advantage. In Norfolk, however, the 

 swims run from ten to sixteen or more feet in depth, and 

 there is no need for any concealment at that depth. In 

 other respects, owing to the depth, they use somewhat 

 longer rods, and heavier tackle than would be employed 

 on the Thames, but there is no other peculiarity in their 

 method. On the Trent the system is quite different from 

 that on the Thames. They do not as a rule fish short 

 swims only the length of the rod and line. If fishing 

 from a boat they take very long swims. The bait mostly 

 worms or greaves is thrown in loose, not in balls ; the 

 depth plumbed, and the float set, so that the bait may drag 

 the ground, and the swim is commenced. As the float 

 travels onward, line is constantly paid off the reel, so as to 

 give as slight a check to the tackle as need be until the 

 bait has travelled down stream the requisite distance, 

 which may be anything, from thirty or forty yards to 

 double that distance. Thus the hook bait is sure to 

 travel over the greater portion of the ground bait, which 

 it does not in the restricted swim so often used on the 

 Thames, in the which plan most of the bait is eaten far 

 below the swim, where the fish do not have a chance of 

 seeing the hook, and indeed may be thoroughly gorged 

 before ever they are attracted within its range at all. For 

 fish are not drawn up from a distance so quickly as some 

 folks suppose. It takes several nights steady baiting to 

 draw fish up from a distance to some new quarters. Of 

 course, if they are on or about the spot in any quantity 

 already, it does not take long to get them together. 



