BREAM-FISHING 153 



float is drawn under by a leisurely, sidelong movement, and 

 then is the time to strike. 



The other method of angling for bream is with a ledger, as 

 for barbel, but with finer tackle. This can be done with a 

 much shorter rod than in float-fishing. It is the only proper 

 means to fish the strong water below weirs, where bream are 

 very fond of congregating. Whether in still water or streams 

 it is advisable to ground-bait liberally, either with clay-balls 

 containing worms or with handfuls of boiled wheat. 



When hooked, a good bream plunges heavily and bores 

 away to the deep water. Experts bear as hard on their fish as 

 the tackle will stand, in order to bring him to the top of the 

 water, knowing that the bream soon shuts up if he is kept stifily 

 on the surface. Pond or lake fishing for bream gives the 

 greater return in numbers and size, but river bream, says Mr. 

 Wheeley, are more desirable in one respect, at least, than those 

 of still waters — they are not nearly so thickly covered with 

 slime. Pond-bred bream exude mucus so freely that, after 

 playing one of them in deep water, the line and tackle are 

 often thickly coated with flakes and ropes of defilement ; they 

 cover any bag or basket with filth, and even the boat or punt ; 

 so it is customary to put them, when caught, into a keep-net, 

 slung over the side of the boat. A bream from a swift weir- 

 stream in Thames or Trent is quite a difi^erent fish — bright, 

 firm, and not unpleasant to handle. 



The average size of bream is considerable, from 2 lb. to 

 4 lb. being a common weight for it in Britain. Professor 

 Seeley records having seen one taken from the Serpentine, 

 in Hyde Park, weighing between 7 lb. and 8 lb.* Frank 

 Buckland noted the measurements of a bream taken in August, 

 1869, from a small pond at Beeston Regis, near King's Lynn. 

 It measured two feet two inches in length from tip of snout to 

 fork of tail, and weighed i if lb. The river Wensum is noted 

 for large bream. On August 4th, 1902, Mr. H. Cullingford, 

 * Fresh-water Fishes of Europe, p. 212. 



