SALMON ROE A NATURAL BAIT. 165 



fish may feed and come to your place : there is no 

 doubt of pleasure, angling with fine tackles or 

 single hair-lines, at least five or six lengths long, 

 a small hook with two or three spawns on. The 

 bait will hol^l one week ; if you keep it on any 

 longer, you must hang it up to dry a little. When 

 you go to your pleasure again, put the bait in a 

 little water, it will come in kind again." From 

 this letter we lepa that salmon roe may be used 

 as a bait by cutting it, whilst fresh, into worm- 

 shaped slips, which are to be threaded on the hook, 

 and the place you fish at ground-baited by throw- 

 ing in separated ova. Barker's method of preserv- 

 ing it is very simple, and will answer only for roe 

 that is to be kept a short time. Whether you 

 angle with fresh or preserved salmon roe, always 

 ground-bait with a little of either. Salmon roe is 

 a natural bait for trout and other fish that frequent 

 the waters salmon breed in. In the depositing of the 

 ova many are swept away by the current, and so 

 become the natural prey of the other fish, inha- 

 bitants of the stream. 



It is not easy to preserve salmon roe so as to keep 

 the substance of which it is composed in a proper 

 state of hardness or softness. Generally, with all 

 our pains, it turns out too soft ; rarely it becomes, 

 except by gross blundering, too hard. When too 

 soft, it melts away when used, and is then only fit 

 to mix with bread crumb to make into paste, . 



