52 A BOOK ON ANGLING 



exemplified, for they will be in one hole in a large shoal on one 

 day, and on another perhaps half a mile off. 



Having chosen a swim, the angler should ground-bait and 

 fish it after the same method as that directed for barbel ; 

 and with bream, as with barbel, worms are the best bait, 

 though they will take gentles and other grubs. The hook 

 used should be a size or two smaller than that employed for 

 barbel, as the bream likes a smaller bait ; but in other respects 

 the tackle and method are similar. Bream may often by 

 baiting be drawn out of their deep holes into the more manage- 

 able barbel-swims, and when this is the case both may be taken 

 together ; but if the holes can be fished by any means, the 

 take will be both larger and more certain. To fish them 

 properly, however, is often difficult, and when ledger-fishing 

 under these circumstances it is advisable to fasten a hook on 

 the ledger gut about six inches above the lead, so that there 

 may be one hook on the bottom for the barbel and one just 

 off it for the bream, as the latter is scarcely such a ground- 

 router as the former. 



The finer the angler can fish for bream the better. Indeed, 

 whether for bream or barbel, his tackle never should be a shot 

 heavier than the stream requires to ride the float well and 

 steadily. In ponds, or in still quiet eddies, the angler will 

 often find that the bream will lift and throw the float flat 

 upon the water. The reason of this, I imagine, is that the 

 bream is a round-shaped, round-bellied fish, and when it 

 picks up the bait and then assumes its natural position to 

 eat it, although the belly of the fish may touch the ground, 

 the head and tail are some distance off it, and hence the shots 

 and sinkers are lifted, and the float, instead of being pulled 

 down, is thrown up. When hooked in still, deep water, the 

 bream has a disagreeable knack of boring head down, and 

 rubbing and chafing the line with its side and tail, so that 

 the line often comes up for a foot above the hook covered 

 with slime. When hooked in a stream after the first rush it 

 soon turns on its side and comes in easily. Bream run to a 

 good weight, six or seven pounds being not very uncommon, 

 while occasionally they have been caught of fourteen or 

 fifteen pounds weight. 



In some of our lakes, particularly in Ireland, as Loughs 

 Neagh, Conn, Corrib, and Erne, especially the latter, the 

 abundance of bream exceeds all belief, many cartloads being 

 often taken in one sweep of the nets. Bream bite pretty well 



