68 EEL, LAMPREY AND LAMPERN. 



before the Eel drops off; they are only taken by the teeth 

 sticking in the worsted, two or three are often taken at once. 



fIGHT-LINES are made of water-cord, with the hooks 

 about half-a-yard apart, baited with worms, loach, gud- 

 geons, <feo. ; a brick is fastened to each end of the line to 

 _ _ sink it, or a peg at one end and a brick at the other. 

 and laid obliquely across the stream. 



They are also often taken when Legering for Barbel, this 

 style of fishing has already been mentioned as also float-fishing, 

 with the latter the bait should lie on the ground, strike when 

 the float goes steadily off ; get the Eel on shore immediately, 

 and cut the bottom line close to his mouth, leaving the hook 

 in, or he will tie your line up into a mass of knots, which will 

 not be improved by his slime. I have also taken them when 

 live-baiting for Jack ; I was fishing a piece of dead-water in 

 Shepperton Weir, for some time without success, one after- 

 noon ; altering the depth so that the gudgeon swam much 

 deeper, there were two runs in succession, the fish that took 

 the bait fouling the line each time by running under the sill 

 of the weir, apparently at the moment of seizing the Gudgeon. 

 Suspecting they were Eels, I struck the next time directly the 

 float went down, and landed a fine Eel ; continuing at the 

 same place I had five in succession in a very short time. 



the river is low and bright, they may be taken 

 by sniggling. A short stout needle is whipped tight 

 to the end of a few yards of trolling-line, in such a 

 _ manner that the needle may hang crossways at the 



end of the line. Enter the needle at about one-third of the 

 length from the head of a lively lobwoYm, pass the whole of 

 needle inside towards the tail, and draw it back towards the 

 head of the worm, so that the middle of the needle is opposite 

 where the point entered, by this means the worm is sound and 

 neatly fixed. The rod for sniggling is only used to convey 

 the worm to the hole where you expect to find an Eel, and 

 is made thus : a piece of stout copper wire about eighteen 

 inches long is fastened to the end of a stick seven or eight 

 feet in length, bending the wire into any shape you find 



