A BOOK ON ANGLING 



CHAPTER I 



BOTTOM -FISHING 



The Origin of Angling Pond-Fishing Punt-Fishing The Norfolk Style 

 Bank-Fishing The Gudgeon The Pope The Bleak The Roach 

 The Rudd The Dace The Chub The Barbel. 



THE art of Angling is a very ancient one, and it is 

 difficult to say when it did not exist. Indeed, man 

 might even have taken a lesson from Nature herself, 

 and doubtless has done so. For the Angler or 

 Fishing-frog (Lophius piscatorius) has for its necessities as 

 complete a rod, line, and bait appended to its nose, and uses 

 this apparatus with as much skill in decoying within reach of 

 its voracious maw the unwary fish, which are deceived by the 

 shining appearance of the filament forming the bait, as the 

 deftest fly-fisher employs amongst his human imitators. The 

 fishing parties of Antony and Cleopatra will be fresh in the 

 memory of every schoolboy,* while representations of fish and 

 fishing have been found upon some of the oldest tombs and 

 most venerable remains extant. In every community in 

 savage life, too, are found instruments of angling ; rude enough, 

 but sufficiently effective for the wants of those employing 

 them ; showing the various arts used in fishing to have been 

 of primitive and universal invention.! 



It is not, however, our purpose to give a retrospective 



* The story of Antony employing divers to fasten fish on to his hook is, 

 no doubt, a singular specimen of angling. But the Chinese may be said to 

 practise the plan habitually. The rocks and stones at the bottom of the sea 

 on the Chinese coast are covered with small shell-fish. Two men go out to 

 fish ; one holds a line to which is a baited hook ; the other, a diver, takes 

 the hook and a hammer and dives to the bottom, and there he begins crack- 

 ing and knocking to pieces the masses of shell-fish. The fish draw round to 

 feed. The diver selects his fish, and literally thrusts the hook into its mouth, 

 and his friend above pulls it up. F. F. 



f ^Elian, writing in Greek about 115 A.D., instructs his readers in fly 

 fishing, and recommends a red tackle. ED. 



