CARP AND TENCH. 251 



behind a hurdle, without the possibility of catching anything — 

 unless, indeed, it were a stfoke of rheumatism. 



' Ephemera,' however, had evidently conceived a very pro- 

 found veneration for the craftiness of carp, especially old 



Neither I, nor any one else, he says, can tell you how to 

 catch satisfactorily with the angle the paterfamilias of the carp : 

 he is so sly, and nibbles in such a namby-pamby way, that he 

 strips the hook of its bait mouse-like. The angler that can 

 catch large carp. Captain Williamson says, ' must possess several 

 qualifications extremely valuable, to the angler, and bids fair, by 

 general practice, to be, according to the old saying, able to teach 

 his master.' All I can tell you is, that you must fish for the carp 

 proper with as fine a tackle as you use for the roach, and at the same 

 time it must be stronger, for carp grow to salmon size. The baits 

 are worms, larvae, grains, pastes, green gentles, and green peas. 

 A sweet paste is perhaps the best. ... A Huntingdonshire corre- 

 spondent once wrote to me that he had a pond well stored with 

 very large carp, and that after seven years' patience with line, rod 

 and hook, he could not catch one of them. He asked my advice 

 — I told him to try a net ! 



Mr. F. Miller, in a recent article in the Fishing Gazette, 

 gives the following account of a method of catching carp which 

 he had pursued successfully : — 



A few weeks since I was favoured with permission to fish a 

 private pond well stocked with large carp. The owner of it 

 thought it a waste of precious angler's time to attempt to hoax so 

 capricious a feeder, and so cunning a biter, the more so as many 

 adepts at the art had been previously disappointed. The day of 

 my adventure was rough, though warm. The wind at times was 

 almost sufficiently strong to blow a man out of his.hat ; but towards 

 evening it lulled, and the carp began to move, jumping clear of the 

 water in their well-known vigorous, if not graceful, manner. 



I was fishing in about 4 feet of water, with two rods resting on 

 pegs, as for bream. I had ground-baited with soaked bran and 

 ordinary gentles, and had placed on each hook two or three wasp 

 grubs. These I always find appreciated by the crafty Cyprinus 

 carpio. To complete the sweet-toothed dainty, I took a small box 



