476 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN THE GENTLE CRAFT. 



into beer and " bacca." Now, why should I, whose trout- 

 fishing, cut it as fine as may be, costs at least a pound a 

 day on the Thames, run less chance possibly than the very 

 man who writes to tell me of a trout in such-and-such a 

 place, and who very likely has run him, pricked him hard, 

 or in some few cases absolutely caught him and sold him 

 the day before ; or of the individual who values the 

 splendid fish by just so many pots of beer and no more, 

 who knocks him ruthlessly on the head, in or out of 

 condition, and who has been at him morning, noon, and 

 night from the first peep o' day on the opening of the 

 season ? 



Now here's the pattern of my tackle, any one is welcome 

 to it, and if there be any who in time to come can tell me 

 they have killed a ten-pounder on it fairly and squarely, 

 no one will say more heartily " Here's t' thee, my lad, 

 and more power to your elbow," than he who pens these 

 lines. First for the rod. It is a little 1 2-foot Nottingham 

 barbel rod, made of deal, with a lancewood top, light, 

 springy and handy. My reel is a wooden one, holding 

 200 yards of very fine silk, such as would be used for 

 chubbing with pith and brains, or with cheese in the autumn 

 and winter months. I have a bottom of three yards of 

 finest gut a very fine tapered fly cast is best with, at 

 the extremity, two small fine-wired perch hooks bound on 

 the bottom strand, the lower two inches from the upper. 

 One shot only size No. 3 is put on the gut 4 ft. from 

 the bait, so as to steady it in the stream. Just above the 

 gut, and on the silk running line, is a bit of pear-shaped 

 cork as big as a barbel bullet, sufficient only to buoy the 

 line in a slight degree. On the upper of the two hooks is 

 liphooked a live bleak ; the other hook flies loose, or, as I 

 fancy, clings to the side of the little bait. If you can find 



