SPINNING AND BAIT FISHING. 403 
prawn, In big rivers, where wading is impossible, it must be 
done out of a boat either by casting or trailing, At Castle 
Connell on the Shannon they spin it ; at Galway, where during 
the spring months nothing else is used but the prawn from 
9 A.M. to 6 P.M, they let it drag with a heavy weight on the 
bottom as they would do when worm fishing. At Killaloe on 
the Shannon I have caught several fish by working the prawn 
“sink-and-draw ” fashion, as if I were fishing with a gorge hook 
for pike. There was, opposite the marble works, a large pool 
with a very strong backwater, which always held a number of 
salmon, and part of the programme when fishing the pool was 
to use the prawn in this backwater in the sink-and-draw fashion. 
I seldom tried it without catching a fish. This is the only 
place I ever saw it tried, but I have no doubt it would be 
equally successful elsewhere. 
‘The pleasantest way, however, to work the prawn is from 
the bank, or when wading, on a warm day when there are 
plenty of fish within easy reach. It is to me the most fasci- 
nating of all bait fishing, but it does not give me the same 
amount of pleasure or excitement that fly fishing does. The 
mode of proceeding is as follows: Reel up your line to within 
about six feet of the top of your rod ; swing (vot cast) it out at 
an angle of about 45° down stream, and let the prawn come 
slowly round to the side you are fishing from, keeping your rod 
in the same position. If the stream is rapid let out a yard or 
two of line by degrees as the bait works round, which will 
prevent the action of the stream stripping off the scales of the 
prawn ; and for the same reason wind up slowly before making 
a fresh cast. When the stream is very slack it will, on the 
contrary, be as well to gradually wind in a few yards of line to 
prevent the prawn catching on the bottom.! 
+ On the Erne and some other rivers the use of a float has of recent years 
been adopted for prawn-fishing, and when last on the Erne—the present season, 
1889—I was assured that this plan has practically superseded all other methods. 
A largish float, shotted gut-line, arranged so as to swim the bait close to the 
bottom, and a prawn baited according to the taste of the fisher, form the 
tackle.—H, C,-P. 
DD2 
