THE BREAM. 



51 



the float, dragging it along steadily when biting. 

 I keep the running line well greased, so it floats 

 and runs off" the water easily to the strike. Two 

 or three gentles on a small hook catch these little 

 bream freely, and I have taken a tench or two 

 amongst them. In deep water in ponds, I have 

 seen a sort of paternoster tackle employed with 

 success. The plummet is looped on the gut, at the 

 lower end of the line ; some six inches above this 

 the hook is placed ; the depth is altered until the 

 float just stands straight up in the water, the bait 

 thus dangling a little off the bottom. It is a 

 strange tackle for bream, but I have seen fine fish 

 taken with it. In Penn Ponds, Richmond Park, 

 the anglers throw out a very long way, coil- Penn 

 ing or spreading the line on the gravel Ponds 

 path between the two ponds, and fishing with 

 heavy floats. The water here is very shallow and 

 weedy, with a lot of flannel-weed on the bottom. 

 Others wade, and get out a long way, but the 

 bream-fishing is very poor, and I have never seen 

 a large bream taken. The carp, it is true, are huge, 

 but perhaps the shyest in the kingdom. To catch 

 a Penn Pond carp is a feather in your cap. 



A carp-bream, from a river, is not at all bad 

 eating. I have eaten many a bream from the 

 Thames and Wey ; the flesh is delicate, and not to 

 be despised. In the autumn, if you leave the 

 bream on the grass, wasps come from all quarters 

 and settle on the fish, and it is easy to get stung, if 

 you are not careful in lifting up a dead fish. 

 Onion juice or " blue bag '' is a remedy for stings, 

 an onion being frequently handy, while " blue bag " 

 is not. Bream soon lose their colour after death, 

 turning reddish around the scales, particularly 



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