496 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN THE GENTLE CRAFT. 



great fancy for the lob for nearly all big fish the others 

 are more suitable for the paternoster. If the water is very 

 bright, and the fish are " dead off," take away the float 

 previously mentioned, and, substituting a smaller bullet as a 

 sinker, throw out the lob, across, and up and down the 

 water with a motion similar to that of spinning ; a brace of 

 fish may be taken in this way when they are very dainty. 



CARP FISHING. 



The carp is perhaps as handsome a fish as British 

 waters can boast of as a resident, and is without any ex- 

 ception one that will try an angler's skill and resources 

 to the utmost. In colour, a bronze or yellowish olive, 

 deeper in shade towards the back ; and with, when in 

 condition, a splendid burnished sheen diffused over his 

 sides, and great round scales, he looks, when freshly caught, 

 a very noble and handsome fellow. The fins are brown, with 

 a faint violet or purple tinge, the dorsal, in particular, large 

 and well developed, and continued in its rays for some 

 distance down the slope of the back ; he has a large head, 

 but by no means an unsightly one, a small round mouth, 

 tough and leathery to a degree, with two small cirri or 

 beards on either side; the tail, but little forked, is set 

 firmly on, and denotes great strength, and he is, when large, 

 a deep and thick-set fish. Carp are extremely prolific, and 

 in suitable waters increase and multiply to an enormous 

 extent ; indeed it has been stated upon good authority that 

 the weight of the roe taken from a single female fish 

 exceeded the weight of the despoiled carcase when the two 

 have been weighed the one against the other. A good 

 deal of uncertainty seems to exist as to when carp were 

 first introduced into England ; but we get evidence from 



