THE BAEBEL. 45 



are not often taken over lllb. or 121b. The largest I ever 

 got was 121b., and that was with lampern bait, which they 

 are fond of in the Thames late in the season, when the 

 lamperns are running. Ground-bait with the head and 

 entrails of the lamperns, and fish with a bit of the fish about 

 gooseberry size. The ledger is best for this work. Barbel 

 are very capricious, at any rate in the Thames ; some years 

 they bite very badly, and only a very few decent takes are 

 made. Often they will not bite for weeks, and then they 

 come on well for a week, and numbers are taken every- 

 where. This more often than not happens after a moderate 

 flood, when the water is clearing. In the thicker water use 

 the ledger ; and as it clears try the traveller. A hundred- 

 weight and more is often taken in a good swim in a day, 

 and I have known 3cwt. or 4cwt. taken out of a good swim 

 in two or three days' fishing. 



When you want to bait a barbel swim, first be sure that 

 the barbel are there. Then take care that no one sees you, 

 if possible ; and the best way to be sure of this is not to 

 bait in the evening, but just at daybreak ; chop up four or 

 five hundred lob worms, if you use worms, and either 

 inclose them in large balls of clay, or throw them in loose 

 well up stream of the swim you want to fish, so that they 

 may ground where you expect and wish. Repeat this again 

 next night, and a third if you think it desirable ; but when 

 you are going to fish bait sparingly with a hundred or two 

 only of worms, just to keep them about, but not to cram 

 them, and bait on this occasion the night before. Then 

 when you come to fish next morning if no one else is 

 fishing your swim pitch as gently as possible, throw in a 

 few fragments of worm, and commence. If you use 

 greaves or any other bait the same method must be 

 pursued. 



