14 COARSE FISH. 



is to seek for them everywhere. The upper ends 

 of very deep eddies sometimes produce fish ; and 

 these situations require legering, as the bottom is 

 uneven. Again, I have taken barbel out of the 

 lowest depths of a pool, in twenty-five feet or more 

 of water ; I have also had sport in water not more 

 than three feet in depth, and even in less than that 

 My advice then is to search everywhere for barbel, 

 remembering the spots in which you get sport for 

 future . operations ; though it is by no means un- 

 common to get first-rate sport in a certain swim, 

 and on fishing it again to leave without taking a 

 single barbel. It is a question of hitting upon a 

 shoal, and whether they are on the feed. They can 

 be drawn together by groundbaiting ; but there are 

 occasions when this fails entirely : the numbers of 

 lobworms and gentles that have been wasted in 

 barbel-swims are incalculable. 



The barbel bait-list is a small one. The lobworm 

 is the chief ; after that come gentles, greaves 

 and cheese-paste. Lampern is often spoken 

 of as a killing bait, but I cannot speak from ex- 

 perience of this. I have tried cold mutton fat with 

 success when other baits have failed. A friend 

 fishing with me in September for perch, paternoster- 

 ing round some wooden piles, caught a three-pound 

 barbel with a live minnow. This is very late in the 

 year to take a barbel with live bait. A nine-pound 

 barbel was caught at Teddington, some little time 

 ago, with a black beetle. I should think that pieces 

 of fresh-water mussels would make an excellent 

 bait. I have sometimes amused myself " angling " 

 for these with a willow twig. On looking over the 

 side of the punt in shallow water, when the sun is 

 bright and the weather calm, these mussels can be 



