280 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. 



At least let him do all this directly he gets his fish home. 

 After exposure to the sun and air, let him not wet it with 

 water again, but broil it as it is, or fry with bread-crumbs 

 (the former for choice), and eat with the best appetite he 

 may. But with all this previous manipulation, or after 

 carrying out one of the many recondite recipes for cooking 

 a bream to be found in cookery books, and which we are 

 assured make it a most toothsome fish, our Abramis brama 

 is a very poor comestible — 



" The flabby solids fill'd with treacherous bones " 



being, at least in my opinion, hardly fit food for Christian 

 man, woman, or child, whatever English Israelites may 

 think of it. 



Viewed as a fish conducing to the sport of anglers, the 

 bream may be well spoken of. Though not a particularly 

 plucky and long-fighting fish, like the barbel, he is a very 

 strong fish, his deep sides enabling him to offer great 

 resistance, as the large fins of a barbel do for that fish. 

 He makes bold, strong, determined rushes when first 

 hooked, and a young angler with anything like fine tackle 

 will have his nerve and skill well tested in landing a four- 

 pounder. He is a shy and timid fish, and almost as crafty 

 as an old carp, and very capricious as to his feeding, while 

 of all fish he is perhaps the most light and delicate in his 

 biting, and the larger he is the more tenderly does he 

 seem to take the bait. Ordinary float-tackle, such as 

 that used for roach, serves for bream, and in rivers where 

 it can be used the " Nottingham " tackle may be employed 

 with advantage, while big bream are often taken on the 

 " leger." In float-fishing the hook should not be very 

 large, as the bream has a much smaller mouth than many 



