16 ANGLING. 



must practise practise practise ! At first he will be 

 dangerous to himself and everybody near, and instead of 

 his float and hook landing on the swim where he wants it, 

 it will be more likely to land in his arm, or his ear, or eye, 

 or somebody else's, where no one wants it; but he will 

 soon mend, and a week will see him well on the road to 

 erpertness. It is quite necessary to accomplish this well 

 to be an expert bank fisher on the Trent ; the swim, par- 

 ticularly in barbelling, often lying out beyond the reach of 

 the rod, and requiring very neat and exact casting. To 

 fish a swim at such a distance is the acme of perfection and 

 skill in bank fishing; because, having once baited and 

 plumbed your swim, you must always keep in the same 

 line of country so as to be at the same depth, and your float 

 must travel steadily down the long swim (though bank 

 swims are not nearly as long, as a rule, as boat swims), 

 and line must be given out so that there may be no 

 lateral pull or wrench on the float, whereby it may be 

 diverted from its proper course ; and this is not easy, 

 indeed, with a bad wind and a rainy day it is almost 

 impossible. 



These swims, too, are often deep, and in order to cast the 

 tackle a float called a slider is employed. This has a wire 

 loop at top and bottom, through which the line slides freely. 

 The depth being plumbed, a bit of india-rubber elastic is 

 tied on the line at the requisite distance. This presents 

 sufficient obstruction to prevent the line sliding further than 

 is required through the small eyes of the float, but not 

 sufficient to prevent its being drawn pretty easily through 

 the larger eye of the rod point and the rings thereof. 

 Thus, when the tackle is lifted out of the water the float 

 slides down to the topmost shot or weight, and rests there. 

 When dropped in the water it floats and slides up the line 



