THE HOME OF THE BEEAM, 63 



requires the angler to be equally wary if lie wishes to secure 

 these unwieldy denizens of our broad, sluggish, still rivers. 

 Running tackle will be required, and the hook may be a 

 No. 8 or 9, securely whipped to a gut foot-line. A quiU 

 float is necessary, as the hook should touch or trail along 

 the bottom. Clay and clotted bullock's blood makes an 

 excellent ground-bait. Eed worms are the best bait in the 

 spring, early in the morning and late in the evening. In 

 summer, gentles and salmon roe, with greaves for ground- 

 bait, prove attractive. When the weather is warm and 

 gloomy, or a slight breeze ripples the surface of the water, 

 the bream will bite, particularly after a warm drizzling 

 rain. The bream have a sort of fancy for a dew worm, 

 but he sucks it and does not bite. They must be struck 

 delicately and at once. When he is hooked he exerts his 

 strength, and makes for a weedy, sedgy bottom. The 

 angler must keep him in the open waters, or else the tackle 

 will assuredly break. It requires no little patience and 

 skill to land a large bream, and when landed, his skin is 

 slimy, and not peculiarly pleasant. In the summer time 

 he will rise at the natural fly. The stone-fly, house-fly, 

 and blue-bottle are his particular fancy. In the evening a 

 moth will seduce him. His home is in the broad bends of 

 a river, and he is sometimes found with his family beneath 

 the shade of an overhanging wUlow, particularly where 

 there is a good depth of water. 



