SPINNING AND BAIT FISHING. 403 



prawn. In big rivers, where wading is impossible, it must be 

 done out of a boat either by casting or trailing. At Castle 

 Connell on the Shannon they spin it ; at Galway, where during 

 the spring months nothing else is used but the prawn from 

 9 A.M. to 6 P.M., they let it drag with a heavy weight on the 

 bottom as they would do when worm fishing. At Killaloe on 

 the Shannon I have caught several fish by working the prawn 

 " sink-and-draw " fashion, as if I were fishing with a gorge hook 

 for pike. There was, opposite the marble works, a large pool 

 with a very strong backwater, which always held a number of 

 salmon, and part of the programme when fishing the pool was 

 to use the prawn in this backwater in the sink-and-draw fashion. 

 I seldom tried it without catching a fish. This is the only 

 place I ever saw it tried, but I have no doubt it would be 

 equally successful elsewhere. 



' The pleasantest way, however, to work the prawn is from 

 the bank, or when wading, on a warm day when there are 

 plenty of fish within easy reach. It is to me the most fasci- 

 nating of all bait fishing, but it does not give me the same 

 amount of pleasure or excitement that fly fishing does. The 

 mode of proceeding is as follows : Reel up your line to within 

 about six feet of the top of your rod ; swing (jtot cast) it out at 

 an angle of about 45° down stream, and let the prawn come 

 slowly round to the side you are fishing from, keeping your rod 

 in the same position. If the stream is rapid let out a yard or 

 two of Hne by degrees as the bait works round, which will 

 prevent the action of the stream stripping off the scales of the 

 prawn ; and for the same reason wind up slowly before making 

 a fresh cast. When the stream is very slack it will, on the 

 contrary, be as well to gradually wind in a few yards of line to 

 prevent the prawn catching on the bottom. ' 



■" On the Erne and some other rivers the use of a float has of recent years 

 been adopted for prawn-fishing, and when last on the Erne — the present season, 

 1889—1 was assured that this plan has practically superseded all other methods. 

 A largish float, shotted gut-line, arranged so as to swim the bait close to the 

 bottom, and a prawn baited according to the taste of the fisher, form the 

 tackle.— H. C.-P. 



