BANK-FISHING n 



of considerable depth, often from twelve to sixteen feet or 

 more. The angler employs two rods, which are longer than the 

 Thames punt rod, sits sideways, and fishes over the side : 

 having also a spare rod with a well weighted line with a float, 

 which acts as a dead line beside him, while fishing with the 

 other rod in the usual way. The fish caught are chiefly roach 

 and bream ; for the first, barley-meal is the ground-bait, and 

 for the second, boiled barley, the hook-baits being principally 

 gentles and worms. Large takes are frequently made, and it 

 is common to estimate the take by the stone weight. 



The rods used in bank and punt bottom-fishing with the 

 float, differ considerably. In punt-fishing the rod should be 

 light and handy, and from ten to twelve or thirteen feet in 

 length. If longer than this, the constant striking through a 

 long day's fishing tires the arm. Still it is always advisable 

 for the angler to use as long a rod as he can conveniently 

 manage, as it gives him not only a longer swim but more 

 power over it. Bamboo cane is the most usual material 

 employed. Punt rods of solid wood are often rather too heavy, 

 and the white cane too light for the work. Many anglers, how- 

 ever, prefer rods made of solid wood, as they are supposed to 

 stand heavy work better, though I have not found that they 

 do so. The best rod to stand work I ever had, was a single 

 stick of bamboo without joint or ferrule of any kind, with 

 merely a spliced top lashed to it of some eighteen inches or two 

 feet in length. I have used this rod for twenty years, and it is 

 as straight as ever it was. For solid rpds hickory is the best 

 wood. 



For bank-fishing the rod should be longer and larger, and it 

 is seldom the custom to use a rod of less than fifteen or sixteen 

 feet in length : while on the Lea and elsewhere fishermen use 

 rods of a prodigious and unwieldy length, sometimes up to 

 twenty- two or twenty- three feet. These, of course, from their 

 great length, require to be made of very light material, and the 

 white East India cane is most commonly employed. As a 

 general rule, the tackle used in bank-fishing is lighter, and the 

 point of the rod being always just over the float, and usually 

 scarcely a foot or so from it, there is no long length of loose line 

 on the water to strike up, as there is in punt-fishing, and the 

 strike, therefore, when there is a bite, is, as I have said, much 

 lighter, being a mere twitch ; while it is not necessary, as in 

 punt fishing, to strike at the end of every swim. The wear and 

 tear, therefore, is nothing like so much in a bank as in a punt 



