456 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN THE GENTLE CRAFT. 



thicker the water is, short of anything like the thickest 

 " pea soup " condition, the better, I think, is your chance 

 of getting barbel. The difference between the two styles 

 can be easily understood, because they are so totally and 

 distinctly opposite. The Trent fisherman fishes with a 

 float, and consequently he wants low and bright water, so 

 that the fish for which he is angling may see the bait 

 and follow it down the stream. The Thames fisherman, 

 knowing perfectly well that the barbel, not only being a 

 gregarious fish swimming in shoals, but also being an 

 essentially ground-feeding fish, feeds his fish up to a 

 certain point, and then fishes for them with tackle which 

 lies at the bottom of the river. I am not prepared to say 

 that the Trent fisherman is not as good a man as it is pos- 

 sible to conceive, but I certainly think that taking the best 

 samples of the two men, and pitting them one against the 

 other upon the two rivers, and each fishing in his own style, 

 that the Thames fisherman will invariably beat the Trent 

 man, because after all that is said and done barbel are barbel 

 all the world over, and their habits are precisely similar. 



Now in the selection of swims for barbel in the early 

 part of the summer I should prefer sharps and good scours, 

 because there the fish are lying beyond all question. 

 They are freeing themselves from parasites, cleansing 

 themselves from spawning operations, and there they will 

 occasionally feed, and you will always find them in three 

 or four feet of water. There is no reason why, in such 

 a depth as that, excellent fish should not lie. I have 

 over and over again seen them of eight and ten pounds in 

 such situations equally as well as in deeper water. As the 

 summer progresses and the autumn season comes on, 

 they shift down bit by bit into the lower waters, and get 

 into heavy runs under projecting clay banks or close in to 



