36 A BOOK ON ANGLING 



hungry, get shy of the boat and retire to a distance. On the 

 Trent they do not put the bait into clay, but let it scatter down 

 the stream ; and as they fish a long way from the stand or 

 boat, as the case may be, the barbel are not alarmed by the 

 proximity of the angler. Whether the angler fishes from a 

 stand on the shore, or from a boat, the method is the same. 

 The object is to let the hook-bait travel over the whole distance 

 along which the ground-bait has been scattered, dragging, 

 like the ground-bait, slowly along the bottom. (For barbel, 

 which are a ground-routing fish, the bait should always touch 

 the bottom.) Coming, then, to the spot which has been baited, 

 and having determined the depth, so as to let the bait drag 

 slightly, cast in some ten or a dozen broken worms, in order to 

 set the fish biting again taking care, of course, to keep the 

 bait as much in a line as possible with the spot which you have 

 taken the depth of. The float should be of the sort used by the 

 Nottingham fishers, and described hereafter. The hook should 

 be a straight round-bend worm-hook, of about No. 5 or 6, and 

 tied upon fine but round stained gut. The nearest shot should 

 be at least a foot or fifteen inches from the hook, or, if it be 

 requisite that the bait should drag much, even more than that 

 distance. The bait should be the tail of a bright-red well- 

 scoured lob worm, neatly threaded on the hook, with barely 

 one- third of an inch of the tail off the point of the hook, which 

 should always be thoroughly covered and concealed in the bait. 

 Be sure that your hook-bait is always a part of the best and 

 liveliest worm you can select. Having baited the hook, drop 

 it into the water, and allow it to travel onwards as described 

 in Nottingham fishing. 



Barbel are often taken with the lighter appliances used in 

 roach-fishing, and excellent sport is thus enjoyed. Should the 

 angler use greaves or cheese as a bait, no change in the style 

 of fishing is needed, save that the cheese should drag on the 

 ground as lightly as possible, or it will come off the hook. 



In fishing with a stationary bait, two plans are also adopted. 

 The first is by the use of the ledger, and the second by the clay 

 ball. The ledger is composed of a perforated lead, usually a 

 good-sized bullet, through which the line runs freely ; a shot 

 being fastened on the line, about two feet above the hook, 

 to prevent the bullet from sliding farther down towards the 

 hook. (See Plate I, Fig. 3, p. 9.) In this tackle a flat lead 

 is shown, but a perforated bullet can be used if preferred. 



The hook for ledger-fishing is generally a size or so larger 



