THE CARP. 63 



abound, as the use of fine gut, except perhaps in 

 very open, unobstructed water, such as a reservoir, 

 will only result in much disappointment and lost 

 fish. I prefer to hook fewer fish and have a reason- 

 able chance of landing them. Select the very best 

 round gut that you can procure, fine salmon gut 

 being none too thick. Stain it a very dark blue, 

 green, or a dark brown (see page 239). I have 

 caught carp without using a gut length at all, 

 simply tying the hook length to the green running 

 line, and using a triangle on twisted wire to stand 

 the holding of the fish. I do not use this tackle by 

 daylight, but at night coarse tackle matters but 

 little, and you must have something that will 

 absolutely hold a fish. If you let him run he will 

 bury himself yards deep in great bunches of weed, 

 and you may just as well not fish at all as employ 

 fine tackle in some of the very weedy ponds that 

 carp inhabit. 



You must judge by surroundings. In fine open 

 water, where a fish may run where he Need of 

 pleases, better sport will result from the strong 

 use of fine tackle ; but if you are obliged tackle 

 to fish, as is often the case, right amongst or near 

 dense beds of weeds, you must employ tackle that 

 you can depend upon. Many years ago, I spent 

 a long while in pursuit of a moving float in 

 Wimbledon Lake this was doubtless lost by some 

 unlucky carp fisher ; the line had broken above the 

 float, and the wretched fish was dragging the tackle 

 about with him. When he got into shallower 

 water the float appeared, but I could not succeed in 

 getting hold of it ; I had no tackle with me, or would 

 have thrown a bullet round it and played the fish 

 to the best of my ability. The hooked fish was a 



