THE BARBEL. 21 



As food, I can only consider barbel worthless ; I 

 have twice tried to eat them, but have 

 abandoned the attempt ; the flavour is what 

 one may imagine mud would produce, — perhaps my 

 barbel were not properly cooked. 



Many die in the spawning season. I have picked 

 up several fine fish during the months of . , 

 May ; I found five one morning between spawn- 

 Penton Hook and Staines railway bridge. '"^ 

 The time to see barbel is on a bright, warm May 

 morning ; when they are routing and cleaning 

 themselves on the gravel. The shallows of the 

 weirs might be full of young porpoises for all the 

 splashing and disturbance that goes on ; the whole 

 water is alive with fish, barbel and chub. A great 

 fellow, wriggling against the stream, suddenly gets 

 broadside on, he sticks against a big stone for a 

 moment, churning and lashing the water with his 

 great tail, then he slides away, his place being soon 

 taken by another fish. A sight like this I ha^•e 

 enjoyed many a time ; and when I am told there 

 are no barbel to speak of in the Thames, I re- 

 member what I have seen with much complacency. 



I have found an east wind will put the barbel off 

 the feed ; so if the wind suddenly changes to „ „ _ 

 this quarter, the angler will know what to ex- east 

 pect. Baiting a Kennet pool over night, we ^'" 

 started fishing early next morning. The barbel were 

 well on, but the undertow made legering difficult, so 

 I changed my tackle, and started " corking," getting 

 very good sport. The weather was warm, misty with 

 rain, and as we found the fish biting well we had 

 visions of catching hundredweights of them. Sud- 

 denl)', about nine A.M. they ceased feeding entirely, 

 and we could not divine the cause for some time ; on 



