50 A BOOK ON ANGLING 



In ground-baiting a pitch, the Nottingham fishermen 

 seldom use clay or any substance of that kind, but break 

 up the worms and cast them in alone. The number used 

 runs from eight to twelve or even fourteen hundred as the 

 case may require. They are not distributed too widely, 

 but kept within the limits it is desired to fish, and twenty 

 hours at least are allowed for the ground-bait to be con- 

 sumed. Having baited their pitch, if the water be low and 

 clear, they take care when they approach to fish, not to come 

 too close to their swim or to make any disturbance, but they 

 stand well above the place where they expect to find the fish, 

 often fifteen or twenty yards above it, striking thirty or even 

 forty yards off. Thus they do not alarm the fish, but often 

 manage to get good sport in a water and at a time where 

 and when a Thames angler would seldom think of fishing at all. 



The principal baits they use are worms, scratching or 

 greaves, cheese, and creed-malt. In all float-fishing their 

 practice is superior to that of the Thames, and this appears 

 to be so much recognised now, that Nottingham tackle and 

 that style of fishing are very commonly adopted, but only 

 in punt-fishing. The much more workmanlike, scientific, 

 and deadly method pursued by the accomplished Nottingham 

 bank-fisher is almost unknown to the generality of Thames 

 anglers, yet it is quite high art in float-fishing from the bank, 

 and is not at all easy to perform well. I strongly recommend 

 anglers who can afford it to take a turn on the Trent, and put 

 themselves under the tuition of a Nottingham adept ; it 

 will be money saved, as they will be thereafter very independent 

 of punts and puntsmen, and will enjoy the active exertion of 

 walking the river's bank in preference to the passively 

 apoplectic operation of sitting in an arm-chair with a pipe 

 and a bottle of stout as a solatium for want of sport. 



as he sees a worm, grub, etc., passing him, and consequently, save once now 

 and then, his nose would not need to come in contact with the line at all. 

 The float should be checked so that as little of the line as possible should 

 touch the bottom, and only the bait should drag to achieve perfection ; but 

 as to the bait curving down-stream and drifting along the bottom before 

 the float, it is easier to imagine it than to practise it. F. F. 



