BAIT-FISHING. 425 



with a long pole or a boat, drop the other at the full length 

 of the line, and leave the whole apparatus sunk till the 

 next morning, when at early dawn they may be taken up 

 again with a boat-hook, and the eels, if caught, removed. 

 They should be set the last thing at night, that the bait 

 may be fresh, and taken up at very early dawn. 



Bobbing for eels is practised with a common darning- 

 needle and worsted, several lengths of which are strung 

 with worms, and then, after being gathered into loops, 

 they are united by a strong line to a piece of lead weigh- 

 ing nearly a pound, and pierced with a hole for the pur- 

 pose of attachment to the line. The eels are taken by 

 their teeth catching in the worsted. 



Trimmers are set for eels exactly as for pickerel, ex- 

 cept that the hooks should be eel-hooks. 



Sniggling is another mode of taking eels, which is car- 

 ried on during the day, and the apparatus consists in a 

 strong needle about two inches long, a stout whipcord- 

 line, which is whipped to the needle from the eye to the 

 middle, from which part it is suspended, and a short rod 

 ■with a notch at the end, and capable of being set at any 

 angle or curve, for which purpose it is either made of 

 flexible wire or with hinged joints. The needle is baited 

 with the worm, which is drawn over both needle and line, 

 and when the angler strikes, he fixes the needle across the 

 eel's throat. 



The eel-spear is the most common of all the implements 

 used in taking eels ; but as it requires very little art, it is 

 scarcely fitted for the sportsman's use, and is solely intend- 

 ed to be employed by those who take fish for profit. But 



