426 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 
the great bulk of the eels caught in this country are taken 
in traps set in the weirs of the rivers, when they run in 
the floods which are so constantly occurring. 
The best baits for eels are either live fish or lob- 
worms. Dead bait are not so readily taken, as there is no 
means during the night of simulating the motions of the 
living fish, as can be done with perch, trout, and pickerel, 
which take their food by day. Lob-worms, therefore, as 
being the most readily procured, and remaining alive on 
the hook for a considerable time, are the most common 
bait. The lampern is used in those rivers where it is met 
with, and is a very deadly bait. It requires care in its 
application not to injure the nine-eyes or gills, for if they 
are destroyed, the fish soon dies, and lies motionless and 
unattractive. The hook, therefore, should be entered 
below them, leaving the head and these openings hanging 
free. Itis too large a bait for any but full-sized eels, as 
the small ones pull off the pendant portions without hook- 
ing themselves. 
Kels may be taken during the spring, summer, and 
autumn. They haunt the recesses of the banks, or lie in 
the mud and weeds during the day, leaving these places 
only at night for food. Ponds, canals, and alluvial rivers 
are the chief localities for this fish, but few rivers are 
totally free from them. In some, however, they abso- 
lutely swarm, and even in small brooks they may be taken 
in quantities amounting to many hundredweight during 
their runs or migrations. 
The modes of taking these fish vary with the apparatus 
employed. During the day, sniggling, bobbing, or ledger- 
