PRACTICAL LESSONS IN THE GENTLE CRAFT. 457 



deep swims protected by camp shedding. I do not 

 know that I can pick out a better sample of such a bank 

 than the one well known to all Thames fishermen, called 

 the " High bank " at Sonning. There the water runs in a 

 very heavy stream indeed. The banks are hollowed and 

 scoured out, presenting harbours of refuge to the fish ; 

 and during the autumn period and that of approaching 

 winter, heavy barbel lie under those banks for shelter, 

 and consequently it is a capital place to angle for them. 



Now there is an immense difference between the bite of 

 a barbel when he really means business and the reverse. 

 Occasionally it so happens that when a barbel swim has 

 been well baited, and the proper length of time has been 

 allowed for the fish to recover after a heavy dose of baiting, 

 before the work of the angler commences, your barbel, 

 when he does feed, makes so little mistake about it that 

 there is very little trouble to the angler. Then one gets 

 the poetry of angling so far as barbel are concerned ; but 

 on the contrary, now and again, they feed in the most 

 curious and perverse manner In speaking of hook bait- 

 ing on the Thames, the general practice is as follows : the 

 fisherman takes a worm, dips it into a basin of sand, rolls it 

 up, takes a big white Carlisle hook, puts it in at the head, 

 and threadles that unhappy worm right up the whole 

 shank of the hook. Thus the unfortunate worm is pierced 

 clean through by the hook from end to end, leaving just a 

 little bit of the tail wriggling at the extreme point of the 

 hook. Now that bait being thrown into the stream upon 

 ledger tackle, and when barbel are feeding, they will take it 

 like a shot. Sometimes I think my friend would take a 

 boot-jack. He seizes hold of the bait, and there can be no 

 mistake about the fact of his bite, because he frequently 

 pulls the rod clean down to the water. On the other hand, 



