Float fishing and spinning in the Nottingham style : being a treatise on the so-called coarse fishes, with instructions for their capture ...

PRICE TWO SHILLINGS.

The Nottingham

Style of Float Ming

$ bpinmr.

Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 188, Fleet St., E.C.

BERKELEY

LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNIA

-U' f.0. ^Icu^^^

*—*.

PH./^

FLOAT FISHING AND SPINNING

NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

BOOKS ON ANGLING, &c.

FLY-FISHING — SALMON, TROUT, AND GRAYLING. By Dr.

Edwakd Hamiltow. Small post 8vo, handsome paper, Illustrated, and

with a Frontispiece Etching by Dr. Seymoub Haden. 6*.
Also large paper Edition, boards, 10s. Qd.
FLY -RODS AND FLY-TACKLE. Suggestions as to their Manufacture

and Use. By Henby P. Wells. Illustrated, small 4to, 364 pp., cloth

extra, 10*. 6d.
FISHING WITH THE FLY. Sketches by Lovers of the Art, with

Coloured Illustrations of Standard Flies, collected by Chables F. Obvis and

A. Nelson Cheney. Square cloth, 12s. 6i.
AN AMATEUR ANGLER'S DAYS IN DOVE DALE. Imperial

32mo, fancy boards, 1*. Limp leather-cloth, gilt edges, 1*. 6d.
AN ANGLER'S STRANGE EXPERIENCES. By Cotswold Isys, M A.

Profusely Illustrated, 4to, 5*.
BRITISH ANGLING FLIES. By Michael Theakston. Revised by

F. M. Walbban. Illustrated, crown 8vo, 5s.
TROUT-FISHING IN RAPID STREAMS. By H. Cutliffe. 3s. 6d.
NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. By J. J. Manley, M.A. Illustrated,

crown 8vo, 6s.
ANGLING LITERATURE IN ENGLAND. Small post 8vo, 3*. 6d.
FLOAT FISHING AND SPINNING IN THE NOTTINGHAM

STYLE. By J. W. Mabtin. Crown 8vo, 2s. 6d.
AN EVENING'S FISHING. In 18 Colours. Size, 14 in. by 10 in. After

Oil Painting by Tabgett. 5s.
THE BOOK OF THE ROACH. By Gbeville Fennell. New Edition.

Cloth, 28. post free.
THE BRITISH FISHERIES DIRECTORY, 1883-4. Small 8vo, cloth,

2s. 6d.

THE WATERSIDE SHILLING SERIES. By Red Spinneb.
No. 1. "WATERSIDE SKETCHES. By "Red Spinneb" (Wm. Senior).

Imperial 32mo, boards, Is. post free.
FLY-TYING. By James Ogden. 2s. 6i. .

FLY-FISHING IN MAINE LAKES. By Col. Chas. W. Stevens. Illus-
trated, square crown 8vo, cloth extra, 8s. 6c?. post free.
Fifth Edition, Revised and Improved, with 17 other Plates (11 plain and 6
coloured), in post 8vo, 15s., post free.
A BOOK ON ANGLING. Being a Complete Treatise on the Art of Angling
in every branch. By Fbanois Fbancis, of the Field.

Ninth Edition, with Twenty Coloured Plates, 8vo, 14s. post free.
RONALD'S FLY-FISHER'S ENTOMOLOGY. With Coloured repre-
sentations of the Natural and Artificial Insect, and Observations and
Instructions on Trout and Grayling Fishing.
WHERE TO GO FOR FISHING. See the "Angleb's Diaby and
Toubist Fishebman's Gazetteeb" of the Rivers and Lakes of the World.
With forms for registering the fish taken during the year. Crown 8vo, 150
pages of small type, cloth, Is. 6d., post free.

Established 1877. Every Saturday. Sixteen pages, price 2d. Annual
Subscription, post free, 10s. 6d.

THE FISHING GAZETTE, A Journal for Anglers.

Devoted entirely to Amateur Angling and Fish Culture.

Frequently Illustrated. Correspondence on Angling, River Reports, Articles

on all subjects of interest to Anglers, &c.

Send post card for specimen copy.

London: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIYIHGTON,

Crown Building-s, 188, Fleet Street, E.C.

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2007 with funding from

Microsoft Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/floatfishingspinOOmartrich

a. Angler's right hand holding rod jnst ahove the reel.

6. Angler's left hand pulling down line in order to make a cast with light tackle in
Nottingham style. Page 41.

a. Angler's right hand holding rod just ahove the reel.

b. Left hand pulling down two lengths of line in order to make extra long cast.

Page 41

FLOAT FISHING AND SPINNING

NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

BEING A TREATISE ON THE SO-CALLED COARSE

FISHES, WITH INSTRUCTIONS FOR

THEIR CAPTURE.

INCLUDING

CHAPTERS ON PIKE FISHING, AND WORM FISHING
FOR SALMON.

By J. W. MARTIN,

THE "TBEWT OTTEB."

1 Ye who stand behind the counter,
Or grow pallid at the loom,
Leave the measure and the shuttle,
To the rippling stream come, come."

The Invitation.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.
SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED

EonUon ;
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON,

CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET

1885.

\_All rights reserved. ]

LONDON :

PRINTED BT GILBERT AND BIVINGTON, LIMITED,

ST. JOHN'S SQUABE.

II.

Angler's left hand holding the rod close to reel, with finger on the edge, to

stop the bait.
Angler's right hand holding rod, for making cast from the reel in Nottingham

style. Page 118.

PEE FACE.

Some may say that there is no valid reason for another book on
fishing, there being so many already, but I would explain in
justification that there is a vast army of working-men anglers
in the kingdom, men who can only get a day's fishing occasion-
ally, and that it is to these working-men anglers I am more
particularly addressing the remarks contained in this little
volume. I myself am a working man, but I have had very
considerable experience in all kinds of Trent angling, when I
could spare the time from my work.

The large, standard, valuable books upon angling have of
necessity a vast number of pages devoted to salmon, trout,
and grayling fishing, and as a natural consequence the price
is so much that a working man, as a rule, cannot afford to
buy them. I must confess, being a working man, I was in
the same swim as my fellows in regard to these until two
or three years ago, when, owing to the great kindness of
some gentlemen, particularly R. B. Marston, Esq., the editor
of the Fishing Gazette, I have become the proud and
happy possessor of a few of these grand and valuable books.
I have a notion that a book which contains some practical
information on the art of bottom fishing would be gladly
welcomed by those to whom I have referred, or by the would-
be anglers generally, if it could be published in a cheap form.
Now I am confident enough to hope that this volume will
meet the requirements of such* persons.

The instructions given here are the results of carefully-
conned experience, and as the Trent angler is supposed to be
the most scientific of bottom fishermen in the kingdom, I
trust the novice will derive some profit from the principles I
lay down. I have expended a good deal of time in the
preparation of this work, but this has been given willingly,
the whole task in fact having been a "labour of love." I
have added a chapter on " pike fishing," and in this edition
a chapter is also added on " worm fishing for salmon in the
Nottingham style," under the impression that it also may be
useful and interesting.

289

VI PREFACE.

The extent of the pocket of the working-man angler has
been constantly before me when describing his outfit, and
there is nothing mentioned that cannot be bought or made
cheaply. Perhaps, also, the better-class anglers may derive
some instruction from this little book. The plainest possible
language has been used, so that the veriest novice can under-
stand what I mean, and I have been very particular in all
minor details, and in describing the tackle and baits, as to
how to make and find them, and when, where, and how to
use them. The feature of the book is Chapter II., and I
most respectfully request the reader to very carefully study
that chapter, for in it will be found a full description of the
outfit of a Nottingham angler, and a lot of information and
recipes that will be very valuable to the fisherman.

Chapter I. contains some facts connected with the history
of fishing, both ancient and modern, and also some notes on
the natural history of the fish. As stated elsewhere, I am
principally indebted to Mr. J. J. Manley for the latter, and
also to cuttings from various papers, &c. I regret I cannot
give the source in all cases from whence these were taken,
but I hope I shall be pardoned where I have quoted without
an acknowledgment, as the fault must be set down to inad-
vertence rather than design. However, I have mostly gone
by my own experience in the matter, especially in the prac-
tical part of the book, and shall say no more by way of an
apology, allowing my little work to stand on its merits.
Please, Sir Critic, remember, nevertheless, that I am a poor
working-man angler, with a very moderate education.

In conclusion, I must say that the fact of a second edition
of this book being required so soon is a sufficient proof of
the popularity of the "Nottingham style," and to the esti-
mation in which that style is held by anglers in all parts of
the kingdom ; and I only hope that I have succeeded in my
task of describing the various appliances, and the method of
successfully following this scientific and deadly plan of
fishing.

John William Martin.

Newark, April, 1885.

CONTENTS,

CHAPTER L

Introductory Remarks

xaxix\)v\j\jx\jxs,i. xx&isa

CHAPTER II.

Trent Fishing

CHAPTER III.

The Chub

CHAPTER IV.

The Barbel

CHAPTER V.

The Roach

CHAPTER VI.

The Pike .

10

45

70

88

107

CHAPTER VII.

Salmon Fishing in the Nottingham Style . . . 127

CHAPTER VIII.

The Perch . ,

. 139

V1U CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IX.

PAGE

The Bream 146

CHAPTER X.
The Carp and Tench 152

CHAPTER XI.
The Dace 157

CHAPTER XII.
Eels and Flounders 160

CHAPTER XIII.
The Bleak, Gudgeon, Ruffe, and Minnow . . .168

CHAPTER XIV.
Freshwater Fisheries Act, 1878 . , . . .172

Appendix 176

Index 179

BOTTOM PISHING IN THE
NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

An old fisherman tells me that thirty years ago, you might
count the anglers of my native place on the fingers of one
hand, while at the present moment they may be counted by
hundreds ; and the same may be said of the other towns and
districts in the kingdom. We may safely say that anglers
have increased a thousandfold during the last half-century ;
and there is no other branch of sport or pastime that has
made such rapid strides in the same time, and 'tis well that
it is so. Civilization in its onward strides has not even
spared the fish ; and they, as time has rolled on, have become
cunning and crafty, and so craft and cunning have now to be
resorted to in order to capture them. Fifty years ago it was
comparatively easy to make a good bag of fish ; but now in
such well- fished rivers as the Trent and Thames, it is only an
artist in the craft that can do so. Then, an angler was a
rarity, met only occasionally, and looked upon as a sort of
rara-avis ; now we see him upon every length and reach,
from the youngster with his cheap rod and primitive tackle,
to the grey-haired patriarch who sits silently ledgering for
roach, and yet the vast army of British anglers are steadily
increasing, as is shown by the ever-growing demand for rods,
lines, hooks, and gut.

The great majority of our anglers belong to the working
class. Thousands who toil in our workshops and factories,

2 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

stand by the flaming forge, or busy shuttle, and are slowly
poisoned by the foul, smoke-polluted air, are glad to get away
to the river side, and breathe the pure breath of heaven.
These are the men who feel the blessings of the river side,
and there is no wonder at it, after being " cabin' d, cribb'd,
confined " in unhealthy workshops in the heart of our large
towns. These men see the beauty of the country in their
brief sojourn by the water side, where country-bred people
would fail to observe it. Probably they often wondered why
the poet-priest wrote —

M Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood
Are clad in living green,"

when there are such beautiful fields, and sweet scenes in this
vale of tears, without having to cross the mysterious border-
land to find them. What health and vigour again have they
not drawn into their lungs, and how invigorated do they not
feel ! and how much better can they not cope with the cares
of the world, when they go back to its duties after a day's
fishing ! These are the men, I say, who feel the benefits of
the water-side, and it is to these thousands of my fellow
working-men anglers to whom I am more particularly writing.
I am one of yourselves, only my lines have been cast in
pleasant places, and a splendid river flows as it were past my
door, so that I have had every facility for following my
favourite pastime, and I am willing to convey a little of this
knowledge to my less fortunate brethren ; in fact, it will be
their own faults if they do not know as much as I do after
following me carefully through these pages.

Most works upon angling, I have heard, are nothing but
learned discussions on the natural history of the fish (which are
all very well in their way), and when our tyro has read them
carefully, he does not know then the best way of taking the
various fish. Moreover, most works upon angling, as I have
before hinted in my preface, treat so fully of salmon, trout,
and grayling, that they don't do justice to the so-called
coarse fish. Salmon, trout, and grayling are utterly beyond
the reach of thousands of our humbler anglers, so I shall
content myself by only giving a short chapter on worm or
bottom fishing for salmon, as it is practised on the Trent, in

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 6

the hope that it may prove interesting and instructive to
those anglers who can indulge in this branch of sport, but
the so-called coarse fish will be dealt with in a most com-
plete manner. Little things connected with the natural
history of the various fish will be referred to, and they will,
I think, instruct and interest the tyro, so that he may be
able to know the habits and haunts, and also recognize the
fish when he sees it. I would also have him bear in mind
that the instructions laid down here are the results of careful
experience, from which, perhaps, the better class of anglers
who only get an occasional day by the river side may also
derive profit.

We will look for a few minutes at Sheffield, as T believe
it will be interesting to many anglers at that town, which is
the very stronghold of bottom fishers, and it is necessary to
go back twenty years or so. A busy and clever community
of nearly 200,000 souls existed then, which had made its
home in a position of unrivalled healthiness and natural
beauty ; hill and valley gave Sheffield a variety of surface ;
which lends its aid to sanitary arrangements, the rivers Don
and Sheaf meet here and mingle their waters, the town was
then not crowded, it spreads itself over twenty thousand acres
of ground, stretching ten miles in one direction and four miles
in the other. There was then actually an inhabited house
for every five inhabitants of the town. Add to this the fact
that Sheffield possessed even then a public supply of pure
water, unequalled in quality by any other town in England ;
and any one would have said at that time, " Surely here is the
place where the working man may enjoy life, uncankered by
disease, and stretching out to its natural length," yet, what
was the state of affairs then 1 There was a death-rate of
thirty-four in the thousand, ten or twelve per thousand more
than London with all its overcrowding, and double that of
the percentage of country districts throughout England ; two
or three thousand souls were killed annually in Sheffield by
unsanitary conditions, as certainly as though that number
had been gathered once a year in some horrid " black hole,"
and suffocated in their own poisoning exhalations. One
could see the alleys from which reeking and undrained cess-

b 2

4 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

pools spread the pestilence which walks by night, and rests
not by day from its mysterious work of destruction. We
heard of young men growing prematurely old, with dirty
white and sallow faces, with " dropped wrists," with an ever-
present feeling of illness, strange blue lines encircling their
teeth, shortness of breath, stooping and bent frames, and of
consumption and paralysis. We heard of children driven to
the "hulls," to learn to work before they had time to learn
to play ; we heard of death in certain trades when the workers
reached thirty or thirty-five, and in others, though they lived
somewhat longer, they were robbed of twenty or twenty- five
years of natural life. All these things make such a picture
that we never forget it, and we have or seem to have a vivid
conception of the strange results of British freedom and civi-
lization, and we could seem to see then baby faces in the
agonies of premature death ; sixty-one poor innocents out of a
hundred under five years of age dying in one year in Sheffield
was a ghastly chorus to the song of that empire on which
the sun never sets. But now we find a great change has
come over Sheffield, though there is still room for improve-
ment. We cannot wonder that the men of Sheffield with
such a picture as I have described thrust before their faces,
should try by every means in their power to better their con-
dition, physically speaking, and we cannot wonder that they
should take to fishing to counteract the evils I have just
spoken of. But great difficulties lay in the way of the
Sheffield anglers. There was no stream near that place in
which they could ply, or that fish could live in, and so they
had to go further afield, and a vast majority chose the Trent
and the Witham as their hunting-ground. In spite, how-
ever, of all the difficulties they had to contend with, perhaps
in no other town in England has angling and its attendant
associations made such rapid progress as in Sheffield ; we hear
that there are over two hundred and twenty angling clubs
there, and that the anglers themselves have been estimated at
nearly ten thousand. This fact alone speaks volumes for the
popularity of angling ; the social and sanitary condition of
Sheffield have altered for the better since the time of the
gloomy picture I have drawn, and one of the brightest signs

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 5

of the social elevation of the workers of Sheffield are these
numbers of angling clubs that have sprung up in all direc-
tions, in which they can tell one another of their various
exploits, and plan some fresh adventure. Now, as I pointed
out further back, the vast majority of these anglers are bottom
fishers, and some of them are considered to be the best roach
and dace fishermen in the country, and they spend a lot of
time in their avocation. But by far the greater number are
those who can only steal a day occasionally, and with these a
visit to the river side is like the visit of an angel, remarkably
infrequent.

Not only Sheffield boasts of this, but most other populous
towns share in the general advancement, from "John o'
Groat's " to Land's End, and from the coast of Lincolnshire
to the Isle of Man.

I am afraid I have made a terrible digression, but my
readers must forgive me, for I could not help alluding to the
social condition of Sheffield and its connection with the
angling world.

The history of angling seems to go a long way back, and
to be nearly lost in the mists of antiquity, for we read of it
in the earlier sections of the Bible, and in the records of
ancient Egypt and Assyria, the seat of powerful empires
and a civilized people. The story of Antony and Cleopatra
is of course known to most anglers, wherein Cleopatra sent
her own diver down to hang a dried fish on Antony's hook,
which he pulled up to his utter confusion. Shakespeare, it
will be remembered, immortalizes this incident in his play,
" Antony and Cleopatra." I have read also somewhere that
the Chinese practise this plan habitually. The rocks and
stones at the bottom of the sea on the Chinese coast, it
appears, are covered with small shell fish ; two men go out
to fish — one holds a line, attached to which is a baited
hook; the other, a diver, takes the hook and a hammer,
and dives to the bottom, and there he begins cracking and
knocking to pieces the masses of shell fish. The fish draw
round to feed; the diver selects his fish, and literally
thrusts the hook into its mouth, and his friend above pulls
it up.

6 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

It seems to be difficult to determine when angling really
did not exist, for in the Book of Job we read, "Canst thou
draw out leviathan with a hook 1 or his tongue with a cord
which thou lettest down % Canst thou put an hook into his
nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn?" (By this
last word we should presume that hooks were then made of
hard wood, or at least some of them.) In the prophet
Habakkuk also we find fish being taken " with the angle,"
and in Isaiah of " those that cast the hook into the
river."

The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Eomans certainly were
anglers, for passages from the writings of some of the
most ancient authors indicate the fact. Homer tells us, —

"Of beetling rocks that overhang the flood,
Where silent anglers cast insidious food,
With fraudful care await the finny prize,
And sudden lift it quivering to the skies."

It would thus appear that the tackle used in those days was
very strong, or it would not have stood this sudden strain
which the lines quoted above would give us to understand
occurred.

(It is of course a familiar sight to see youths just beginning
their fishing career, when they have hooked a small fish,
heave it out as though their very lives depended on sending
it flying into the next meadow.)

Oppian says also, —

" A bite ! hurrah ! the length'ning line extends,
Above the tugging fish the arch'd reed bends,
He struggles hard and noble sport will yield,
My liege, ere wearied out he quits the field."

And the ancients, too, were fly-fishers as well as bottom
fishers, as the following interesting passage from iElian
shows : —

" The Macedonians who live on the banks of the Eiver
Astreus are in the habit of catching a particular fish in that
river by means of a fly called hippurus. A very singular
insect it is ; bold and troublesome like all its kind, in size a
hornet, marked like a wasp, and buzzing like a bee. These

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 7

flies are the prey of certain speckled fish, which no sooner
see them settling on the water than they glide gently beneath,
and before the hippurus is aware, snap at and carry him as
suddenly under the stream as an eagle will seize and bear
aloft a goose from a farm-yard, or a wolf take a sheep from
its fold. The predilection of these speckled fish for their
prey, though familiarly known to all who inhabit the dis-
trict, does not induce the angler to attempt their capture by
impaling the living insect, which is of so delicate a nature
that the least handling would spoil its colour and appearance,
and render it unfit as a lure. But adepts in the sport have
contrived a taking device to circumvent them ; for which
purpose they invest the body of the hook with purple wool,
and having adjusted two wings of a waxy colour, so as to
form an exact imitation of the hippurus, they drop these
abstruse cheats gently down the stream. The scaly pursuers
who hastily rise and expect nothing less than a dainty bait,
snap the decoy, and are immediately fixed to the hook."
Indeed, hundreds of years before Antony and Cleopatra
amused themselves by angling, the craft was practised in
different countries, for representations of fish and fishing
have been found upon some of the oldest temples, and most
venerable remains. In savage and uncivilized countries also
instruments of angling are found very rude, but still effective
for the wants of those employing them, thus showing that
the various arts used in fishing must have had a primitive
and almost universal invention. Enough has been said about
ancient angling, and I will now therefore turn to a more
modern period. Angling can claim the distinction of being
one of the first subjects treated of in a printed book, for
within ten years of the first book printed in England by
Caxton there appeared the famous " Boke of St. Albans,"
attributed to Dame Juliana Bemers, or Baines, Prioress of
Sopwell, near St. Albans. It was published by Wynkyn de
Worde in a.d. 1486, and contained chapters on hunting,
hawking, horses, and coat-armour, and also one on fishing,
which was thus introduced, — "Here begynnyth the treatyse
of fysshynge with an Angle." This was the first contribu-
tion to angling literature ; and I believe it was not until an

8 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

interval of a hundred years that any other work made its
appearance, which came then in the shape of Leonard
Mascall's " Booke of Fishing with Hooke and Line," about
the year 1590. A few more writers of more or less note
followed Mascall, until the year 1653, when the well-known
work of Izaak "Walton was first published under the title of
" The Compleat Angler, or the Contemplative Man's Kecrea-
tion." During Walton's lifetime five editions of his book
were published. (A few years ago, at a public sale, these
five editions, the five copies being perfect and in good pre-
servation, realized 1001.) Since Walton's time his book has
run through a vast number of editions, and is still printed
at intervals, and I suppose will be ; for we must take it for
granted that the M Compleat Angler " is likely to remain a
standard and popular work among Englishmen as long as
will the works of Dickens or Scott.

And now, after the fifth edition of Walton had been pub-
lished, very few works on angling made their appearance
until another hundred years had passed away; although
Walton's book during that period progressed to the four-
teenth edition. After that time writers of angling literature
came thicker and faster, volume after volume coming in
quick succession, and continuing up to the present time ; and
I read that there are something like 600 different works on
angling in existence ; and the literature of angling is one of
the richest branches of literature in England at the present
time. As the writers have increased, each one adding his
quota to the common stock, so has the art progressed towards
perfection, until we almost wonder that there should be any
fish left in our rivers, lakes, and ponds. As, however, the
fishermen have become learned, nature or instinct has or-
dained that the fish should become learned too, and so rods,
reels, lines, gut, hooks, and baits have been robbed of part of
their destructiveness ; and our old friend and father Izaak,
could he revisit this earth, would perhaps find it very con-
siderably more difficult to fill his creel with fish (using the
same tackle now as he used while on his earthly pilgrimage),
for the purpose of awarding its contents to " pleasure some
poor body."

INTEODUCTOKY EEMAEKS. 9

It is not absolutely necessary that an angler should be a
naturalist, but still the more he knows of fish, and the more
he studies their natural history, the more pleasure he will
get out of his intercourse with the river side. He will find
himself amply rewarded for his trouble in acquiring this
knowledge, and his studies will show him that fish are
among the most interesting of all the classes of the animal
world.

Fish belong to the great vertebrate division of the animal
kingdom, and comprise one of its classes. Some naturalists
divide the vertebrate division into six, while others divide it
into nine, or even more classes. Our business just now,
however, lies with one of these classes, viz. fish ; and this
has been divided and subdivided into numerous orders and
sub-orders, families and sub-families. Various, too, have
been the principles on which fish have been divided and
subdivided, some dividing them according to their bones and
some according to their scales, viz. flat-scaled, polished- scaled,
tooth-scaled, and circular-scaled ; but it is only in the two
last that we are particularly interested just now, for to the
tooth-scaled class belong the pike, the perch, and the ruff;
while to the circular-scaled belong the chub, the barbel, the
carp, the roach, the dace, &c, &c. It is also said that the
age of fish may be ascertained from their scales when exa-
mined under a powerful microscope. Many valuable charac-
teristics of fish may also be ascertained from the formation
and disposition of their teeth, which are respectively situated
upon the jaws, the palate, the tongue, and in the throat, and
constructed for prehension, cutting, or crushing, thus indi-
cating the character of food mostly taken by the several
species.

Of the different fish that are treated of in this little book,
it will be sufficient to divide them into two orders, viz.
" spiny or prickly-finned," and " soft-finned " fish ; to the
former belong the perch and the ruff, and to the latter belong
the chub, the carp, the roach, &c, &c. Under these two
orders we must range the respective "families" of fish;
there are many, but only three concern us here, namely, the
Percidse family, to which belong the perch and the ruff;

10 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

the Esocidae family, to which belongs the pike; and the
Cyprinidae, or carp family, to which belong the carp, the
barbel, the chub, the roach, the dace, the tench, the bream,
the gudgeon, the bleak, and the minnow.

The structure of fish and their animal organization present
endless subjects of interest ; though they live in the water,
yet air is as necessary for them as it is for mankind. Says
one writer, "Just as our warm red blood is purified and
restored to its vital and arterial qualities by air passing
through our lungs, so is the cold red blood of fish by passing
through their gills ; and as by the process of breathing we
extract the oxygen and so vitiate the air, in like manner do
fish, taking the water in at their mouths, extract from it the
air held in suspension, and pass it out under the gill-covers
in a vitiated state. A man submerged in water cannot ex-
tract air enough from it ; a fish submerged in distilled water,
which is water minus air, can get none at all, and the result
is the same in both cases ; and as most anglers know, or
should know, a fish drawn down stream is simply drowned,
because the water is thus prevented entering its mouth in
the usual way and escaping through the gill-covers." This
is the reason then, I should suppose, that fish making their
way down stream for any distance travel tail first. How
admirably, too, are fish formed — their elongate, smooth bodies
suiting them exactly to the element in which they live ; and
observe the fins, how well they are suited for their various
purposes.

I will just describe these fins, for an angler, or would-be
angler, ought to know at least their names : there are the
two pectoral, or breast fins ; the dorsal, or back fins (some
fish have one and some two back fins) ; the ventral, or belly
fins; the anal fin, situated between the belly fins and the
tail ; and the caudal fin, that is the tail itself. These fins
give the fish their different movements in the water; the
caudal fin gives them their chief means of getting along ;
the dorsal and anal fins effect their lateral movements ; the
pectoral fins promote their elevation and depression, while
their suspension in the water is caused by the ventral fins.
Perhaps I ought also to say that the air bladder, which is

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 11

capable of compression or expansion according to the will of
the fish, is their chief means of raising or depressing them-
selves without any apparent use of the fins at all.

There are many questions connected with the natural
history of fish, that would be very interesting to the observ-
ing working-man angler ; I have often heard questions like
the following raised by some one in a party of anglers : Are
the fish very quick-sighted 1 Can they see objects at a great
distance 1 Is their hearing very acute ? Do they go to sleep 1
Can they feel pain when hooked? &c, &c. On all these
questions interesting discussions might be raised, but it will
be sufficient for our purpose if we only just give them a
passing glance. First then as to their sight, some naturalists
say that the eye of a fish is very perfect, and of all the senses
they possess, that of sight is the most acute of them all, and
that a shadow, or a rod flash on the water is sufficient to
scare them ; while on the other, hand, others aver that fish
are remarkably near-sighted, and cannot behold any object
distinctly, however large, unless within the range of a few
yards, so it will be seen that on this question there is a great
difference of opinion. I, personally, have a strong conviction
that fish must have a keen vision, for I know that chub will
take an artificial white moth, when night fishing, when it
has been so dark, that you could scarcely see the rod you held
in your hand, much less the fly on the water ; therefore I
advise anglers when fishing to keep as much out of sight as
possible. There seems to be a doubt on this subject, and so
we will give the fish the benefit of the doubt, and say that
their vision is comparatively perfect. There seems to be a
great difference of opinion also as to the sense of hearing in
fish : one says he has repeatedly tried the experiment of firing
a gun near fish, when only a few inches under water, without
any effect on them whatever, from which we should almost
fancy that fish could not hear at all ; in fact, another writer
says, " They have no sense of hearing whatsoever." On the
other hand, some naturalists say that fish have a most acute
sense of hearing. I have also read that fish in a pond may
be trained to come to a person when called by the sound of a
bell, or of the human voice; here is a great difference of

12 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

opinion on an important question to anglers ; still I think
anglers, when fishing, need not fear indulging in a little
friendly chat. What they want to particularly observe is
this : Don't stamp about on the bank close to the water
where you are fishing; that operation is fatal to a roach swim.
Can the fish hear the noise 1 or does it cause a vibration in
the water ? perhaps the latter, but one thing is certain, roach
will forsake a swim, if the angler indulges in an impromptu
Irish jig on the water's edge. Can fish sleep ? or do they go
to sleep ? is perhaps more correct. I have had this question
asked me by various anglers ; my answer has been, " I don't
know for certain, but I should suppose they do; sleep is
necessary to man and animals, and why not to fish?" No one,
as the song says, " ever caught a weasel asleep," and I think
nobody ever caught a fish asleep. I have been by the water
side all night during the summer, and I could hear fish rising
till nearly midnight, and then for a couple of hours or so, or
till nearly daybreak, they ceased; and no fish except eels
were to be taken during that time, so I should suppose that
was the time they enjoyed their nap.

Can a fish feel pain when hooked ? is another question
that has often been discussed by anglers and writers. Fish
certainly seem to feel no pain from hooks stuck in their
mouths, for I have caught the shy and cautious chub with a
hook and little bit of gut attached to their mouths that
looked as though some one had hooked and broken off only
a few hours before. We have often heard of jack being
hooked, played, and lost, and yet take a bait again on the
same day. Cold-blooded animals do not feel pain in the
same manner that warm-blooded ones do, and the lower the
animal organization the less sensibility to pain it has. I once
read two or three lines which ought to be set down as a
complete untruth : —

" The poor beetle which we tread upon,
In corporal suffrance feels a pang
As great as when a giant dies."

That is a tale that won't wash with me ; when a fish is
hooked, and is bolting about, and struggling for his liberty,

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 13

perhaps the only feeling he has at that time is a feeling of
indignation at having his liberty interfered with. What
the sensations of a fish are when he is jumping about on
the grass, after being drawn out of the water, we cannot tell ;
not very pleasant perhaps, and it would be as well for the
thoughtful angler just to give him a tap on the head directly
on landing him, and so, as the old saw goes, " put him out of
his misery."

Are fish gifted with the senses of taste and smell? is
another question which is often asked. We must presume
that they are, although some naturalists aver they cannot
smell at all, while others say, " they can smell their food at
a singular distance, and will track it for many yards." Ronalds
speaks of trout that took dead house-flies when plastered over
with cayenne and mustard. This would tell us that their
senses of smell and taste were not very acute, but then on
the other hand, I know that fish can be attracted by scented
pastes, and chemically flavoured worms. Some fish also are
attracted long distances by salmon roe, prepared in a peculiar
manner. I am inclined to the opinion that fish can both
taste and smell ; for a chub will take a piece of high-smelling
cheese, when he will take nothing else, and the more it smells
the better he likes it.

Enough, however, has perhaps been said on the different
senses of fish, and now just a few more remarks, and I mus,
bring this introductory chapter to a close ; it has already
drawn itself out to a much longer length than I had in-
tended, though I think I have mentioned nothing that will
not interest and perchance instruct the working-man angler.

We in England cannot boast of having such strange and
queer fish as are found in some countries, such as the " flour
fish " of China, or the strange variety of carps, or the " crying
fish," or the " tree-climbing perch " of that country, but it is
said we have a one-eyed fish in the Carnarvonshire lakes,
and a peculiar " blue roach " in a pond on the marshes of
Kent.

I have read, too, of the " booming " of the bearded drum-
fish, of the "noisy maigre," and of the " grunt fish " of the
Gulf of Mexico, which "can express discontent and pain,

14 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

and when touched with a knife, fairly shrieks, and when
dying makes moans and sobs disagreeably human." We have
nothing, as I have said, like these in England, although in
Wales they have a peculiar "croaking trout," which is found
in the Carraclwddy pools, and which when taken utters a sound
something like a " croak."

Some fish are very tenacious of life, such as pike, perch,
tench, &c, and will live a long time out of water; indeed, I
have had chub that have been six hours out of the water jump
from a shelf on to the pantry floor. There are fish in India
that will remain some days out of water, during which time
they travel overland in search of more suitable lodgings, when
their own rivers are " drying up." I have heard that eels in
our country will travel overland from one pond or river to
another, but though I have been by the river side at all
hours, I have not yet met an eel on his journey, nor seen
anybody who has. Fish, too, suffer a good deal from
parasites, both internally, and externally ; " thorn-headed
worms " are very common in the intestines of roach, and
tape-worms are found in most fresh-water fish. Specimens
of these tape-worms are sometimes found as long as the fish
from which they are taken, and barbel are very much troubled
with an external parasite. Fish, too, are able to live a long
time without food. I have read that a herring, no matter
where it is caught, has nothing in its stomach, and gold fish
in a globe will live for weeks without any food being given
them. Still, however, they do eat, and that most greedily at
times, as any one may soon see, who takes the trouble to open
some of the fish he catches.

The digestion of fish is very good and quick, and the
gastric juice of the jack is very powerful. Solid food is
reduced to a pulp soon after being taken, and I have read
that it has been proved by experiment that carp, chub,
bream, &c, can digest food given to them in metal tubes.
The strength of fish, too, is very great, and writers agree in
saying that they are, for their size, the strongest of all verte-
brate animals, indeed one of them says that the screw of a
modern steamship is but a toy compared with the caudal fin
of a barbel, taking them size for size.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 15

In closing this chapter I hope I have not wearied my
readers with the many details it contains, and I trust they
will study out the subject for themselves, for there is endless
amusement in the natural history of fish. I shall be amply
repaid if some of them take up the study, for I am sure their
pleasures would be all the greater and their angling excur-
sions all the brighter, for an extended knowledge of this
branch of the Great Creator's works.

Mr. R. B. Marston, the Editor of the " Fishing Gazette"
some time ago gave me a copy of the Rev. J. J. Mauley's
" Notes on Fish and Fishing" and it is to this very excellent
book that I am indebted for a good many of the hints con-
tained in this introductory chapter ; it is only fair that I should
state this much, and I strongly advise anglers to purchase a
copy. It is published by Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and
Ricington, 188, Fleet Street, London.

16 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

CHAPTER II.

TRENT FISHING.

At the outset of this chapter, we will suppose that all
anglers, no matter where they hail from, are sportsmen tried
and true, from those who wave the long rod over the great
salmon streams of Scotland and Ireland, or capture the dashing
trout in mountain stream or Scotch loch, to the more humble
follower of old Izaak, who must needs be content to follow
his avocation by the side of the less pretentious stream or
canal, and who thinks himself well rewarded if he only
succeeds in capturing half a dozen roach and dace. I am
aware there are black sheep in every flock, and there are
some — well, shall I call them anglers 1 — who are not particular
to snaring or snatching a jack, or netting a few barbel and
chub out of the weeds during scouring time ; but we will
say that ninety-nine out of a hundred are sportsmen in very
truth, each one of them having his own peculiar notion or
means of capturing his finny prey. A Thames angler thinks
his style is the style par excellence ; and some of them
would be apt to look on any other style with supreme con-
tempt ; but I have read that the introduction of the Trent
or Nottingham style of angling on the Thames marked a
new era in the history of that river and its fishing. Before,
however, I proceed to describe the rods, reels, lines, and
tackle of a Nottingham bottom fisher, and the method of
using them, perhaps a slight digression, in the shape of a few
words on a style that was practised in a remote country
district will be interesting, as bearing on my present object.
A remote village in the Fens of Lincolnshire, where the
country round was intersected with canals and a few drains,
was the place of my nativity, and where the earlier portion

TRENT FISHING. 17

of my life was spent. These canals and drains abounded
with small roach and perch, with a fair sprinkling of large
ones, and some good jack. There were not above two or
three rod fishermen in the whole district, and it was from
one of these that I received my first lessons in angling. The
tackle used was of a very rude and primitive character. The
rod was a willow stick cut from the nearest tree ; line, a few
yards of whipcord (the ropemaker's apprentice next door
spun my line from shoemakers' flax, with the same wheel
and bobbins with which he spun cart-ropes and clothes'
lines) ; but oh ! the strength and thickness ; it would do for
the cord of a drag hook. The float was made out of a piece
of wood, and was of a very rude and original shape, and
took nearly an ounce of window lead to balance it, which
latter article was wrapped round a foot of coarse gimp, from
the end of which was suspended a hook, on which was stuck
a worm just dug out of the ground. Scouring worms was
unknown there ; and as for jointed rods, reels, fine silk lines,
quill floats, gut, and horsehair, my wildest dreams never
imagined such things. Nevertheless we could and did catch
fish with the rude tackle mentioned above. I have often
wondered if I were to revisit those scenes for a few days
with my improved tackle and baits, what sort of a havoc I
could make among those uneducated fish. Perhaps, how-
ever, civilization in its onward march has crept down to that
remote district, and the natives have got wise in their gene-
ration, and Nottingham rods and tackle are as well known
to them as they are to me.

London anglers are proud, and justly so, of their grand
old river, " Father Thames," and never fail to expatiate upon
its natural beauty whenever or wherever occasion offers itself.
It may have more capabilities than our Midland river, the
Trent, I will allow, but still the Trent is a splendid river,
and has a good supply of all fresh- water fish. As the Lon-
doners love the Thames, so do I love the Trent. Sitting in
my den here at home, thinking of our grand old river, what
a host of pleasant memories rise up before my mental vision.
In fancy I seem to see it winding through the pleasant
meadows, and each pool and gravelly shallow has some plea-

c

18 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

sant episode connected with it on which my mind loves to
dwell : and if perchance some old friend drops in to have a
chat on matters piscatorial, how eagerly we fight our battles
o'er again, how we recall that splendid day's sport among
the barbel, or that one we had with the chub, or bream, or
roach ; or how in fancy we again fight that big pike we had
gone after time after time, and which would not be seduced
by our most alluring bait till one lucky day, which will
always stand on our calendar as a red-letter day. Did we
not spin a tempting gudgeon that proved too seductive for
his lordship to resist, and after a struggle, the remembrance
of which even now makes our fingers tingle, bear him
home in triumph 1 " Once an angler, always an angler," I
believe to be a true saying, whether we are of Thames,
Trent, or any other river ; and the impressions we receive
from our fishing excursions are never effaced from our memo-
ries. Whether we have good sport or not the chances are
that we shall go again at the first opportunity. No bottom
fisher perhaps has a better field for his sport than those who
live, as it were, on the banks of the Trent, for the great
majority of the fishing is bottom fishing, and the river
abounds with fish.

The Trent takes its rise from the north-west part of the
county of Staffordshire, about ten miles north of Newcastle-
under-Line. At first it makes a circular turn towards the
south-east, bending to the south, as far as within ten miles
of Tamworth, where it receives the Tame, flowing through
that town. Afterwards the Trent runs north-east, towards
Burton- upon-Trent, a little beyond which it is enlarged by
the waters of the Dove, which flow from a north-west direc-
tion. After this the Trent receives the Derwent, which
descends from the mountainous parts of Derbyshire, and the
whole of these waters collectively flow towards the north by
Nottingham and Newark to the Humber. The Trent has
an entire course of two hundred and fifty miles, and is
navigable for one hundred and seventy miles from the Hum-
ber, and, by means of canals, has a communication with many
of the most important rivers of the kingdom. This long river
flows through a country rich in natural beauty and splendid

TRENT FISHING. 19

scenes. None but a contemplative angler can thoroughly
enjoy the beauties of its landscapes, and the river itself, flow-
ing along in its silent majesty, except where it tumbles and
boils over some weir, or dashes along over the stones of the
shallows, suggests to the mind of the angler some of those
delicious trains of thought which all who have practised this
glorious art experience.

How the Trent obtained its name has been a question
that has been discussed many times, and never, I think,
satisfactorily explained. The origin of the name seems to
me to be a long way back, and to be nearly, if not quite,
lost in the mists of antiquity. An old legend connects the
name Trent with "Trente," meaning thirty; and perhaps
that solution of the question may be the correct one ; for we
are told that " thirty streams flow down the Trent f that
" thirty abbeys used to stand upon the banks," and that
" thirty diiferent fish are found in its waters ;" and perhaps
with these thirties staring us in the face we may come to
the conclusion that it really does mean " thirty." I will not,
however, commit myself on this subject, but leave it an open
question.

As this little book more particularly relates to the Not-
tingham style of fishing, it may be as well here to describe
the method and the various appliances required for its suc-
cessful practice. In the first place we will take the rod.
Now, a Nottingham bottom fisher's rod is an article on which
he very much prides himself. It has to be tapered, from
the butt to the point, to a nicety, and be as light as possible,
with a spring in it that will hook a roach by a single turn of
the wrist. No heavy clumsy rod is found in the hands of a
first-rate Nottingham fisher ; it has to be nicely balanced, or
else he discards it at once and selects another. My favourite
rod was made expressly for me, so if I explain its construction
you will see at once the sort of rod used by a Nottingham bot-
tom fisher. It is made in three joints ; the butt is of the best
red deal, the middle piece of the same wood and lancewood,
spliced together about one-third the distance from the top
ferrule, and the top piece is made entirely of lancewood. It
is a little over twelve feet in length, and it combines light-

c 2

20 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

ness, with, strength and balance, to a remarkable degree. It
will hook roach in a moment by a single turn of the wrist,
and the most powerful barbel and chub have been brought to
bank by it, and even the lordly salmon has succumbed to its
spring. The reel fittings are placed nine inches from the butt
end, and there the rod is 1| in. in diameter, the ferrule on the
top of the bottom piece is five-eights of an inch in diameter
inside, and the one on the middle piece is five-sixteenths of an
inch inside. The rings on the rod are placed in the following
order : — The first ring is immediately under the ferrule on the
bottom piece ; and the others measuring from that ring are
at the following distances from each other: — 17 in., 17 in.,
14| in., 10 in., 10 in., 9 in., 8 in., 6 \ in., and 6 in. The ring
or loop at the extreme point of the rod is made of steel. If
this were not so the line would cut it, to say nothing of the
line being chafed in turn through the ring being worn rough.
The rod I have just described weighs eighteen ounces. Not-
tingham rods are made in two, three, four, five, or six pieces,
according to fancy ; but I prefer a three-piece one. I can
most cordially recommend this rod as the bottom fisher's rod
par excellence; and as I am more particularly writing to
working-men anglers, to whom money is an object, the price
will just suit them : it is only 6s. 6d., partition-bag and all,
and will be found just the kind for barbel, chub, bream,
roach, and dace, &c. For those anglers who fish for roach
and dace only, a rod a little lighter than the one just
described would do. I have recently had a sweet roach
rod made ; it only weighs twelve ounces, and is beauti-
fully finished and balanced, and the price the same as the
other.

I shall probably touch upon this question again in the
chapter on roach; but one thing I will say to the young
angler, don't buy a common, cheap rod ; they are a delusion
and a snare, for you may be in the midst of a good day's
fishing, and the fish biting nicely, when suddenly, from some
cause or other, your cheap rod snaps under the ferrule or
elsewhere. You then have to sit down on the bank, and
spoil your pocket-knife in trying to extract the piece of
wood out of the ferrule, and find after an hour's work that

TEENT FISHING. 21

this is impossible, only thereafter to have to pack up and go
home in a not very amiable frame of mind at your fine bar-
gain of a rod. The best plan in such a case would be to
throw the pieces in the river, and go to the tackle-maker,
and buy a good one. These are the cheapest in the end ;
tell him what you want, pay a fair price, and leave the
matter in his hands, and ten to one you will be suited
nicely.

Since I penned the above lines for the first edition of this
little book, I have had considerable experience in the construc-
tion of all kinds of rods, and so perhaps it will be as well just
here to look at this question of rods and rod-making a little
closer, because, as I have just hinted, a Nottingham bottom
fisher's rod is an article on which he very much prides
himself, and it must be made so that it is exactly suited for
this style of fishing. Years ago, before the famous splice of
the middle joint was introduced, Nottingham rods used to
be generally made in four joints, and the few three-joint
rods that were seen in the hands of certain anglers had the
middle joint made of ash, and as a natural consequence these
rods never worked comfortably, because the ash, being so
much heavier than the rest of the wood, caused the rod to
feel heavy and clumsy in the middle. However, since the
three-joint rod has been brought out to perfection, the four-
joint one is only very seldom seen in the hands of a first-
class Nottingham angler.

It is really astonishing, and sometimes very amusing, to
read the letters I am constantly receiving from anglers all
over the country about rods and rod-making. Some of my
correspondents say that they should prefer a rod made with
the butt of one sort of wood, the middle of another sort, and
the top of something else, utterly forgetting that the different
woods they recommend are entirely opposed to each other as
regards weight, strength, and pliability, and therefore, if made
as recommended, would not have in them the desired spring
and action.

Some rod-makers, in order to turn out a lot of work in a
very little time, make their rods by machinery. Now,
machine-made rods are very true, and look very nice, but

22 BOTTOM FTSHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

they are open to strong objections, although I am aware that
there is a lot more profit to be made out of a machine-made
rod than out of one that is made by hand. (Let it be dis-
tinctly understood by my readers that I am now writing as a
practical angler, and not as a rod and tackle maker.) I have
known the butts of machine-made rods to snap short off close
under the ferrule (owing, no doubt, to the tool in the lathe
slipping or nicking the wood a trifle just there), so I should
say, for practical purposes, have a good hand-made rod, even
if it is not so perfectly true or got up so smartly as a machine-
made one. A good float-fishing rod should be made with
plenty of timber in the butt, and tapered evenly and truly
right up to the point, so that it will strike a fish directly
from the point, and hook him in an instant, and then bend
to the weight of him in a perfectly true curve. Sometimes
the socket joints or ferrules of a rod split at the ends, and
to prevent this some makers have their ferrules ringed, that
is, double at each end. Now these double-ended ferrules are
to be objected to, and really are not required. I have found
that in nine cases out of ten, when the ferrule splits it is
because it is a tapered one, from end to end, with the smallest
end at top. Now the socket or counter that fits into this
tapered ferrule is straight, and fits tightly at one end, while
at the other end it is a little less, and consequently does not
fit close up. This, of course, flings all the weight on the
extreme end of the ferrule, and when a little extra strain has
to be put on, the ferrule is liable to split. The best plan is
to have your ferrules perfectly straight, with the counters
fitting exactly from end to end, and then just open or bell
out a trifle that end of the ferrule that grips the wood j and
I might just add that the wood should not be shouldered
down to take the ferrule, so as to make wood and ferrule
quite level with each other, but it should, as it were, fit well
over, and tightly grip the wood. And another thing I have
seen in rods that must be objected to, and that is the pegs
that are on the bottom of the joints ; there is a hole bored
down the end of the joint to take this peg, and I have seen
this latter so very long and thick, that the hole has to be
bored down past the ferrule bottom on purpose to be of the

TEENT FISHING. 23

required depth. Now this must weaken the rod where it
should be the strongest, i.e. close under the ferrule. So for
all practical purposes the peg should not be too long, nor
should the hole be too deep, but only just enough to steady
and stiffen the socket joint.

As the top piece of a rod is a most important factor in its
success, it is of the utmost importance that this should be
carefully made and selected. There are several sorts of wood
that are suitable for tops, but in my opinion a bit of tough,
well-seasoned lancewood is the very best that can be used for
a float-fishing rod.

We practical anglers consider that the fewer joints there
are in a rod, the better that rod is for practical purposes, and
if it was not for the look of the thing, we should have a rod
made all in one length, without any brass sockets to it at all ;
indeed, if I lived in a sweet little cottage that stands on the
banks of the Trent (a cottage that I have in my mind's eye
just now), I should certainly have one made so. But these
one-joint rods would be very awkward carrying about,
especially if you had to travel by train to your fishing-
ground.

About a couple of years ago I made myself a chub, bream,
and barbel rod in two joints, an article that one of our very
best all-round men christened "The Corporation Rod,"
because I was fishing the " Corporation " swim when he first
saw it. In fact, I made that rod on purpose to fish that
swim, and as there are several places up and down the Trent
as difficult to fish as it is, perhaps it might be as well just
here to give some little idea as to the kind of rod required
for that work. In the first place then, the swim is an abrupt
bend of the river, and is from twelve to fourteen feet deep,
and your float has to be cast out cleanly and squarely from
twenty to twenty-five yards from where you stand, and I
thought I could do this with greater ease if I built a special
rod for the purpose. It is, as I have just said, in two joints,
is twelve and a half feet long, light, but strong, and strikes
beautifully from the very point; in fact, it has been very
much admired by some of our best anglers. The only fault
there is in it is its extreme awkwardness to carry about when

24 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

packed up ; so, taking all things into consideration, perhaps
the three-joint rod is the best the angler can use, and I
might add that I have found that if a three-joint rod is made
any longer than twelve feet, it is apt to be too springy in the
middle, and does not strike so straight and true from the
point as a good Nottingham float-fishing rod should do, and
that was the reason I made one in two joints, because I
thought I could get the extra six inches in length that was
necessary to fish that deep swim just alluded to, without
any addition to the weight, and still have the timber in the
middle to make it of the necessary stiffness. So those anglers
who are anxious to get proficient in the Nottingham style of
fishing cannot do better than have a three-joint twelve feet
rod for barbel, chub, and bream fishing with a float. A
little way back I gave the sizes of the ferrules that are on a
very old favourite rod of mine ; but I have fancied since I
first penned those notes, that the rod would have been better
if each ferrule had been a size larger for this heavy work.
Some of our very best all-round men have, at least, four dif-
ferent sorts of rods, in order to successfully practise this style
of fishing, — viz. a twelve-foot one for chub, barbel, bream,
<fcc, fishing with a float ; a stronger and stifler one, eleven
feet six inches long, for ledgering or plumbing for barbel,
&c. ; an eleven-foot one for roach and dace alone ; and a jack
rod, eleven or twelve feet long, according to fancy. I do not
say that it is absolutely necessary to have all these rods in
order to successfully follow the Nottingham style of fishing ;
but still, if the angler has plenty of time on his hands, and
can spare the money to buy them, he will find it to be to his
advantage to have them.

Having now most fully described the rod, it will be as
well just here to look at its rings, as it is most important
that these should be constructed so as to reduce the chance
of the line catching or hitching round them to a minimum. In
throwing the float and bait in this style, which I shall explain
further on, it sometimes happens that when you make your
cast the light line will hitch round the ring instead of going
straight through it. This happened when the old-fashioned
upright ring was put on the rod. There are two or three

TRENT FISHING. 25

kinds of rings that will more or less prevent this, and the
two best are what are known as the " Bell's Life " ring and
the " Wire Guard Safety " ring. This latter is a first-class
ring for the lower joints of the rod ; indeed, an old friend
of mine says that he likes them better than the " Bell's Life"
rings, although these latter are more expensive. This " Wire
Guard Safety " ring cannot be better described than in the
words of my little boy, " rings with legs to them." Yes, that
is just it, the sides come straight down from the top and form
two legs, which straddle, as it were the rod ; and then at the
end of these two legs there are — well, feet, one turned up and
the other down the rod, one on each side. These two sides
are capital preventives of the line hitching. (I might just
mention that the two feet of this ring, as just described, are for
the purpose of whipping the ring to the rod.) The " Bell's
Life " safety ring is also a first-class ring for the lower joints
of a rod. It is generally made of white metal, and is of
rather a peculiar shape, having two long sides soldered to a
plain stoutish ring, one on each side, with the ring in the
middle. The sides are then bent downwards, and the ends
are flattened out and shaped so that they will nicely fit the
rod (these ends are whipped to the rod). When this ring is
in its proper position, the sides are parallel with the rod, and
the ring itself stands fair between these two sides, with the
bottom edge just touching the rod, and straight across, so
that the line can be threaded perfectly straight through from
the reel upwards. This ring is generally put on the very
best Nottingham rods, and is a ring that I very much admire,
although I cannot say that it is a very great improvement on
the Wire Guard Safety ring. However, the angler can
please himself, and will not be far out, let him have which
sort he likes. I have been very particular in my descrip-
tion of these rings, because, since the first edition of this
work was printed, I have had scores of letters from anglers
all over the kingdom, asking me what is the best ring, and
also reminding me that this book would be much more valu-
able to the amateur if I paid particular attention to these
little matters. I might just say a word or two about the
reel fittings of a rod. So-called improvements are being so

26 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTENGHAM STYLE.

constantly brought before the public, that the novice would
be nearly at his wits' end in order to make a careful selection.
Many of these improvements are only improvements in name,
and not in practical utility. I have not yet seen a winch or
reel fitting that will beat the three plain brass rings that are
in general use on bottom rods ; they cannot very well get out
of order, and if fitted properly will hold the reel as tightly as
possible.

Some anglers have and recommend an extra top to a rod ;
it is very nice under some conditions to have an extra top to
a rod, or if the angler wants to do two or three different sorts
of fishing with one rod, or has to travel a long way to his
sport, and has to pack up his traps into as little a compass as
1 possible ; but personally I have found that an extra top is
more trouble than profit, for I was as safe as houses sure to
leave it on the bank, or else set my foot on it and break it.

And now we will turn our attention to something that is
very useful to the angler and amateur tackle-maker, and that
is, a good bottle of varnish. Hooks of all sorts, after being
whipped to the tackle, and the bindings of the rod round the
rings, &c, would be all the better for being occasionally
touched over with a good spirit varnish ; and I will now give
a recipe for making a first-class varnish. I should suppose
that most anglers have noticed how hard and bright the
varnish on a well-finished rod is, and have often wished they
could get some similar to dress their hooks and whippings
with. I use a great deal of this varnish, and I make it of
the following quantities : — One quart of methylated spirits of
wine, half a pound of gum shellac, two ounces of gum ben-
zoine, half an ounce of gum Thus, and half an ounce of gum
mastic, all mixed together in a bottle and shaken up con-
stantly, till it becomes a thick, sticky liquid. Of course, no
angler would want a quantity like that for his own use ; and
as it is very expensive, perhaps the best plan would be to
send to some rod and tackle maker for a small bottle of that
varnish ; which need not be more than sixpennyworth, and
would be enough to last him a whole year. It should be
kept tightly corked, and the camel's-hair brush that is used
to apply the varnish should be fastened in the cork and

TRENT FISHING. 27

always among the stuff, so as to be pliable and always ready
for use.

Ever since the days of good Dame Juliana Berners,
angling writers have more or less recommended amateurs to
make their own rods, but nowadays rods can be bought much
better and considerably cheaper than the amateur can make
them.

In bringing these few remarks about Nottingham rods to
a close, I must thank all those anglers who have written to
me on the subject, suggesting that I should explain them
more fully than I did in the first edition.

Nottingham reels are usually made of wood, and are in
two pieces ; the barrel of the reel, upon which the line is
wound, turning on a spindle fixed in the centre of the por-
tion which forms the immovable part of the reel ; and this
is contrived so that the barrel shall spin round with the
utmost freedom at the slightest touch. These reels are made
in all sizes, and nearly at all prices. I should prefer a good
stout reel made of hard wood, with what is called a solid
cross-back to it. One that is about four inches in diameter
will be found the very best for general work, as you can pay
out line with it more rapidly when fishing a swift stream,
where a small one would be apt to check the float and bait.
The two parts of the reel are joined together by a small brass
nut on the front, which can be easily unscrewed for the pur-
pose of oiling the spindle. The nut and screw have been
improved by the introduction of what is called the " centre-
pin " reel, which merely requires the touching of a spring to
part the two pieces of the reel. These centre-pin reels are
as true as a hair, and run very smoothly and quickly at the
lightest touch.

In chub fishing down a stream with wasp grubs or pith
for bait, it is necessary to have a reel that will run by itself,
so that the stream will carry the float and bait onwards, and
the line uncoil off the reel without having to help it at all.
These baits should travel down the stream without any hin-
drance or jerking whatever, and, in order to accomplish this,
the angler should see that the spindle of his reel is always
well oiled, so as to keep it in perfect running order. The

28 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

centre-pin reels, as just noticed, are splendid articles for the
Nottingham style of fishing, and are generally made of the
very best and hardest well-seasoned walnut (the spindle does
not come right through and is fastened outside with a nut,
like the ordinary reel) ; the spindle itself is steel, and at the
end it is reduced to nearly a point, which runs in a hole
that is in the centre of the front plate, and is held in position
by a strong spring.

These very best centre-pin reels are rather expensive, a
real good one costing something like fifteen shillings, while
a good ordinary one would only cost five ; however, if the
angler can afford a " centre-pin," by all means have one ; if he
cannot, why, he will make very good shift with a first-class
ordinary one. These reels are admirably adapted for throw-
ing out a long line with only a very light float and tackle.
I have been asked by several correspondents lately to send
them a description of the Nottingham reels, and how much
they differ in their construction from the ordinary brass
winches, because they say I only just refer to them in my
book, and do not fully describe them. It would take up too
much of my time to answer all these communications by
letter, so in this edition I will go more fully into this ques-
tion of the Nottingham reels. The ordinary brass winches
or reels are of no use for the Nottingham style of fishing,
because they do not revolve with anything like sufficient
freedom for casting out a bait, or in " traveller " fishing for
chub down a swim. I have just hinted that a reel with a
solid cross-back to it is to be preferred, and perhaps it would
be as well here to explain why. The back of a Nottingham
reel is generally made of hard wood, either walnut or
mahogany, about half an inch thick ; and this is hollowed
or recessed out about one-third of its thickness, so that it
forms a rim round the edge (this rim is to act as a cover and
protection for the back edge or plate of the revolving portion
of the reel). Now this wooden back being so thin, it is
manifest that if it had no protection it would be liable to
warp ; and if this did happen, instead of the reel spinning
round evenly and truly, it would be a nasty wobbling affair,
and very disagreeable to use ; especially is this the case

TRENT FISHING. 29

■with the larger-sized reels j and so, in order to reduce this
chance of the back warping to a minimum, the brass work
that is fastened outside the wooden back is made all in one
piece, and is called a solid cross or star back. At the bottom
is the stud ; that is for the purpose of fastening the reel to
the rod by means of the reel or winch fittings j the brass
work then goes right across the reel in four opposite direc-
tions, and is securely fastened in its place by means of a
number of small screws.

These reels can be made if required into what is generally
known as a " combination," at a shilling or two's extra cost,
for the use of those anglers who only want to carry one reel
about with them, and yet want to do several different kinds
of fishing with it, viz. fly fishing with a long double-handed
rod, as well as pike trolling, chub and barbel fishing, ledger-
ing, and roach fishing with light tackle ; and in order to ac-
complish this, there is an addition to them that is called a
check action, that can either be used or not, as the angler
requires. On the brass cross-back that has just been
described, there is a small catch or button, moving up and
down in a narrow slot, and by means of this the reel is
altered in a moment from a check reel for fly fishing to a fast-
running one for chub or barbel.

Mr. Slater, of this town, some two years or so ago, brought
out and patented an addition to these reels, which has met
with good success, more particularly among salmon fishermen,
who do a lot of spinning and trolling for those fish. The
improvement consists of a brass cage, with horizontal bars
through which the line passes ; this cage is firmly fixed to
the back plate or immovable disc of the reel, and its front
consists of a flat narrow brass ring, very nearly the same size
as the revolving or front plate of the reel. This latter has
a groove recessed into it right round the inside edge, into
which the front ring of the cage fits j when the line is wound
on the barrel of this reel, it is of course inside this cage, and
cannot very well get outside and get foul round the handles
or across the back. It happens sometimes in spinning from
the reel, but more especially in wet weather, that the line will
cause trouble by overwinding. Now in this reel, when that

30 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

trouble does come upon us, it is reduced to a minimum by being
easily pulled off straight, and wound on again. The other por-
tions of this reel are the same as has been already described.
There is another reel, lately brought out by Mr. P. D.
Malloch, of Perth, that must have a minute's notice ; but I can-
not, try as I will, give it such a favourable notice as I have
given to the improvement of Mr. Slater. Mr. Malloch's reel
in its present form will never supersede the ordinary Not-
tingham reel for general Nottingham fishing. This reel is of
rather a peculiar shape ; peculiar, because when the line is
thrown from it, it does not revolve as a Nottingham reel
should do. Before the cast is made, this reel, or the portion
of it that contains the line, is shifted half round till it faces
the rings of the rod, and when the cast is made, the line
comes from it just the same as pulling line endways from a
bobbin. It is impossible to throw the very light Nottingham
roach tackle with this reel, or traveller fish for chub and
barbel down a stream, Nottingham style ; it can only be used
as a casting reel for pike, &c, and even for that it is open to
strong objections, for the bait must go where it likes, and
cannot be checked at the will of the angler by pressing his
finger on the edge (the same as he can with an ordinary
Nottingham reel) any time during its flight through the air.
Then, again, supposing the angler is casting over a shallow
part of a still- water lake or sheet of water that has its bottom
covered with a beautiful growth of weeds, before he could
shift the reel into its proper position for winding the bait
home, the latter would have plenty of time to sink to the
bottom and take firm hold of the weeds with its hooks, thus
spoiling his cast, and any chance of fishing those places that
are often the most productive of sport. Then, again, the
maker claims for it the power of casting a lighter bait than
can be cast with an ordinary Nottingham reel ; but this is
impossible, for with a " centre-pin " I have cast out the very
lightest float tackle, and even thrown the very lightest
minnow tackle used, at least twenty-five yards or more.
I am aware that it may be possible to throw a bait with
it a greater distance than can be cast with an ordinary
Nottingham reel, but there we must stop ; and I am con-

Ill

TKENT FISHING. 31

vinced most fully, that for the Nottingham style of general
fishing, that comprises both float fishing and spinning, this
reel is worthless. In the last Fishing Gazette tourna-
ment, those pleasant anglers' gatherings that were introduced
into this country by the worthy editor of the paper just
mentioned (Mr. R. B. Marston1), this reel was allowed in
competition in the Nottingham style of casting ; but in my
humble opinion it ought not to have been so allowed, as it is
more of a Thames style than a Trent ; but, however, that
event proved that that reel had to put up with a third place,
as regards the distance cast by the ordinary Thames and
Nottingham styles. I do not know that I should have
noticed this reel at such length, if there had not been claimed
for it the title of " Nottingham style," and I am in duty
bound, as giving a full description of that style, to notice most
fully such an important article as the reel.

In the fashion pursued by the Thames fishermen, the line
is drawn off the reel, and laid loosely in coils at his feet,
unless he happens to be skilful enough to gather it up in the
palm of the left hand as some do. Suppose the angler to be
fishing from a reed bed, or an osier holt, and his line to be
coiled at his feet, it would be constantly catching in twigs,
or pieces of rubbish, and a tangle at the rings of the rod
would be inevitable at every cast. If we add to this the
fact that the Nottingham style requires the very finest and
lightest of silk running-lines, made of what is called Derby
twist, and scarcely thicker than cotton, it is manifest that if
it were laid in coils or gathered in the palm of the hand, it
would tangle up into inextricable knots. Hence my reader
will see it is necessary that the line should be able to run off
the reel with the greatest freedom, and that there should be
a minimum of friction. Indeed, it not unfrequently happens,
when throwing out a long line, or a heavy tackle, that the
reel runs with too great a freedom. It spins round quicker
than the line can run through the rings, and if this happens,
a sad tangle will be the result. This difficulty can easily be

1 Mr. Malloch's reel is very useful to those anglers who cannot cast
from the ordinary Nottingham reel. It answers admirably for pike
fishing, ledgering and bottom fishing for salmon, — jR. B. Marston.

32 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

obviated by a slight pressure on the edge of the reel, with
the forefinger of the hand that grasps the rod close to the
reel. A little practice will soon make one master of this
operation. It is said that the whole system is more difficult
than the one in ordinary use on the Thames ; but then it is
very much neater, and more deadly when once acquired.

The line that I should recommend for general bottom
fishing would be one of medium strength and thickness ; the
very fine roach and dace lines would be scarcely strong
enough for barbel, chub, or bream. The next gauge would
be the best. I like one of Walter "Well's (of Nottingham)
chub lines (alas ! poor fellow, he has gone on that long
journey from which there is no return ; but the lines can
still be procured from the same family, good as ever) ; they
are fine, but strong, and are capable of killing barbel, chub,
or bream, while they are not too coarse for roach and dace,
and are very reasonable in price. I only gave Is. 6d. for
mine, and it is eighty yards long. Be careful when pur-
chasing these lines to examine them closely ; for, remember,
there are lines and lines ; buy those that feel nice and soft
to the fingers, and are not too tightly twisted. Don't have
those that feel sharply rough to the fingers and are twisted
very tight, for they rot with the action of the water a deal
sooner than the others ; and remember also when you come
home from fishing, and your line is very wet, to dry it care-
fully and gradually in front of the fire. A piece of card-
board, about a foot square, is the best for this. Unwind as
much line from the reel as is wet, and wrap it around the
cardboard, and set it upright on something, about a yard
from the fire, and turn it about until it is dry on both sides.
Don't, in short, put a line away wet, for that rots them
sooner than anything else.

And now having glanced at the rod, reel, and line of a
Nottingham bottom fisher, we will just look at his floats.
These are for the most part composed of good sound goose,
pelican, and swan quills, with a cork float or two of different
sizes for fishing in a heavy stream for barbel. A ring is
whipped to the bottom of either sort for the line to pass
through, and a cap made of quill is put on the top, which

TRENT FISHING. 33

said cap must fit tight to the float, to hold the line firmly at
the right depth where you first place it. If the cap were
loose, the float would slip up and down the line, and as the
float is fixed to the line, in order that the bait should be at
the exact depth required, the float slipping up or down the
line would counteract that arrangement. Some anglers do
not use a cap to their floats, but simply fasten the line to it
by two half -hitches. This is a very good plan, but I like a
cap better. These floats are in all sizes, from the smallest
goose quill that will only carry five or six small split shots,
to the pelican or swan quill, which will carry a dozen large
ones, or the big cork float to carry even more ; but the angler
must regulate the size of his float according to the strength
of the stream, the depth he has to fish, or the distance he
has to throw. In Plate 3, which illustrates Nottingham
floats, a slight mistake is made in the drawings of the cork
floats ; they should not have a shoulder at the top of the
cork, but should be the thickest about one and a half inches
lower down, and taper gradually up to the quill.

The angler has now got his rod, reel, line, and float, and
so we will now look at another very important article,
namely, the bottom tackle, and this he can either make him-
self or buy ready made. If the former, when he buys the
gut he should see that it is round and smooth drawn, and
perfectly level from end to end j the gut that is flat in places
and unequal is useless for a good tackle. He should have
his gut in various degrees of strength ; the finest for roach
and dace tackle, and some a bit stronger for chub, barbel, or
bream. I advise him not to buy coarse, common stuff. I
should recommend him to buy the finest he can find, for he
will be surprised at the strength there is in fine smooth,
round drawn gut. When he proceeds to make his tackle, he
draws from his hank of gut as many lengths as he requires,
and cuts off the waste or fag ends : steep it next in lukewarm
water, or it will be too brittle and will not tie ; half an hour
or so will be quite sufficient to steep it. If the gut presents
a bright and glossy appearance, it will be necessary to stain
it slightly, and for this purpose common writing-ink mixed
with a little water and warmed will be one good thing, — a

D

34 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

little in a teacup will do. The gut should be moistened in
lukewarm water, and then put in the mixture for a few
minutes ; when you take it out, dip it in clean water a time
or two, and it is then ready for use : this will give it a bluish
tinge. Strong coffee lees, in which a bit of alum has been
dissolved, will give it a sort of brown or peat colour. (I find
that Judson's dyes are very useful to the tackle-maker, being
very simple in application, and giving the tackle a most
permanent dye. The slate colour is an extremely useful one,
giving the tackle that dull, smoky blue colour, that is so
beloved by all good bottom fishermen ; procure a sixpenny
bottle of that dye, and mix it among sufficient boiling water
as will fill an ordinary wine bottle ; when cold, put it in
the bottle and place it safely away ; when you want to dye
some gut, put about one-fourth of this mixture, in three-
fourths of water, into a small saucepan ; then put the gut,
in, place it on the fire, and as soon as it boils, take it out
and drop it into a basin of cold water ; this is all that is
required.) In the foregoing note re Judson's dyes, I find
on reading it over again, that the amateur tackle-maker will
be apt to make a mistake as to the quantity of stuff required;
he will be under the impression that one-fourth of the whole
that is in the bottle will be wanted, but it is not so; I
simply meant one part dye and three parts water, viz. rather
more than half a small teacupful of dye, and nearly two
teacupsful of clean water ; this will be found sufficient to
dye a whole hank of gut, but if the angler only wants it
slightly stained, he must reduce the quantity of dye, and
increase the quantity of water ; or if he wants it a very dark
stain, he must proceed exactly opposite ; the green dye,
treated exactly the same as the slate, will be found a most
useful colour for roach or bream fishing over a weed-bed ;
and the brown dye, for barbel fishing on a sandy or gravelly
bottom; these will be found to answer every purpose.
Having steeped the gut, and got it to the required pliabilit}',
the tyro next proceeds to tie it into lengths to suit his
requirements, and there are various ways of tying a knot, so
that it should be firm and strong, without any danger of the
joints slipping asunder. The best knot that I know of is

TRENT FISHING. 35

called the " fisher's " knot ; it is very easily made. At the
end of the gut you, as it were, tie a single knot without
drawing it tight ; you then take another length of gut, and
put one end through the small loop thus made on the other
piece, and then the straight piece that you have just put
through you put round the other, and tie a single knot the
same as before ; both knots can then be drawn tight, and
pulled together. The short ends should then be clipped off, all
except about the eighth of an inch or so. This is a capital
knot, and will be found to be all that is required in tackle-
making, it cannot pull asunder, it will break sooner than
come undone.

When you make your tackle be sure and have the stoutest
lengths of gut for the top, and the finest for the bottom
length whereto the hook is whipped. Tie then a loop on the
topmost piece of gut for the line to be fastened to, and now
you want a hook. I think the best are the straight round
bend bright Carlisle hooks. You will require an assortment,
in sizes from four to twelve, to suit the various fish and tackle.
These hooks must be whipped to the gut with slightly waxed
silk. Some anglers use shoemaker's wax for this purpose,
but I don't like it, for no matter what colour your silk is, the
shoemaker's wax turns it nearly black, and when your hook
is whipped on, it looks as though it were put on with dark
silk, and a dark whipping does not look well with a white
bait.

Drapers sell small spools of fine silk in different colours,
at one penny a spool. I should recommend the angler to
buy four of these different coloured silks, white, pink,
yellow, and green ; the white for paste, pith, &c, the pink
for worms, the yellow for maggots or gentles, &c, and the
green in case you should meet with some fish that are vege-
tarians; but more of this anon as I proceed with the
different sorts of fish. For these different coloured silks you
will, of course, require some colourless wax, and a very
useful, hard, and tenacious wax may be made for a trifle
in this wise : — Take two ounces of the best resin and one
quarter of an ounce of beeswax, simmer them together in a
small pipkin for ten minutes ; then add one quarter of an

d 2

36 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

ounce of tallow, and simmer again for a quarter of an hour ;
then pour the mass out into a vessel of water, and work it
up with the fingers until perfectly pliable. The ball should
then be put for several hours in a bucket of cold water ; and
when you take it out put it in a tin, and keep it in a cool
place out of the air or sun ; it will last an angler two or three
years. When he goes fishing he will require to take a small
piece with him, and a little flat tin- tack box will be just the
thing to put it in. It will take up very little room in his
tackle pocket. The small spools of silk could also be kept in
that pocket, and also his loose hooks and hanks of gut, for
such things are all the better for being kept out of the damp,
the sun, or the air ; and as for the wax, I should not take
much of that out at once. A bit a little larger than a hazel
nut, in the small box just mentioned, would be amply suffi-
cient ; keep the larger lump at home in a dry cool place,
out of the air. I have just mentioned the tackle pocket,
and this is an important article in an angler's outfit. These
are made in various designs, and may be bought at any tackle
shop. The tackle cases that are generally sold, are made of
leather or material so thin, that they afford no protection for
the long pelican quill floats that are inside them; I recommend
a very useful, strong, and cheap tackle case made on the fol-
lowing plan. The leather is very strong and coloured black,
and is about two feet long and ten inches wide ; down this
long piece of leather is stitched right across it, four more
pieces, each about four and a half inches wide, at regular
intervals ; the three topmost ones are divided down the
middle by a row of stitches, so as to form six separate
pockets ; the bottom one of the four is left open for the
purpose of holding the tackle winder, which will be described
directly. On each of the three top rows of pockets, there are
also stitched two strips of leather, which are subdivided by
other rows of stitches, for the purpose of forming places to
hold the floats. This case is then folded up and fastened
round the middle by a buckle and strap, and is then a useful
size for putting in the basket ; viz. about ten inches long and
five wide, and is a capital case for protecting the quill floats.
Or the angler can have, if he prefers it, a home-made

TRENT FISHING. 37

one, about nine inches long and six wide is a very useful
size, the cover of brown leather, and opening like a book.
It should have in it numerous pockets, for the purpose of
keeping everything separate and snug j I don't like to see
gut, loose hooks, wax, silk, thread, needles, floats, &c, &c,
all mixed up in confusion in one pocket. " A place for every-
thing, and everything in its place," ought to be an angler's
motto. This book ought to contain a long leaf of thin
leather, or waterproof cloth, with a couple of strips of parch-
ment stitched lengthways down it, for the purpose of holding
a dozen floats, a pair of scissors, a disgorger, &c. (which
latter useful little article I might say can be made out of a
little bit of thin wood or bone, about four or five inches long,
and about a quarter of an inch thick, with a small forked slit
cut in the end ; it is used for extricating the hook from the
throat of a fish, the fork being put in the bend of the hook
and pushed down, and then both hook and disgorger drawn
up together). This latter article saves the disagreeable
process of opening the fish when the hook is rather further
down than it should be. The tackle pouch should also
contain a special pocket to hold a frame to wind your bottom
tackles upon ; this frame should be made of thin hard wood.
There should be three pieces of flat wood, about half an inch
broad, fastened about an inch and a half from each other by
thin round pieces ; this, when finished, should be about five
inches long and three wide. It is a very useful article for
keeping the tackle straight ; hang the hook upon one of the
thin cross-pieces, and wind the tackle round the entire con-
cern. When the whole of that tackle is wound on, hang
another hook in the loop of the first, and go on again until
the whole of your tackle is wound on. By this means you
can keep the different sorts of tackle separate ; roach, chub,
or barbel having a separate coil to themselves. This plan is
a deal better than coiling them up separate and stowing them
in envelopes. The long leaf of the book, with the floats, &c,
on, can be folded up inside the covers, and then closed and
fastened with either a tongue and loop, or a buckle and
strap. The angler will also require a cocoa-nut shell and a
pair of scissors for the purpose of clipping up worms for

38 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

ground bait, a drag-hook and cord, and a clearing-ring will
also be very useful articles ; this latter is used in clearing
the tackle and hook from weeds, roots, sticks, or any encum-
brances occasionally found in the bed of the river. It is
made of iron, and need not weigh more than an ounce or so ;
there is an eye at the top end for the cord to be knotted to,
and it is bent in a circular shape until it nearly touches the
other side, leaving only a small nick for the line to pass
through ; it need not be above two inches and a half inside.
"With the cord this is guided down the line, over the float,
and down to the obstruction, when by pulling the cord the
hook and tackle may be saved. A landing-net is also re-
quired in the outfit of a Nottingham angler, and the frame
of this should be made of jointed brass, so that it can be
folded up and the net itself wrapped around it, that it may
lie snugly in the basket when not in use. It should be
made to screw into a brass socket, which latter is fitted on
the end of a staff, or handle, about four feet long. The
angler can please himself as to whether he has a wicker
basket or a mat one, o*r whether he has a waterproof haver-
sack ; all three sorts are found in the outfit of a Nottingham
angler ; he also has bags for his worms, tin boxes for his
gentles, bags for his fish, &c, and a pair of flat-nosed pliers
will also be found a useful article.

And now having described a Nottingham bottom fisher's
outfit, it is time to hark back to where the angler has made
his gut " tackle," and got it ready for the hook. Supposing
this to be done, he now takes a piece of the coloured silk,
and waxes it slightly, and, taking his hook in one hand, he
winds the waxed silk two or three times round the shank ;
he then draws the end of the gut through his teeth to flatten
it slightly, and lays it on the shank, and binds it tightly and
closely as far up the shank as he requires. This operation
should be done as neatly and as closely as possible, or you
may have a difficulty in threading on a fine worm or gentle,
to say nothing of the curious spectacle you would present to
the fish. (A little of the varnish described some time back,
just touched over the whipping of the hook, will be found a
decided improvement.) The split shots are now put on the

TRENT FISHING. 39

tackle, the bottom one not less than a foot or so from the
hook ; the others are placed on up the tackle, at distances
of five or six inches from each other, till you get as many
on as you require. This plan is a deal neater than that
sometimes practised on the Thames, where all the shots are
crowded together in one place, about six inches from the
hook. With a fine line, quill float, and thin tackle
weighted with some half dozen split shots, the Trent or
Nottingham anglers fish for roach, dace, chub, bream, and
sometimes for barbel, although we have a set of heavier
apparatus, called "light corking tackle," for fishing in a
heavier stream.

I think I have made it pretty clear to the tyro, or the
would-be angler in the Nottingham style, the kind of the
various appliances required for its practice. A very formid-
able list of articles is sometimes given as being necessary for
an angler's outfit, which would suggest the necessity of having
a room to itself, in which to store and label the several items,
but they, or at least very many of them, are not required.
I have given what will be sufficient for every purpose of the
bottom fisher.

Angling, we are told, is becoming more and more a science
every day ; fish are becoming more scarce, and more difficult
to catch, while the sport is becoming more and more popular ;
new lines, new hooks, new baits, and tackle are being so con-
stantly invented, that they puzzle the most practised angler
to become acquainted with them, much more the fish, cunning
as they are ; but the fisherman may have one consolation amid
all these new inventions, the old skill and the old appliances
have not yet lost their charm, but will secure a basket of fish
when some of the modern inventions are completely at fault.
I have seen good sport obtained with a willow rod, a yard or
two of string for a line, and a bit of stick for a float, when
the most expensive outfit was useless for the purposes of
sport ; attention to minute details are of more value than an
expensive outfit. Skill is of a deal more importance than
costly tools, and even theory itself is not of much value
without experience.

Having now given the outfit of a Nottingham bottom-

40 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

fisher, it will be as well to give some idea as to the method of
using it. Now the tyro must bear in mind that the motto of
a Nottingham angler is "fine and far off," the chief object
being not to let the fish see or hear him if he can help it. If
he has not already selected a swim, he walks along the bank
until he sees a spot that looks likely to yield sport, where the
stream is steady and not too strong, and which looks about
the right depth. The first thing he does is to ascertain how
deep it really is. Now, a London angler would drop in a
lump of lead, and work it up and down all over the swim,
and scare the fish to begin with. A Nottingham fisherman,
however, adjusts his float at what he thinks to be about the
right depth, and casts his tackle out to the exact distance
from the bank at which he intends to fish, and allows his
float to travel down the stream. If it floats in an upright
position without either dragging or bobbing, he is not deep
enough, and so he loosens the cap on the float and increases
the length below it. If now the float bobs under, the shots
are on the ground, and the line must be shortened under the
float. After he has had a swim or two, he can by this means
hit the proper distance between hook and float, which allows
the bait to trip along the bottom without any of the shots
coming in contact with it. Should the bait during its pas-
sage down the swim at any time hang, the raising of the rod
point will loosen it.

Now, having found the exact depth and had a swim or two
down the entire length he intends to fish (for a Nottingham
angler's swim is very often twenty or twenty-five yards in
length), our fisherman throws in his ground bait so that it
is distributed over the swim. Considerable judgment is re-
quired for this, according to the strength or set of the stream,
for it is necessary to fish over your ground bait, and you must
calculate carefully whereabouts your ground bait is likely to
fall. If it is thrown up the stream too high it will ground
too soon, or if too low, it grounds out of your reach below
the swim. There is a good deal in this, and many a bad day's
sport has been ascribed to any other cause but the right one
in consequence of a miscalculation on this important point.
We will now suppose the swim the angler has selected is from

TRENT FISHING. 41

twenty to thirty feet from the bank, and he is fishing with
very light tackle, too light to be cast from the reel (for the
reel would not revolve sufficiently for casting with such a
light weight), and that he cannot coil it on the grass at his
feet, nor allow any to hang loose from the reel ; the fine line
he is using would twist and tangle up. He cannot reach the
swim with the rod, and what line there is is hanging from the
point. What is to be done? A Nottingham angler holds
the rod in his right hand, and with his left takes hold of the
line as high up the rod between the rings as he can reach,
and draws down as much line as he requires. He then has
some four or five yards of line in his left hand, and with
what is hanging from the point of the rod, he can then throw
the distance he requires, which he does by bringing the rod
away from the river at about an angle of 45°. He then sends
the point of the rod smartly over the river, at the same time
letting go of the line he held in his left hand, the line will
now go fair and neatly to its destination without tangle or
catch. Some Nottingham anglers, when they want to cast
extra long distances, draw down two lengths of line from the
rod, the rings of course parting them, and throw in the same
way as before. By these means, after a little practice, one
can throw to nearly any distance he likes.

I read somewhere a while ago that there is not an angler,
nor yet an angling writer living, who does not owe a debt of
gratitude to Mr. Francis Francis. Since I penned the notes
for the first edition of this book, I had presented to me a
copy of Mr. Francis' "Book on Angling," and I found that
in that book we both used very nearly similar language in
describing the method of fishing a swim in the Nottingham
style. As a practical Trent angler I must say that it cannot
be better described than it has been by Mr. Francis, so I
have altered my original notes a bit, and willingly and cheer-
fully acknowledge my obligation to him in this matter;
although, I must say in justice to myself, that, like the
Irishman, I followed his advice before he gave it me ; and
I might say while I am on this subject that I found his book
very useful to me when I was rewriting and arranging my
notes for this volume, as giving me many valuable hints as

42 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

to the groundwork of my proceeding. If Mr. Francis sees
this, I hope he will accept this explanation, and also my
acknowledgments of the great help I found his book in
compiling this treatise on Nottingham fishing.

Now that the float is cast to its destination, the angler
changes his rod to the left hand, and with the finger and
thumb of his right he takes hold of the line close to the reel,
and pays it off gently and continuously so that it shall run
freely through the rings and never check the swim of the
float. By this means the line between the float and the rod
point is tight (but not too much so, or the float would lay
nearly flat on the water), and enables him to strike the very
moment he perceives a bite. Failing in getting a bite, he
allows the float to travel down stream until he has completely
covered the space where he supposes the ground bait to be,
when he winds up the line and repeats the cast. Sometimes
the hole to be fished is from twelve to twenty, or even more,
feet in depth ; and when this is the case, it is difficult to fish
it with the ordinary floats, and for this purpose a float called
a w traveller, ' " slider," or " running float " is used. As may
be supposed from its name, this float slides or runs up and
down the line, and can be easily made from one of the
ordinary swan quill or cork floats. A small upright rod ring
is whipped about half an inch or so from the top, and a very
small ring about an inch from the bottom. This ring can be
made out of a piece of very thin copper or brass wire, as
follows : — Wind the wire two or three times round a small
knitting or stocking needle, and then draw it off; cut off
each end to within three-eights of an inch, which must be
left for the purpose of whipping it to the quill ; this small
ring will just allow for the passage of the line. Thread the
line through the rings on the float, and when you have got
the exact depth, knot a little bit of line or wood or straw in
the line above the float. When the float is out of the water
it drops down to the loop of the tackle, and when it is thrown
in the water, the shots or sinkers carry the line through the
float rings until it is stopped by the little bit of wood, &c,
mentioned above. If the Nottingham bottom fisher uses a
cork float and a heavier tackle, he mostly throws his bait

TKENT FISHING. 43

from the reel, that is in a mariner somewhat similar to that
of jack spinning. He winds up the line until the float
nearly touches the top ring of his rod, and then gives it the
desired swing over the river. I have seen baits cast by this
means thirty, or even more yards. This plan is chiefly used
in barbel fishing, and the swim is a good distance from the
bank, and I shall touch upon it, as well as on ledgering and
plumbing in the chapter on barbel. I ought to just men-
tion that when the slider float is used, the little piece of line
that is knotted in the line should be so contrived that it will
run with freedom through the rings of the rod, so that when
winding up or playing a fish, it does not catch. The diffe-
rent baits used in bottom fishing, when and how to use
them, will be fully explained in the chapters on the different
fish.

I have now, I believe, described the outfit and the general
modus operandi of the Nottingham bottom fisher. He is
not beholden to punts and puntsmen for his sport ; he can
wander along the banks, select his swims, and fish them in
the deadly and scientific style I have been attempting to
portray. He pursues his avocation amid scenes of natural
beauty ; he follows the windings of the river, and becomes
acquainted with its course. He knows the solitude of its
silent depths and the brilliancy of its shallows ; he is con-
fined to no seasons ; he salutes Nature with the budding
spring, the rustling leaves make music in his ear before the
mist has rolled from the water, or the dew been kissed from
the grass by the rays of the sun. He throws his line when
ruddy autumn, with its wealth of fruit, hangs heavy on the
bough, or the corn-fields wave in golden abundance on the
slopes of the uplands, the storm and the tempest scarcely
check him, and he can pursue his sport when winter's winds
blow cold over the meadows, and the trees glitter like dia-
monds, with a wealth of hoar frost. If he is an ardent
sportsman, he cares not for the rude blasts of winter, for
now is the time for pike and chub ; he can tramp over the
snow to his sport with as much zest as though the meadows
were clad in the gayest garb, and when the big pike seizes
the glittering spinning bait, and when the thin, tapering

44 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

wand is bending double from his powerful rushes, the angler
forgets that the day is cold, and that there is snow under his
feet. Let none say this sport is ignoble. " Ignoble," in-
deed. Let him answer who has felt the powerful rush of a
ten-pound barbel on the fine tackle of a Nottingham bottom
fisher. What hopes and fears he has had, what a time of
pleasurable enjoyment until, wearied out, the grand fish lies
in the landing-net. Such, then, is the tackle and sport of a
Nottingham bottom fisher. I wish to initiate the tyro into
this beautiful art ; and although it is impossible to teach it
thoroughly in a book, yet much may be learned this way ;
and as I am more particularly writing to working-men
anglers, I have used the plainest possible language, so that
the veriest tyro shall have no difficulty in understanding
what I say.

THE CHUB. 45

CHAPTER III.

THE CHUB.

Before the would-be angler in the Nottingham style pro-
ceeds to read the following chapters on the different fish, he
would do well to carefully study the preceding one. Minute
details, as I have before remarked, are very important, and
should be regarded with strict attention. No one can expect
to be a very successful angler unless these small matters are
observed, and there is nothing recommended but what I have
proved by experience.

I approach the subject of the chul» with feelings of very
great respect, if not of actual veneration, for the chub with
the white spot on his tail was the first fish that our "father"
Izaak introduced to us. I remember how after I had, meta-
phorically speaking, swallowed that chub, how eagerly I
swallowed the rest of his grand old book ; and then, like
Alexander, who mourned because he had no more worlds
to conquer, I mourned because there was no more to
swallow !

Although the chub does not enjoy a very good reputation
from a culinary point of view, yet he is a tolerably hand-
some-looking fish, and when he is in good condition and
hooked, he will fight hard for his liberty. When we con-
sider that it is absolutely necessary to fish for him with fine
tackle, he is just the fellow to try an angler's patience and
the strength of his tackle, especially if the fish happens to be
a good-sized one. The chub is found in most of the rivers
of England, and likes deep, quiet holes, under overhanging
banks, or willow bushes, the foundations of old walls, re-
tired nooks, or where old piles and posts stick up out of the
water, providing the water is tolerably deep, though he is

46 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

not confined exclusively to such places as those. He will be
found in strong rushing streams, and contending with the
most rapid waters ; and during very hot weather they may
be seen basking on the surface of the water, over some deep
hole, sometimes in considerable numbers. The moment they
become sensible that some one is looking at them, down they
sink to the bottom in an instant, being perhaps, with scarcely
any exception, the shyest of all fish. They spawn about the
first or second week in May, and deposit their eggs on the
gravel in very shallow water, and the operation is supposed
to occupy them about ten days. The chub is a gross feeder,
and will take kindly to almost anything in the shape of a
bait, if it is only delicately offered him. He will swallow
worms by the hundred, devour any amount of scratchings,
gobble up all your ground bait, and still wish for more, even
if that same bait happens to be rotten cheese ; and I have
read that the French fish for them with a ripe cherry. He
will take almost anything, from a fly to a small frog, or from
a grain of creed wheat^o a bunch of lob-worms ; and I have
known him even to dash at a spoon bait when pike fishing ;
but whether this is done in sheer greediness or not I cannot
say. His bill of fare is a very lengthy one ; nothing seems
to come amiss if he is only in a biting humour. He will
take the artificial fly or natural insect on the surface; a
bunch of lob-worms from the bottom, or gentles and grubs
from mid water ; while the black slug, a small frog, cheese,
pith, paste, or scratchings, all come to swell the list of at-
tractions for our leather-mouthed friend the chub. At
nearly all seasons he will bite ; hot weather or cold makes no
difference to him ; he can be taken by anglers knowing his
habits and haunts in the winter months as well as in the
summer, spring, or autumn ; only he seems to me to be a bit
of an epicure, for the bait that he will take one month he
utterly ignores during the next. I don't mean this in regard
to all baits, but in some particular instances. For example,
he will revel in the luxury of a nice bunch of gentles,
and then perhaps one may go a few days after, and the fish
will have none of them, but just drop a wasp grub over
Master Chub's nose, and your float will disappear with a rush.

IV.

9

t

1. Roach tackle. Page 97.

2. Worm tackle, with hp-hook, for Bream. Page 148.

3. „ „ „ for Barbel. Page 73.

4. Barbel tackle for scratchings. Page 78.

For particulars of the length of the gut, taokle, and distance apart of the shot,
see pages referred to. The hooks are given about the correot size.

THE CHUB. 47

In England the chub seldom exceeds the weight of six
pounds, though odd ones of seven or eight pounds' weight
may exist. I question, however, if there are a score of fish
of the latter weights in the whole of the five hundred miles
of the Trent and the Thames. Indeed, if an angler is for-
tunate enough to capture a chub of six pounds, supposing he
can afford it, I should say by all means have it preserved.
It will be an ornament to his room ; and every time he sees
it, it will bring back to his recollection the glorious bit of
sport he had with it before it was grassed. The largest chub
that I have as yet taken out of the Trent weighed five and
three-quarter pounds — a splendid fish, short, thick, and well
fed, who fought hard for his liberty. I was fishing with the
locust in a smart stream, which he took with no more break
than a four-ounce dace. The largest that I ever saw is one
that was taken by Mr. Cubley, Crown Street, Newark, out
of the Muskham waters of the Trent. This gentleman is a
first-class angler, and the chub just mentioned is now in a
glass case, as a trophy of his angling skill, and measures
twenty-five inches in length, sixteen inches in girth, and
weighs a little over six pounds ; a splendid fish in the
opinion of all anglers who have seen it. I have had also
authentic information about the capture of a chub, that I
should suppose to be the largest ever taken out of the Trent
with rod and line. A few years ago a Newark angler, named
Frank Sims, was fishing below Newark, at what is called the
foot of the lawn at Winthorp, when he was lucky enough
to hook and safely land a monster that weighed eight
pounds. I believe this grand fish suffered the indignity of
being either baked, boiled, or stewed, when it ought to
have been made beautiful for ever, and not only it, but
Frank himself ought to be in a glass case. I should very
much like to handle such an one myself.

I remember once fishing for roach with creed wheat, in a
good swim on the Trent ; a youth, a very devoted angler,
was with me. We had been having fair sport, when suddenly
the fish went off the feed. I was just beginning to puzzle
my brains as to the why and the wherefore, when the lad
suddenly had a bite. I saw by the bend of the rod that it

48 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

was something unusual, but the fish only gave a lazy roll or
two, when it was brought to the bank without much re-
sistance. As I slipped the landing net under it I saw that
it was a chub, but such a chub ! It was the longest, leanest,
and most hungry-looking wretch that I ever dropped across,
with a head and mouth that would not have disgraced a
twelve-pound cod-fish. It was twenty-eight inches in length,
and only weighed three and three-quarter pounds, though
had it been in good condition, it ought to have weighed
seven at the very least. Still, if an angler takes one of four,
or four and a half pounds, he may congratulate himself that
he has got hold of a very good specimen ; and if by a bit of
very good luck he should happen to take, in a day's chub
fishing, twenty fish that will weigh forty pounds altogether,
he will find that to be a very good average, for large chub
are not so plentiful now in the Trent as they used to be. I
have heard that thirty years ago anglers used to think
nothing of taking three or four fish out of one hole that
would average four pounds each, though it must be con-
fessed I have seen nothing like that during the last few
years. The best I have seen were four fish taken out of one
hole, that weighed altogether eleven pounds. Now-a-days
here a four-pound chub is a rarity, while, as I said before, in
a day's chubbing, two pounds each fish would be a very good
average weight.

What pleasant recollections I seem to see in my mind's
eye at the very mention of the word " chub," ay ! as vividly
as though they only happened yesterday, for some of the
pleasantest hours of my life have been spent by the river-
side in my search for chub. The roach has a book of his
own, and so has the pike ; but the chub has not. I don't
really see why he should not be thus honoured ; for I regard
him as one of the most interesting of our coarse fishes. In
spite of what has been written or said against the chub, in
spite of all his faults, I love him ; but when the cruel net
is put around the weed beds in the scouring time, and he is
dragged to bank, or when the night-line has done its work,
and he is hauled out without a chance of showing his
fighting power, my love is mingled with pity for his igno-

THE CHUB. 49

minious fate ; for he is a foeman worthy of a sportsman's
steel, although some writers speak with contempt of him,
and call him all sorts of names, some of which are libels on
him and his character. If I have a special weakness, it is
for " chub fishing," for I have been told that it really is a
weakness ; and one or two have gone further, and called me a
"fool," after I have had an adventure something like this.
I am standing by the river, rod in hand ; the twilight of the
summer's day has deepened into that semi-darkness that is
so peculiar in our country districts, where the air is free from
smoke ; strangely quiet seems Nature in her peaceful repose,
a strange quiet that is only broken by the harsh grating
croak of that peculiar bird the corncrake, or the splash of a
rising chub. Away in the distance I can see, though dimly,
the tip of a village church spire ; trees, bushes, and hedges
seem to merge indistinctly together, while the river flowing
past seems, on the opposite side, to be dark and mysterious.
Putting my hand carefully down my line and cast to feel if
my white moth is all right, I sweep it out into the river,
and wait, for I cannot see it. Ha ! a brave tug, and the next
moment a chub is gallantly fighting against odds for life
and liberty. In a few more minutes, however, he goes in
the bag to join some three or four more of his comrades in
distress taken by the same means. But hark ! what is
that 1 The village church clock is striking, clear and distinct
through the stillness of the night sound the strokes —
eleven ; time to pack up, thinks I, and trudge home, for I
am a few miles away ; and when I arrive there, I am called
by the before-mentioned classic name, " What a fool you are
to stay until this time of night, just for two or three brace
of those things " (chub), is the observation ; but I can for-
give them, for they don't know of the sweet intercourse I
have had with Nature in her midsummer night's beauty.
None but sportsmen can enjoy these things as they ought to
be enjoyed ; and I am weak enough to say that fishing on a
summer's evening, with the moth for chub, is a sport, for me
at least, of the highest order.

The chub is a member of the carp tribe, and his scientific
name is Cyprinus Cephalus. Izaak Walton used to call

E

50 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

him " Cheven," " Chevin," and " Chevender," and by some
of these names he is still known in certain districts. Michael
Drayton, writing nearly three centuries ago on the Trent and
its fish, says, " The chub (whose neater name which some
a chevin call), food to the tyrant pike (most being in his
power), who for their numerous store he most doth them
devour." The chub seems to be set upon by more than one
writer ; even the good and gentle Izaak Walton says of him,
" Oh, it is a great loggerheaded chub," and this name has
crept down to more modern times. One writer, in a recent
article in a daily paper, has actually the impertinence to call
him " chuckle-headed f where he got the term from I don't
know. In some districts the chub is called " the large-
headed dace," the Scotch call him " Skelly," the Welsh
" Penci," and the Swedes "Kubb," which latter means "a
lump of wood." Now, if we look at these names, we can
see that they are most of them alluding to the head of the
chub ; but why he should be called big-headed, &c, &c, I
cannot imagine ; for if we take a splendid, well-fed specimen
of three pounds or so, and lay him broadside on the grass,
really his head does not look at all out of proportion to his
body. The shoulders are broad and vast, belly deep and
rounding off, back a trifle hollow, and ending in a fairly
broad spread of tail ; look at him from that standpoint, and
his head is not out of proportion. If you stare him in the
face, perhaps he does look a little full-faced, and he has
rather a large mouth, but he does not deserve the names of
" loggerhead," " chuckle-head," &c, that are so often applied
to him. I maintain that he is a handsome fish, and as a
sporting fish in all weathers, he has not his equal amongst
the coarse fishes. True, when you come to cook him he is
not worth much, for he is woolly and watery, and has such
a plentitude of small bones, that to eat him is almost to run
the risk of being choked. As some anglers, however, will
persist in eating their spoil, the best plan is to clean them as
soon as possible, split them open, and rub the inside with salt
or lemon ; some put stuffing in them, something like veal
stuffing ; but one thing must be remembered — if they are kept
all night without being cleaned they are absolutely uneatable.

THE CHUB. 51

Very small chub, of say half or three-quarters of a pound,
when crimped and fried dry, are eatable. The French call
him " un vilain," because they can do nothing with him ;
and if they are beaten in making a toothsome dish of him,
we may safely say these fish are not very edible.

As I have before remarked, various methods are employed
for the capture of the chub ; and as this little work more
particularly relates to bottom fishing, I will commence with
that. The rod, the reel, and the line described in the pre-
ceding chapter will be just the things for chub, and your
bottom tackle should be as fine as you like, the finer the
better consistently with strength. Remember, you have to
deal with a very shy and cautious fish. Your tackle for
bottom fishing for chub should be about four feet long, but
it will be as well to have some not more than a yard in
length, in case you should want to fish in rather shallower
water. Pale blue gut, or that stained a brown colour (a
recipe for staining gut these colours was given in the pre-
ceding chapter), is in my eye, and is the very best sort to
make your tackle of. For a float, if you can help it, never
employ one larger than a goose or small pelican quill, that
will carry from six to ten split shots, for summer fishing,
when the water is low and bright, and never have one of
the split shots less than eighteen inches from the hook. For
successful chub fishing, your tackle, &c, should be as neat as
possible. It is a downright insult to the intelligence of a
chub to drop a lot of big split shots and heavy leads on coarse
tackle over his nose. Your hooks may be of sizes Nos. 4, 6,
7, or 8, according to the bait in use ; and remember when
you whip your hooks on to have your waxed silk the colour
of the bait you intend to use. Chub may be ground-baited
for beforehand in the same manner as barbel, if you like,
but I do not think it pays very well, as a general rule. More
chub may be caught by "roving" for them. Half an hour
in a place is quite sufficient in my opinion, unless the place
is very productive of sport. Keep throwing a little ground
bait in as you go along, or just before you fish another
place. If the water runs tolerably fast, throw your ground
bait in a dozen yards above where you are going to stand, or

e 2

52 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

the stream will carry it clear out of your reach. If, how-
ever, the stream glides more slowly, one need only throw
the ground bait in a little above. If you are fishing with
worms, a nicely scoured maiden lob- worm is as good as any
on a "No. 6 or 7 hook, and for this bait fish as near the
bottom as you can. A small bag of sawdust will be very
useful in baiting your hook with a worm. In baiting you
can either break about half an inch off the head end of the
worm, and stick the hook in the end thus broken, or you
can leave the head on and put the hook in about three-
eights of an inch from the end. Dip your worm in the
sawdust, and Avork the hook nicely down the worm to about
half an inch from the tail, taking care that you do not bruise
or cut it by allowing the point of the hook to protrude from
it during its passage down the worm. Treat the worm ten-
derly, for rough handling spoils its attractiveness. I think it
is an improvement if the point of the hook be brought out
about half an inch from the tail of the worm, and a small
cockspur stuck on the point, for the ends of the bait will
then wriggle about in a most lively manner. If you notice
an eddy under old roots, or by the side of an overhanging
bank, with a sharpish stream outside, and there should
happen to be six feet of water, don't pass a place like that,
but take two or three coarse worms and break them up small,
and throw them in ; drop your carefully threaded bait in,
and ten to one, in about a quarter of an hour, you will have
caught a brace of nice fish. I should then advise you to
leave that place, for chub are a fish that are easily disturbed.
Before going, however, break up two or three more coarse
worms and throw them in ; when you, perhaps, come back
again in another hour or two, you can then try the place
again. Keep your eyes open when you move away from the
first swim, and when you see another likely place, treat it as
before. Of course gentles or scratchings can be used for
groundbait in the same way as worms, only a very little at
once is quite sufficient. This is a style of fishing that I like
very much. This wandering along the bank for a mile or
two, drawing a brace of chub out of this, and another brace
out of that hole, is very pleasant. A bit of a submerged

THE CHUB. 53

bush or its roots will sometimes hold a good fish or two, and
ought never to be passed by. Sometimes you may drop your
bait in a very unpretending-looking spot, and your float has
hardly time to steady itself before it goes down with a rush ;
and after a few minutes a three-pounder, perhaps, lies gasping
on the grass. This sort of fishing is a good deal practised
by the more experienced anglers of the Trent, and worms are
a bait that is often used. Indeed, if I were to be tied to one
particular bait, and not allowed to use any other, I should
instantly choose worms. I cannot say when would be the
best time to use worms for chub ; you can scarcely be wrong
any time. September and October are good months to use
scratchings, and gentles may be used with effect any time
during the summer and autumn, just for a change ; these
baits are the best used as near the bottom as possible. I
have sometimes caught chub when roach fishing with gentles,
but mostly at the extreme end of the swim. If you think
there is a chub about, a swim of a few yards further will
very often fetch him. Brandlings, cockspurs, and blood
worms may all be used with effect in this method of angling,
and to enable the tyro to recognize these worms, I will
describe them. The brandling is marked from head to tail
with alternate bars of red and yellow ; when handled, there
exudes from it a yellow fluid of a very nasty smeU ; it is
found in old dung heaps, and almost in any old heap of de-
caying vegetable matter. The best are, however, found in old
rotten tan heaps, where they sometimes attain a large size,
even to three and four inches in length, and the thickness of
a dew worm. Brandlings of this size are not very common,
two inches in length is the general size. I have caught
barbel with the largest size, when they would take nothing
else ; and they are the very best bait for bream. The cock-
spur is a worm of a bright red colour ; it is about one and a
half inches long, and has a light-coloured knob about half
an inch from the head ; it is found in similar situations to
the brandling, and is a capital bait, but more especially for
roach, dace, &c. Blood worms are found under the excre-
ment of horned cattle. They are a small worm of a deep
red colour, and are a capital bait for chub. I believe I am

54 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

wrong here. I always was under the impression that these
worms were called blood worms, but the blood worm proper
is more of a larvae than a worm, and is found among the mud
at the bottom of old ponds. It is a very delicate thing, and
rather difficult to put on the hook, but a capital bait for
roach, &c, when the angler has fairly mastered its pecu-
liarities. So the worm that is found under the excrement of
horned cattle must be called a red worm ; but, however, call
it what we may, I know that three or four of them are a
splendid bait for chub.

The leen worm is another splendid worm, somewhat similar
in shape and colour to that just described, but a nice lot
larger, and is found in rather peculiar situations. When a
heavy flood has swept down the Trent, and the water has
subsided to its ordinary level, a lot of old rubbish is generally
left in odd, out-of-the-way and low-lying corners. These
corners are high and dry during fine weather and low water,
but are generally submerged during a heavy flood. After
this old rubbish has lain there for a few weeks, and no other
floods have come down to disturb it, the angler should with
a stout stick turn it over to the bottom, and he will gene-
rally find a lot of these worms between it and the ground.
Sometimes, during the autumn, when " the earth has been
like iron, and the sky like brass," when lob-worms could
scarcely be procured for either love or money, I have gone to
a low-lying marshy ground, in an osier holt by the river-side,
and got by the above means as many of these worms as
lasted me for the day's fishing. I have found that these
worms are more attractive if they are used as soon as got,
without any scouring at all; but they are rather tender,
and must be handled and put on the hook very carefully.

If the angler is fortunate enough to have a back garden, if
only a very small one, he would find it to be very much to
his advantage to have a breeding-heap for cockspurs and
brandlings, and this need not be a very large one. The best
plan would be to dig a hole in the dampest corner, about a
yard square, and a foot or so deep, and into this hole put all
the rotten leaves and decaying vegetable matter he can find,
mixed up with some well-trodden-down manure, till he gets

THE CHUB. 55

the hole full and packed up a couple of feet or so higher
than the ground. The great secret of keeping plenty of
worms in this heap, when it once has been stocked, is to
keep it well damp, and always watered with some suitable
liquor. I have found that the worms have always been the
most plentiful and in the best condition, when the heap has
been the most damp and disagreeable to turn over. An old
friend of mine, who is one of the very best men on the
Trent, had some time ago a pigstye down the bottom of his
garden, and of course in close proximity to this pigstye there
was a manure heap. He stocked this heap with cockspurs
for his own use, and when he began to fatten his pig for the
larder, he used to boil up, and give it occasionally with its
other food, some tallow cake, or scratchings, and he used to
drain the liquor from it that it was boiled in (water at first,
of course), and pour it on the top of his manure heap.
After this had continued for some little time, he was very much
pleased and surprised to find that the worms in that heap
had very much improved both as regards size and quantity.

Now the angler would find that it would pay him if he
was, say, two or three times during the season, to boil two
or three handsful of this tallow cake in a saucepan of water,
and to pour it over his heap. Anyhow, he should occasionally
water it, if only with the liquor from the dinner-pot that the
cabbage and bacon had been boiled in. By attending to his
heap, and occasionally putting some fresh worms in, he
would always have a plentiful supply close at home. About
twenty-four hours before he wants to use these worms, he
should with an old garden-fork, or something handy, turn over
the heap a bit, and pick out as many as he thinks he shall
want, and put them on the top of some clean damp moss
that he has ready for them in an old pipkin or gallipot, or
even a big old flower-pot with a cork stuck tightly in the hole
at the bottom, and then cover it over with a bit of an old sack,
to prevent the worms from crawling up the sides, over the
rim, and escaping. At the end of the twenty-four hours
they will be in condition for use.

A correspondent, signing himself " Watchett," in a recent
number of the Fishing Gazette> gives a plan for keeping and

56 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

scouring these small worms that is very well worth repro-
duction here. He says : "If any of your angling readers
wish to have a lot of worms always in splendid order and
tough, let them get some flax waste, soak it well and gradually
in water, put a reasonable quantity of worms in a stout
wooden box, fill it three parts full with the flax waste, when
thoroughly soaked and soddened j in place of a lid, cover the
box with a wet cloth, which should be wetted every two or
three days, and the worms will keep for three or more
months without changing the stuff or any further trouble.
A greased cloth put in among the waste is an advantage,
more so if the worms are wanted for immediate use."

This is a plan that is well worth consideration, and will be
found to be a worthy companion to the breading-heap just
mentioned. I have been very particular in my description
of these worms, and in the method of treating them, because
they are the most useful baits that an angler can have, and
I know that two, three, or four of these sorts of worms,
according to their sizes, on a No. 8 hook, make a capital
chub bait, especially in the months of February and March.
At the beginning of the season, say about the latter end
of June, and all through July, the caddis will be found
a deadly bait for chub. These curious-looking insects are
found sticking to the stones, on the under side, next to the
bottom of the river. I have found them in the Trent from
May to August, and sometimes in September. In gathering
them, carefully pull up a stone, and as carefully turn it over ,
and sometimes you may see as many as a dozen sticking to it.
They are protected by an outside shell ; this shell is about
three-quarters of an inch long and a quarter of an inch thick ;
it is composed of very minute pebbles and shells on the out-
side, while the inside looks to me to be composed of sand and
slime from the insect. When you have gathered a quantity
of them, they are ready for use at once, the sooner the better,
for they become soft and flabby if kept any time. I have
tried various dodges to keep them for a few days, and have
put them in a vessel of water, changing the water two or
three times a day, but they soon become soft and useless.
Damp moss will keep them good for a few days. Once I left

THE CHUB. 57

some hanging in a bag just as I gathered them for nearly a
week, and forgot all about them ; when I saw the bag again,
I thought they would be dry and withered, but judge of my
surprise when I found the grub to be alive and well, although
the shell was as dry as a stick. They were smaller, however,
than they were at first, so the best plan is to use them the
same day that you get them ; the fresher they are the better.
When you use them for bait, carefully open one end of the
shell and draw out the grub ; a good one is a bright yellow
colour with a black head, but some of them are a dark
colour, and some green ; these are useless for the hook, the
yellow ones are the best. Some of them are a deal larger
than a wasp grub. Being the larva? of various water-flies,
they are rather tender, so that you must be careful in putting
them on the hook. Nevertheless, tbey are a grand bait for all
sorts of fish, two of them on a No. 8 hook are a bait that a
chub cannot resist. Rove about and drop them in all likely-
looking spots, and if the fish are on the feed, you will not
only take chub, but barbel, bream, dace, &c. ; in fact, I have
seen some grand bags of all sorts of fish taken with this bait
(and with shame be it said, some of them taken in the month
of May, when the ova has dripped from the fish as they have
been bagged). A fine tackle about three or four feet long,
with a quill float that will carry six or seven small split shots,
is the very best for this sort of work, and with the same
tackle can be used another deadly and irresistible bait,
namely, the wasp grub. This is generally used in August
and September. If the angler knows of a wasp's nest, let
him proceed to take it after this fashion. He procures an
ounce or two of common fine gunpowder, and works it up
with a little water into a stiff paste ; it is rolled in an oval
shape, with a point at one end. I need not say that the
angler must operate on a wasp's nest with a good deal of
caution. Carefully note the hole from which the wasps pass
in and out, and cut a sod that will fill it nicely, then walking
boldly up to the hole, light the thin end of the gunpowder
paste, then thrust it into the hole, which hole must be in-
stantly stopped up with the sod already mentioned. Stamp
your heel on this to force it in tight. After a few minutes,

58 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

when the wasps have become suffocated, the angler can dig
the cakes out with a spade. Brush all the loose wasps from
the comb and pop it into a bag, and make " tracks " away
from the spot in case of the return of any wasps. The best
time to take a wasp's nest is just after sunset, while you can
see what you are about. I have been sometimes asked how-
to find a wasp's nest, and in what sort of places to look for
them. In a few words, then, you want to rise early in the
morning, and walk out into the fields and lanes, and care-
fully examine with your eye every sheltered bank that faces
the rising sun, and you will in all probability soon see a wasp
flash past you, and then another, and still another, and when
you do, you may be sure that there is a nest in that bank
somewhere, and if you follow the flight of the insect you
will soon find the nest, perhaps in a situation that would be
unnoticed by the casual observer, half or wholly hidden
among the grass and mosses of the bank, in the deserted
burrow of a field-mouse, or some earth-burrowing beetle.
Very often, of course, the nest is plainly exposed to view,
and anybody who walks past can see it ; but this very last
year there were no less than nine of these nests in one single
bank that scores of people had gone past without dreaming
that there was such a thing on the whole length of it.

There is a way of taking a nest with a deadly poison, but
the angler should avoid all such dangerous experiments.
These grubs are very tender, and cannot be used well without
some preparation. Some anglers bake them in the oven for
a few minutes, but I think the best plan is to put the cakes in
a jar, then put the jar in a saucepan of water, and steam them
over the fire, but don't let any of the water get to the comb.
This renders them tough, and enables them to hang on the
hook. A very few minutes of this treatment will be quite
sufficient. If you want to use the grubs directly, take those
that are uncovered, and with the embryo wasps put them in
a bag with some bran for ground-bait. The good grubs are
carefully picked out, and put in a tin for the hook-bait.
If, after you have steamed your cakes, you don't want to use
them for, say, three or four days, the best plan to keep them
good is to lay them on a board in a dry 'place, and turn each

THE CHUB. 59

cake over every day, i.e. one side upwards one day and the
other side upwards the next, and so on, taking care that they
are laid separate, and not one on the top of another. By
these means the angler will be able to keep his grubs in
good condition for several days ; but he must not keep them
for any length of time without being cooked, because the
grubs then would be liable to hatch out, and prove very
unwelcome guests. Some of our best men prefer this bait
as it is, without any cooking or preparation whatever, because
they say they have then a flavour and an aroma about them
that the chub cannot resist. I am rather inclined to the
same opinion, but they have this drawback ; every swim you
take, especially down a strong current, they are washed off
the hook, and every strike you give you lose your bait ; so,
taking all things into consideration, perhaps the best plan
will be to cook them. A No. 4 hook is the best size for this
bait, and when you bait this hook don't be afraid to put
plenty on, five or six or even more, for Mr. Chub likes a big
attractive bait. " When is the best time to use these grubs V
asks somebody. The answer must be, " When the grub
itself is in its best and most perfect condition." An old
friend of mine, who has fished the Trent now for forty years,
and whose opinion is worth something, never baits with wasp
grubs until the plum has on it that rich bloom which marks
its ripeness (this would be some time about the middle of Sep-
tember), and he uses them for about two or three weeks, and
then no more that season. If the water is in good condition
the latter part of August, during September, and the beginning
of October, then is the time for the bait now under notice.

" What are the best places to try this bait in for chub?"
is the next question. Well, I have found, then, in a strong
stream in less than a couple of feet of water, in a quiet eddy
in some deep corner, under the boughs, under the overhanging
banks, and, above all, in those sweet streams that look to my
eye to be the very beau-ideal of chub swims, viz. where the
stream is gliding along smooth and serene, like happiness,
then it seems to stop for an instant, just to give a quiet curl
round, and then on again for a few more yards, and then
another pause, and another swirl round.

60 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

All these places should be carefully tried, and it is a good
plan to keep the comb from which the grubs have been
extracted, and crumble it up a bit, and throw a few small
pieces on the surface and watch them as they float down the
stream and curl in and out among the eddies, when suddenly
there might be a sharp boil against one of them, as a chub rises
to the surface to inspect this strange fare ; then throw in half
a dozen or so of his ground-bait grubs, and follow these with
his carefully prepared hook-bait. On and on goes his float,
ten, twenty, thirty yards, with the bait about six inches from
the bottom of the river, when like a flash the float shoots out
of sight j then in an instant the rod-point must be swept in
the opposite direction, and twang, like the music of harp-
strings, sings out the tightening line, as the sport begins in
earnest.

I must impress on the mind of the young angler here that,
if he can help it, he must not be any nearer than twenty
yards from the place that looks as if it held a chub, and not
be afraid to let his float travel down a rattling stream, for
there very often the big fish lie, and I have known bags of
from twenty to forty chub being made by this bait in a
single day's fishing. Chub will also take a lump of paste or
a bit of cheese, and the more the cheese smells, or the more
gamey it is, the better the chub likes it. A piece the size of
a small gooseberry is a very good bait, or a bit of rotten
Cheshire cheese mixed with a little bread makes a very
good chub bait for a change; even a boiled shrimp will
not be refused. A black slug with the belly slit open, so
that the white is shown, is also a very good bait for chub at
times.

And now we will look for a few minutes at a bait that is
used during the winter, and is in my idea the winter bait par
excellence for chub ; I allude to pith and brains. The pith
is the spinal cord of a bullock ; your butcher will draw you
a piece out when you want to use it ; the brains are used for
ground-bait, they must be washed perfectly clean, and well
scalded, or else boiled for a few minutes in a bag. They can
then be either chewed and spat out in the river, or else cut
up very small with a knife and thrown in. Don't, however,

THE CHUB. 61

be extravagant in this matter, a very few pieces are quite
sufficient. The pith itself when you first see it looks a very
dirty and disagreeable affair ; the pieces are about as thick as
your fore-finger, and I have had them a foot long. The skin
must be slit from end to end with a pair of fine-pointed
scissors, carefully pulled off, and thrown away, being use-
less. The pith must then be carefully washed two or three
times in clean water, till it is perfectly clear from blood and
all other impurities, and as white as curd. Some anglers re-
commend that it should be scalded, boiled, &c, but I say
don't be deluded into doing anything of the sort, for I have
tried it, and boiling ever so little makes it very soft, and it
won't stop on the hook at all. I say, do nothing more
to it than what I have recommended above. One of the
correspondents of the Fishing Gazette, a few weeks ago,
recommended the angler to try sheep's pith, as being whiter
than bullock's; and another correspondent says, that "he
boils the pith till it becomes hardened, and then tosses it in
bran till cool. The bran shales when you are using it, and
is rather attractive than otherwise." My own experience is
not very favourable to boiling ; and when I have seen some
of our best men try this bait, they always have it as I have
recommended. After it is washed clean, it is ready for use ;
and for this bait a No. 4 hook is the best. Cut off a piece
of pith about the size of a hazel nut, and put the hook through
i*nd through it several times, till you have worked the pith up
the shank ; it will then stop on the hook very well. When
you have a bite with this bait, play your fish very carefully,
for I have found that two out of three of the fish so caught
have only been hooked by the skin at the side of the mouth ;
handle them roughly, and you will be sure to lose them. I
have tried triangle hooks, double hooks, and single hooks of
the sizes of 6, 7, or 8's, but I find I lose the fewest fish with
a single No. 4, and what I find to be the best myself, I shall
in all cases recommend to others. Lately I have tried a new
hook for this bait, and it is a double-brazed one with the
points reversed, i.e. sneck bent in opposite directions. This
is a capital hook, and, I believe, has more holding power than
a single hook ; but it is more particularly valuable as a hook

62 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

for scratching fishing, and the locust tackle. An old friend
of mine, when he prepares his pith for the hook, never washes
it very clean, but leaves it what he calls " a bit streaky."
" Should you recommend the pith to be boiled same as the
brains 1 " said I to him one day. " Boiled 1 not likely," he
replied. " I tried that little game once, and spoilt a whole
set ; no boiling for me, but only just skinned, and washed
not quite so much as you wash yours, for I believe the chub
likes it best when it is a bit streaky."

This opinion, coming from a man of his great and varied
experience, is worth careful consideration, but still, for all
that, I like it washed white. I might just mention that I
have found chub, when using this bait, in all the places that
I have described a page or two back in wasp-grub fishing ;
but at this season they are more particularly found in deep
holes under the boughs, or in quiet deep eddies not far from
the bank and away from the main current ; and another thing
I must say as a caution, and that is, use this bait very care-
fully, don't strike at every swim to jerk it off the hook, and
when you take the old bait off to put a fresh one on, don't
throw it in the water, but leave it on the bank, because we
think that a reckless use of this bait soon spoils the swim.

With regard to the hook for this pith fishing for chub, I
might just mention that a friend of mine tried the new double
hook the other week, and his report is most favourable. He
says that the pith is easier put on, and is not so liable to be
washed off, besides hooking and holding the fish much better.
I must say, however, that I have always done well with the
single hook ; still, I must mention these facts, and then the
angler can try all sorts, and finally adopt that which he finds
the best.

This is a clinking bait to use in the depth of winter, when
the snow lies deep on the ground, and when the thermometer
indicates a few degrees below freezing-point Indeed, I
think it is nearly useless to try it unless there is a little frost.
I have taken fish with it from November round to March,
but if you want a change of bait during the winter you can
try the flat wriggling tail of a nicely scoured lob-worm. Chub
do not, as a rule, bite freely at a worm during a frost, how-

THE CHUB. 63

ever, and therefore the angler will find the pith the best.
Let him bear in mind that the clearer and finer the water is,
the better for pith; but if the water is discoloured, let him try
the worm ; also let the angler remember that the finer he
fishes the greater is his chance of success with this fish.
When the angler has a bite, the next thing is to hook his fish,
and this operation should be done as neatly as possible ; a
single turn of the wrist will be quite sufficient, for a heavy
tug and rough usage will result in the loss of both fish and
tackle. I don't like to see an angler strike his fish as though
he were trying to drive a whole flight of hooks into a bony
old pike, with a mouth like a carding machine. When first
hooked, Mr. Chub makes a desperate effort to escape, and
bolts for his hold ; he must be kept away at all hazards, if it
be under old roots; a steady pressure will soon accomplish this.
He fights well for a minute or two, but soon gives up ; and
when you have drawn him to you, and he lies on his side,
he can be run up on a shelving bank, or the net slipped
under him. I think I have said as much as I need say about
float fishing for chub, and I will now turn to another branch
of chub fishing, namely, fishing on the surface with live and
dead insects, &c. This is a very important branch of angling,
and is commonly called dibbing or daping; and for this
branch of our art no better instructions have ever been given
than those by Izaak Walton. The bottom fisher's rod, reel,
and line will do for this work, but the lower tackle must
only be about a foot long, with a couple of big split shots as
close to the loop as possible ; and for baits all sorts of creatures
are used, such as butterflies, humble bees, large blue-bottle
flies, cockroaches, beetles, grasshoppers, &c, &c, and also a
very small yellow frog. Caution, care, patience, and obser-
vation are also necessary in a daper. He must approach the
place with the utmost circumspection, for the places where
this sort of fishing is practised are where willow and alder
bushes line the banks, or the hollow under an overhanging
bank. I have crept up to such places on my hands and
knees, and peered through the bushes into the water below.
If it has been a suitable place, I have seen three or four chub
about a foot from the surface, and sometimes while I have

64 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

been looking a dried stick has snapped under my feet, and
the chub have instantly bolted. It is, therefore, necessary
that caution should mark your every movement. A No. 6
hook on the foot of tackle mentioned above will be the best ;
put your live insect, or whatever it is, on the hook as carefully
as possible, and see that everything is clear. You then wind
up all the spare line until only your foot of gut with its two
split shots hangs from the rod point, turn the rod round and
round until the gut is entirely twisted on the rod top ; it is
now ready for use. The rod is poked through an opening in
the bushes until the top is perfectly clear, it is then turned
the reverse way until the bait hangs clear, let the line run off
the reel till the bait hangs about a foot or so from the water ;
carefully mark then where the fish are and drop the bait over
them, taking care that none of the gut touches or lies on the
water. The two split shots are not used as sinkers, but
merely to carry the line through the rings of the rod and to
allow you to steer the bait where you like. If the angler has
conducted his operations properly, and got his bait quietly on
the surface of the water, a chub, perhaps, will rise and gobble
it down instantly. If he does, then the angler must not
strike instantly, but allow him to turn his head well down
and then give him a very gentle pull. If the fish be struck
on the very instant the chub bites, he will splash about on
the top of the water and scare all the fish within yards. The
fisher must then look for a handy hole close by, through
which he can poke the landing-net, and after carefully land-
ing his fish he retires a few yards and rebaits his hook, and
after waitiug a few minutes until the chub have recovered
their equanimity, he again pokes his rod through and repeats
the operation. After a brace of chub have been taken by
this means, they generally become disturbed in that place,
and the best plan is to leave it and look for another. Small
frogs are a very good bait for this kind of fishing. Hang a
very little bit of the skin of the back on the bend of the
hook, and put it gently on the surface of the water, as
described before. As soon as it touches the water the frog
will strike out and try to swim away, when if there is a chub
within reasonable range, the frog will prove such an attrac-

THE CHUB. 65

tion that he cannot help taking it, and with it the hook.
July and August, when the weather is very hot, is the best
time for this class of sport ; indeed, good bags of chub may be
made by this means, when the weather is too hot for any-
thing else.

When you are fishing this method under an overhanging
bank, and no bushes line the bank, it will be necessary to
crawl to the spot on hands and knees, or even on your belly.
An old friend who once saw me capture a three-pound chub
that had his home in a deep hole under a high over-hanging
bank, termed it taking a mean advantage of the fish. The
weather was very hot, and so after catching a big humble
bee, and putting him carefully on the hook, I crawled to the
edge and just poked the rod top and my own nose over. I
dropped the bee carefully on the water. It began to buzz and
spin in a very attractive manner, and presently Mr. Chub came
to have a look at him and swim round him a time or two
with back fin erect. The attraction was, however, too strong,
he opened his mouth and took his last bite.

When the angler operates from a high over-hanging bank,
he ought to take notice that the bank is sound, for an old
friend of mine one day thoughtlessly stepped on one, and the
next moment he and part of the bank were in eight feet of
water — rather disagreeable, you know, when a little observa-
tion would have prevented this. Whipping with a small
frog is also a very good plan. The frog is thrown somewhat
similarly to a fly. No float is required, nor shots on the
tackle. A lip-hook and a double hook just below it is the
best form of tackle, the lip-hook is put through the lips of
the frog, and the double hook tied to one of the thighs with
a little bit of yellow silk, it is thrown or pitched in all likely
looking spots and allowed to sink a little below the surface,
being worked by a series of shorts jerks. At the symptoms
of a bite, the angler instantly strikes. Artificial chub baits
have also been made and used with effect, but natural baits,
&c, are so numerous and deadly that for my part, I think it
is a waste of money to buy artificials. An artificial chafer is
used with effect on the Thames, however, and this bait, which
is garnished by two or three gentles, giving it the appearance

F

66 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

of a natural insect with its inside squeezed out. It is thrown
like an artificial fly, only it is allowed to sink under the sur-
face for a few inches, and worked with a series of jerks.
When I spoke against artificial baits just now, of course
I did not allude to fly fishing, for that is a separate art.
In some districts, the tail of a cray-fish boiled is successfully
used for the capture of large chub ; the locust also is a most
successful surface bait for chub, and to use it a special tackle
is required. These so-called locusts are peculiar-looking
insects, on warm evenings they may be seen about tree-tops
and hedges, sometimes in considerable numbers. They are
about the size of a small humble bee, of a light brown colour,
and are covered with a hard shell. When you have captured
a quantity of them they can be kept in a perforated tin along
with a few leaves, the leaves from an elm are the best,
by this means they can be kept alive for several days. They
can be used with the ordinary rod, reel, and line of the Not-
tingham bottom fisher, some anglers using a float with a few
big shots close to it. The locust, of course, has to swim on
the top of the water. I don't like a float myself for this
bait, preferring to throw them out like an artificial fly. If
the angler has a fourteen- feet double-handed fly rod with a
fly reel and line, these will be better for locust fishing than
the ordinary rod. The fisher need not be particular about the
fineness of his tackle, and for this about four or five feet of
middling strong gut with a large loop on each end (one loop
is to knot the reel line to, and the largest loop is at the
bottom, to which the rest of the tackle is fastened). For the
extreme bottom tackle take a longish length of fine gut and
double it, it will then be a long loop (about six inches long),
take then two No. 8 hooks and whip them back to back on
the ends of the last-mentioned loop, so that the two ends of
the tackle and the two hooks are perfectly fast together (or
one of the double-brazed reversed hooks referred to in pith
fishing). The angler will require a baiting-needle, and for
this purpose a stocking-needle about three inches long and as
thin as you can get one, with a nick filed in the bottom of
the eye, will be the very thing ; slip the loop of the bottom
tackle in the nick that you have filed in the eye of the

THE CHUB. 67

needle, and then push the needle completely through the
locust lengthways from head to tail. Draw the locust itself
up to the bend of the hooks until the hooks lie as it were
upon the shoulders of the bait. You must take care that the
points of the hooks are bare, and not hid in the locust at all,
as the hard shell will prevent you from hooking your fish.
The two sections of the tackle now want fastening together,
and this is done by simply putting one loop through the
other, the bait through the opposite one, and pull tight ; they
are perfectly fast, and can be easily undone when you want
to rebait. This bait is cast on the stream as far as it can be
thrown, and allowed to float down. It should then be held
stationary until it works across stream to the bank on which
you stand, and if there is a chub anywhere about the water
over which the bait has travelled, he will most certainly take
it. Here is one instance out of many where that bait has
played a leading part in making a good bag of chub. Some
years ago an angler went down the river below Newark to fish
the water that ran beside a rather long field ; he had forty-
three locusts with him, and when he got down to the bottom
of the field he had taken a chub with every locust but one.
Forty-two chub with forty-three baits, in three hundred yards
of water was not bad sport, and his tackle and method of
baiting was exactly as I have described. Since that time,
however, the Trent has changed in its character of a great chub
sport-giving river ; nowadays, we must be content with a far
less bag than that ; indeed, well do I remember when the
individual just mentioned again visited the well-remembered
field, after an absence of nearly a quarter of a century, and
again he, as in days of yore, carefully fished it down, and only
got one fish of about a pound and a half. " Strange," says
he to an old friend who used to go with him in the days of
heavy bags, and saw him catch as many as a hundred pounds'
weight in one day, when they used to throw three or four
big chub under a hedge to make maggots for ground bait
when next they went past the place. " No more strange
than true," said the other ; "we shall not catch them now
as we did thirty or more years ago." Why, I have heard that
angler say that it was an easy matter in those days to go to

f 2

68 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

any suitable place during the summer, and catch half-a-dozen
chub in less than an hour with a few worms that he had only
just dug out of the garden, without any scouring at all. But
still the angler must not be discouraged; good fish and good
bags are still occasionally to be got; and who knows, per-
haps one of the veriest novices, who is now only studying
the rudiments of the craft by the help of this little book,
may one day get the catch of chub that will be mentioned
in all future books on angling. Warm evenings during
July and August are the very best times in which to use
this bait, although years ago, when the chub were upon
the shallow spawning beds, during the latter end of May or
the beginning of June, an angler using this bait has drawn
out as many as a dozen chub without shifting a yard. These
have been in a gravid state, however, and ought not to have
been taken. The use of this bait properly is not generally
understood by anglers, so I have been particular in my
instructions.

Another good plan of taking chub is with the artificial fly.
For this work some anglers use a single-handed fly rod, but
I prefer a double-handed one. The rod that I use is four-
teen feet long ; the butt is of hickory, and the other two
pieces are lancewood. It is of a medium gauge, neither too
stiff, nor too whippy. A fly reel and a waterproof fly-line is
necessary, and the cast should be about three yards' of
middling stout gut. Some use two or three flies on their
casts, but I have always found one quite sufficient. The
flies generally going under the name of " chub flies," are red,
black, and grey palmers, and a big coch-y-bondhu ; the best
fly perhaps being the black, with silver tinsel. Whatever
fly you use, they should be big, with plenty of hackle about
them, and ought to have a strip of white kid attached to the
bend of the hook by way of a tail. I have seen scores of
chub flies that are sold at the tackle shops, and they don't
seem to me to be dressed big enough ; a good big fly that
drops in the water with a flop so as to attract the attention
of the chub is the best. Fine tackle is not needed for this
work, indeed some use a cast of salmon gut, If you
are fly fishing in a boat under the boughs, where the water

5. Wasp, grub, and pith tackle, for Chub. Page 57.

6. Worm tackle, without lip-hook, for Barbel. Page 76.

7. „ „ „ for Bream. Page 150.

8. Locust tackle, for Chub. Page 66.

THE CHUB. 69

cannot be fished very well from the banks, stout tackle is
necessary, for the hook very often gets hung across flags,
rushes, or twigs, and a sharp haul is necessary to loosen it,
hence the convenience of strong tackle, for if fine were
used the boat would have to be taken into the boughs, and so
spoil the spot. Besides, stout tackle is necessary to haul a
three-pounder out of his fortress of old roots, &c.

Chub begin to get under the boughs about August, and I
think that is the best time to go after them with the fly.
Your fly should be thrown across the stream as far as you
can ; and allow it to work round over every eddy that curls
round, and perhaps a bold rise and boil in the water will
reward you.

As this work more particularly relates to bottom fiahing in
the Nottingham style, I think I have said as much as I need
say about fly fishing for chub, and as chub is my favourite
fish, I have given him the place of honour in this little book,
it is rather a lengthy chapter, but I have said nothing but
what the angler ought to know. I hope I have been very
plain in my directions.

70 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

CHAPTER IY.

THE BARBEL.

This fish is another distinguished member of the carp family,
and derives his name from the peculiar beard or wattles that
hang from his mouth. His scientific name is Cyprinus
Barbatus. "With these beards or wattles," says Walton,
"he is able to take such a hold upon weeds and moss that
the sharpest floods cannot move him from his position," but of
course this is wrong. His Roman nose seems to me to be
peculiarly adapted for rooting among the sand at the bottom of
deep holes and overhanging banks, and he is a well-made,
handsome, and powerful fish ; still I think he is not quite so
good-looking as the chub. The barbel is very active and
vigorous, and quite the fellow to try the angler's skill, and
the strength of his tackle. The mouth being situated very
much underneath, that is, the top jaw being much longer than
the lower, he is enabled to pick up food from the bottom, for
he is for the most part a ground-feeding fish, although we
hear of odd ones running at a spinning bait. These are, how-
ever, more often hooked foul than anything else. The upper
scales of barbel are of a bright olive-green colour, with a
gold tinge towards the white belly, and a fish in good con-
dition, of six pounds' weight or so, looks very attractive. The
barbel is mostly found in the deepest part of the river, for he
does not like the fiery heat or the extreme cold, although in
the month of June it may be found in the weed beds or on
the shallows, where they congregate in considerable numbers
for the purpose of scouring themselves. I have been by the
river side during the darkness of the early summer's night,
and been suddenly startled by a tremendous splashing in the
rapid shallow streams, as though a whole cartload of bricks

THE BARBEL. 71

had been shot from a bridge into the river ; this sound is
made by a shoal of barbel cleaning themselves, and if there
is a lot of weeds on those shallows, they go rushing in and
out among them, and thread them in all directions. I have
seen weed beds twenty yards long and five wide, that have been
literally alive with them. Poachers, too, take advantage of
this peculiarity of the barbel, and put a long net over the
weed beds, and take them to the extent of stones, I might
say " tons f for a few years ago a party of three went every
morning for a fortnight, and came back every time with as
many fish as they could fairly stagger under. I am afraid
this was a general plan in many districts on the Trent. It
was grievous to see so many fine fish out of condition, to be
sold for about one penny a pound as wholesome food, when
it was anything but wholesome. I last year saw two or
three lots of barbel and chub that had been taken in the
same manner, but it was a few days after the fifteenth of
June, and I have also seen numbers too that have been taken
with the cad-bait during May and June, when they have
been in a gravid state. Barbel spawn about the latter part
of May, and retire to the deep holes about July ; they should
certainly not be taken before then. This fish delights in
such places as old walls, where old piles and posts stick up
out of the water, or in an eddy under a shelving bank, or
about old sunken trees or timber, providing the water is
tolerably deep ; he delights, too, in the rushing, boiling
waters of the weir and other deep rapid waters, for his power-
ful fins enable him to stem the strongest current.

I have heard anglers again and again remark on the scarcity
of the barbel in the Trent ; there is no wonder at it when we
consider the vast quantities that used to be taken in the
manner I have described, but we must hope for better things.
In my opinion netting ought to be stopped from the first of
March till the first of August, or better still for altogether,
and then we may hope for a return of the good old days in
barbel fishing here, when a hundredweight of fish was not
considered anything extraordinary. The baits for a barbel
consist of worms, slugs, gentles, grubs, scratchings, or cheese ;
although odd fish are sometimes taken by strange baits, such

72 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

as bits of pudding, pieces of fat bacon, or strips of lean beef
&c, &c, while a piece of a lampern is a good bait for big fish.
In some continental waters we hear of the barbel reaching
the extraordinary weight of forty and fifty pounds ; but in
England we have nothing like that, from sixteen to eight-
teen pounds being the top weight for a barbel in the Trent
and the Thames, which two rivers, by-the-bye, are the best
barbel rivers in England. The biggest that I ever saw was
thirteen pounds in weight, but I heard of one that was taken
on a night-line with lampern bait which reached seventeen
pounds. Big fellows like these do not, however, often fall
to the lot of the angler ; he may be well satisfied with one of
ten pounds, and a nine or eight-pounder is not to be despised,
indeed, I should question if any angler during the last six
years has taken a bag of barbel of, say, twenty fish that have
averaged above three pounds each fish. An angler fishing
Sir Henry Bromley's water at Stoke, about three years ago,
caught, I believe, fifty barbel, and the whole lot only weighed
seventy-two pounds. An old angler also told me that the
best day's barbel fishing he ever had on the Trent was about
thirty years ago. He caught thirty-two fish, five of them
weighed from twelve to fifteen pounds each, about a dozen
were from six to ten pounds each, and not one of the others
was under three pounds — a glorious bag. He says the
thirty-two fish weighed 224 lbs., being an average of seven
pounds each fish. We must not expect anything of the sort
to happen to us, however, until nets are things of the past,
and poachers cease to exist.

Some anglers may suppose that as the barbel is a strong
and powerful fish, strong and powerful tackle is required to
take them. Now this is not necessary, for the tackle that
will kill the chub will, in skilful hands, kill the barbel, and
as the fish have become more and more educated, the angler's
chance of success is all the greater if he fishes with fine
tackle. What I have said in this respect with regard to the
chub, holds equally good with the barbel. The rod, reel,
and line described in Chapter II. will be just the thing for
barbel fishing, and your bottom tackle should be as fine as
you like, providing it is good, sound, and strong. It should

THE BAEBEL. 76

be stained as recommended in chub fishing. When you
make your tackle, it would perhaps be as well to pick out
the strongest lengths, and leave the very finest for chub or
roach tackle, but always remember and have the thinnest
length of gut at the bottom for the hook or hooks to be
whipped to. Your tackle should be about four feet long ; I
like a long tackle because you can have all your split shots
on the gut without having to pinch any on the line. There
are several sizes of these split shots, and the angler ought to
have a supply of different sorts in his bag. For a float he should
have a pelican or swan quill when fishing a light stream, and
a cork float for a heavier one. A No. 5 or 6 hook will be
the best for the bottom one, and about an inch above this
there is a No. 8, called a lip-hook. The angler, when he
whips these hooks on, should use the pink silk mentioned
in Chapter II. This is a worm tackle (the tackle required
for other baits will be described further on); and there
should not be a split shot less than fifteen inches from the
bait. Some anglers for float fishing put a long lead on the
line close to the loop of the tackle, but I like the split shots
on the tackle, the larger ones nearer the top, and the smaller
ones lower down. Enthusiastic anglers, or tyros in the art
would perhaps be the best name for them, would, perhaps,
on receiving information that the barbel were biting, get a
lot of ground bait in a hurry and dash off to the river and
pitch it in anywhere, in the belief that any quantity of
barbel would be attracted into the swim, only waiting for a
bait to be dropped over their noses in order to be dragged
out wholesale. Now, my dear brother angler, let me caution
you in this respect — don't waste any ground bait if you can
help it, let caution mark your every movement in this respect
You might pitch your ground bait in a place that is entirely
unsuited to the barbel, and wonder why you don't catch
them, when the fact is there are none there to catch, and then
go home disappointed, and say that barbel fishing is all a
delusion and a snare, and that there is not such a thing in the
river as a barbel. You are furthermore as cross as two sticks,
and vow you will give up fishing for ever, when in reality
the fault is yours and does not lie in the fish or river at all

74 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

You have not been at home above half an hour when your
friend drops in and says that Smith has got such a glorious
catch of barbel, " as many as he could carry home," that is
the last feather that breaks the camel's back. You then,
perhaps, go to look at Smith's fish, and a finer lot you never
saw. " Smith, old fellow, how did you catch them % " Ah,
there is the rub, by simply using a little judgment in putting
in his ground bait where the fish were, and not throwing it
anywhere, as you did. If you know a place that abounds
with barbel, of course it is different ; but if you don't, keep
your eyes open, and you will most probably see them jump
out of the water, or go through a gymnastic exercise locally
known as " pitching." They are troubled with parasites, and
1 suppose it is in order to try to rid themselves of these pests
that they " pitch." As they generally run in shoals, where
you see one jump there are probably many more. During
the months of August, September, and October, which, by-
the-bye, are the very best months to take them, you can
scarcely take a walk by the river side without seeing them
jump very frequently. Having selected a swim, the next
proceeding is to bait it, and there are various methods of
doing this. In order to suit the bottom, you should know
how the current is. It may, perhaps, be different under the
surface to what it is at the top, and you must bait accord-
ingly ; a little practice will make you judge this to a nicety.
If you fail to see any barbel jump, then you must choose a
swim where there is an eddy by the side of a swift stream, a
ledge, or a deep hole where some old posts stick up, &c, as
these afford shelter for the fish. The big fellows like a lazy
eddy by the side of a swift stream, the curl of the water
bringing the food round to them as it is swept down the
stream. A good place to find barbel is at an abrupt bend of
the river, where the stream rushes hard against the opposite
bank. At the inside of this stream a big curl or eddy is
generally formed, and in this the fish are wont to congregate.
If, when you carefully try such places as these, you find a
tolerably level bottom with about eight or ten feet of water,
you are almost certain to find barbel, and then you must
mind and throw your ground bait in so that it glides into the

THE BARBEL. 75

hole or eddy, or else it will perhaps be swept away down the
stream. The best way to try the course of the stream is to
take two or three small pieces of wood or stick and throw
them on the water, and you will see by the way they float
down where to put your ground bait in to suit the circum-
stances of the case. And now, having found a swim that
holds barbel, the next thing is to bait it. One way of baiting
a swim, as practised on the Trent, is to procure half a stone
of scratchings. Be sure and get English cake, don't be put
off with anything the dealers might want to impose upon you,
for the foreign stuff is not fit even for ground bait. When
you have got the right sort, break it up small, and put it in a
pipkin, and pour boiling water upon it sufficient to cover it,
and let it stand all night. Some anglers, instead of merely
scalding the scratchings, boil it for an hour or two ; as they
say it is whiter and swells more, done so ; there is something
in this that is worth considering. Then take about half a
peck of small or refuse potatoes (but not diseased ones), and
boil them until they will crush up. Now put them and the
scratchings into a receptacle together, and then add a half-
quartern of barley flour, and mix the whole mass till it
will hang together in lumps. It is now ready for use. The
cost of this ground bait is but trifling, and it is used a good
deal on the Trent. Lumps about the size of a cricket-ball
are thrown in, about two-thirds in one night, and the re-
mainder the night after. The swim can be fished the fol-
lowing day. The angler must remember that before he fishes
the swim he must take a little ground bait with him to use
while he is fishing, and he ought to prepare it fresh the night
before he goes, because it is of no use saving any of that he
prepared first, as it is likely to be sour. Before he scalds his
scratchings, therefore, in the first instance, he ought to save
about a pound of it, a few potatoes, and a handful or two of
the barley meal, which can be prepared either the morning
he starts to fish, or the night before. Of course, when this
ground bait is used, your hook-bait is scratchings, the nicest,
best, and whitest bit you can pick out of some that is
specially scalded, and without the addition of the potatoes
and barley flour (this should also be scalded fresh before you

76 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

use it). A bit of white pipe is a very good bait, and is
much liked by both barbel and chub. The tackle for this
bait should be the same as the worm tackle, except in the
case of the hooks. A lip-hook will not be wanted, and
instead of a No. 5 or 6 hook on the bottom, two No. 7 hooks,
whipped back to back, will be the best, or else the double-
brazed reversed hook, as described in the chapter on Chub ;
indeed, an old friend of mine tells me that these hooks are
the very best he ever tried for barbel fishing with scratchings,
and I agree with him. In baiting, the tackle can be released
from the line, and the pipe slipped over the shots and down,
till it is stopped by the bend of the hooks ; the points are
then covered by a small piece of the scratchings, and the bait
is ready for use. This sort of ground bait, to my mind, has
its objections, for, after you have done fishing the swim, very
few more fish can be caught in it for a week or two after, it
makes them sickly, and I think it spoils the sport for any
one who may happen to follow you soon. In fact, I don't
like the plan at all, but as it is used a good deal on the Trent,
I have thus referred to it. Sometimes I have known when
scarcely a drop of rain has fallen on the parched earth for
weeks, and the river is running remarkably low and clear,
you might as well have thrown your hat on the water for
a bait, as try to catch barbel during the daytime, and yet
during the darkness of the night they would come " on." I
have known several cases of this kind to happen, where a
couple of anglers have been fishing a carefully baited swim
and got next to nothing during the daytime ; and after they
had given it up in disgust, a knowing customer has gone
down just at dusk, and quietly ledgered for two or three
hours, and got six or eight right good fish. When the
water is in the condition as just named, it is necessary to
ground bait with your scratchings prepared in a little dif-
ferent manner to that just described ; instead of being mixed
with the potatoes and barley meal, it should be used just as it
is after scalding or boiling, except that the angler must be very
careful, and with an old pair of scissors clip it up very, very
small, and use it very sparingly (of course this plan of baiting
can be followed during the daytime as well as at night).

THE BARBEL. 77

When night fishing for barbel, I prefer scratchings to
worms ; for in using the latter during the darkness, eels are
apt to bother you, and one of these gentry on your tackle
then, makes rather a curious performance ; but somehow or
other I always fancy that night fishing savours a trifle of
poaching ; still it is perfectly legal, and a nice bit of fun for
a change. The best of all ground bait, in my opinion, for
barbel is about a thousand or so of large lob- worms. These are
procured at night out of the meadows where the grass is short
after a heavy fall of rain or dew, by the aid of a lantern and
candle. In gathering them, step as carefully as you can,
and by the light from the lantern you will see the worms
stretched out on the grass, or at least partly out on the grass
and partly in their holes. Seize each one firmly but care-
fully, and draw it out of its hole. Drop them in a bag or
whatsoever you have with you, but be as still as you can, for
at the least noise they will disappear like lightning into their
holes. A pair of creaking boots are fatal to the success of
the worm-catcher ; he must be prompt in his actions and
move about as stealthily as a mouse.

When you have a sufficient quantity of them, and they
have been scoured for a few days among some clean moss,
you may then proceed to bait the swim. To do this, some
cut them up in pieces and scatter them down the swim, and
also a little above the hole, if it be a hole you are going to
fish, so that the stream may carry them down fair and square
into it. If possible, the angler does this three nights before
he fishes the pitch. About five hundred the first, three hun-
dred the second, and two hundred the third is a good pro-
portion. When he comes to fish the next morning, he must
be sure, before he puts his rod and tackle together, to cut up
a dozen or so and scatter them down the swim. This is an
important point; the reason will be given further on.
Some anglers throw the worms in whole, for this reason —
they say that they live longer in the water and will attract
the fish better, whereas the cut-up worms soon turn bad. I
think myself it is the best to use whole worms, but I prefer
to bait the place first thing in the morning, before or at sun-
rise. The reason of this is obvious, for eels and other

78 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

nocturnal fish 'would be attracted into the swim if you
baited over-night, and get a lot of the ground bait that was
intended for the barbel, therefore I pronounce for morning
baiting.

If you wish to fish a pitch that you cannot bait very well
by scattering the worms down the stream — if, for instance,
the water runs too fast — then a good plan is to have a small
net, something like a cabbage or onion net, and put clay and
worms in it. Then tie a strong cord to it, and cast it in the
stream a little above where you are going to fish ; the action
of the water will cause the worms to work out of the net and
attract the fish into the swim. When you come again to
bait, draw the net out by means of the cord, fill it again,
and repeat the operation until the swim is fully baited.
There is now a baiting-can in use that is a great improve-
ment on the net — after the pattern supplied by that cele-
brated Thames angler Mr. J. P. Wheeldon, I believe, — but
this is more for use from a boat, and while you are fishing
the swim. The worms are put in this thing, and with a cord
it is lowered over the boat's side and down to the bottom,
then a jerk of the cord releases the lid, and out roll the
worms along the river bottom. The practical utility of this
thing must now be apparent to the veriest novice ; for,
supposing you are fishing from a boat, and the swim is
rather rapid, and the water fourteen or more feet deep, and
you throw your worms loose over the side, they would be
carried by the stream clean out of your reach before they
grounded, so I consider this can to be a very useful article in
a barbel fisher's outfit, especially if he does his fishing from a
boat.

Walton says " the barbel is curious for his baits, that they
may be clean and sweet, that is to say, to have your worms
well scoured, and not kept in sour or musty moss, for he is a
curious feeder ; but at a well-scoured lob-worm he will bite
as boldly as at any bait, and especially if, the night or two
before you fish for him, you shall bait the places where you
intend to fish for him with big worms cut into pieces, and
note that none did overbait the place, or fish too early or too
late for a barbel." If this held good in Walton's time, that

THE BARBEL. 79

a well- scoured lob-worm is the best bait for a barbel, it holds
equally as good now. The next business, therefore, is to
procure a well-scoured lob-worm. The maiden lobs are the
very best for the hook ; and may be known very easily,
they are the smallest of the dew worms that you pick up
from the grass, and have no rings or knobs on them. Their
colour is a bright pink, and they are usually about two or
three inches long. These sorts should be picked out from
the others and kept separate, among some fresh moss that
is slightly damped. To make them a clear red colour, you
should have a piece of very soft red brick, and when you
have placed your worms on the top of the moss (a small bar-
rel or a large earthernware vessel is the best to scour, them
in), you should take a nutmeg grater and grate the piece of
brick, so that the dust goes among the worms. Examine
them every day, and pick out all bruised and diseased ones,
and repeat the operation with the brick and nutmeg grater.
This operation will make the worms a splendid red colour,
very tough, and a perfect honne bouche for the barbel. They
will be ready for use in about a week, and if you are careful
with them and adopt this plan, you will have a well-
scoured attractive lob-worm. It is an advantage to have a
reserve stock of worms for use when the weather prevents
you from gathering them ; for this plan procure a very
strong and sound packing-box, and partly fill it with clay,
and get a lot of worms, when the weather is favourable,
and turn them into it, and then put on the top of the clay
some damped moss ; when you want to use these worms,
take as many out as you require, and scour them as directed.
I have known anglers, by this plan, to always have a
plentiful supply of worms, sometimes as many as twenty
thousand at once. The worms that you use for ground
bait should be well-scoured, for, as Walton says, "he is a
curious feeder," that is, he likes to have his food clean. As
an illustration I might just mention a little incident that
came under my own observation. Two anglers were fishing
the barbel swim at the Corporation fishery, Winthorp ;
they had both scoured their hook baits separately, only
with this slight difference, one had had his worms scouring

80 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

for over a week, the other for only a day or two ; one lot
was bright, tough, and of a splendid colour, the other was
dark, dirty, and tender ; each used their own bait ; the one
with the bright baits kept getting fish, the other with the
dirty ones got none ; they changed places, but with the same
result; they both then used the bright and well-scoured
worms, and then both of them took fish. This is one
instance out of many, and goes to prove that the barbel
likes a clean, well-scoured worm. And now we will suppose
the angler has his tackle all right, his barbel swim baited,
and two or three hundred well-scoured maiden lob-worms
in a bag among some moss for his hook baits, and also
about two hundred coarse worms in another bag to cut up
and throw in during the time he is fishing. He will now
be ready for any amount of barbel, but he must remember
to make no more noise than he can help. Whether he
fishes from a boat or the bank, he should never be less than
fifteen yards from the hole he intends to fish ; and having
carefully anchored the boat lengthways down the stream,
or taken his stand on the bank, before he puts his tackle
together, he should take his cocoanut shell and put two or
three dozen worms in it. With a pair of old scissors he cuts
them up in pieces and throws them down his swim. This
will make the fish feel, as it were, at home, and they will
not be so easily frightened ; because when a swim is pro-
perly baited, and you have a nice bait on fine tackle, you
very often hook a fish the first Swim, and if you have not
thrown a few worms in before you begin, the fish are apt
to be frightened at seeing one of their companions in
trouble, and fly from the swim. You will then, perhaps,
be at considerable trouble to entice them back again,
and all for the want of just throwing a few cut-up
worms in. Personal experience, and the experience of old
angling friends, prove this to be correct. Another thing
these old friends have told me, besides my own expe-
rience in the matter, and that is — if when you begin to
fish for barbel, and you take a dace or two the first few
swims, you may make up your mind that there are not many
barbel in the swim, for they do not seem to agree very

THE BAEBEL. 81

well together ; on the other hand, if you take a barbel or
two the first few swims, you may congratulate yourself,
and know that the barbel have got it to themselves. And
now the angler must bait his hooks. Two of the maiden
worms will, in my idea, be the best ; roll the worms in the
bag of sawdust before mentioned, and put the hook in the
first worm about three quarters of an inch from the head
end, and work the worm up to the lip-hook ; leave about
half an inch of the tail end hanging below the bottom
hook, and then stick the lip-hook right through the head
end of the worm, and bring the points of both hooks out
of the worm. Take another worm smaller than the first,
and just hang the head on the lip-hook and the tail end on
the bottom hook, your bait will then be in the shape of a
link, with three or four ends to wriggle about in a most
lively manner; that, in my idea, is the best worm bait you
can use. Sometimes I have put the worms on the hooks
head downwards, and taken fish with, them ; these were at
odd times when I had been an hour without a bite in the
ordinary way of baiting ; but whether this result was an
accident or not, I cannot say. Having your bait now ready
(and you must be sure that it touches the bottom of the
river), let it glide down the swim thirty, forty, or even fifty
yards from the boat or stand. When you have covered the
entire distance where you suppose your ground bait to be,
without a bite, wind up the line on the reel and repeat the
operation. If you have a bite, don't be in a hurry, give him
a second or two to take the bait, and then strike pretty
smartly to fix the hook well. Should your float be forty
yards away, you must strike a little harder than when it is
only twenty yards from you, as you have a good length of
line to lift off the water, and when you find you are fast in
a fish, wind him out of the hole as quickly as possible. Let
him run as near the boat as you can, and then he won't dis-
turb the others. When I say wind him out as quickly as
possible, I don't mean a sort of a pully-hauly system — a
dragging out of the fish neck and crop, because your tackle
would not stand it, but as soon as you can, get him under
the rod's point ; keep a tight line on him, and when he is

G

82 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

exhausted your companion should put the landing-net in
the water as carefully as possible. You then bring the fish
over it, and with a sharp lift you have him. Never dash
the net in the water right in front of his nose, or perhaps
the sudden fright may make him give an unexpected bolt
when you were not prepared for it ; be very cautious in
this respect, or you may lose both fish and tackle, and then
you will perhaps think of the quotation —

u The waters wild closed o'er the child,
And I am left lamenting."

I inferred a little time back that when the barbel were
biting you would catch no dace, and when the dace were
feeding you would catch no barbel ; of course, I allude to
the two fish in the same swim at the same time. Now, I
don't want it to be understood, for a moment, that you
never catch the two together, for occasionally dace and
barbel are taken together, but I mean it is not a general
thing to find the two fish feeding very freely at the same
time and in the same swim. I remember once fishing in a
good barbel swim a short distance above Newark, with an
old friend — a capital angler. We had baited the swim
properly, and reckoned on a good take of barbel, but that
time we had reckoned without our host ; water was right,
tackle was right, bait was right, in fact everything was right
except the barbel, and they were conspicuous by their
absence, for not a single barbel did we take in the
two days, but nearly every swim we took a dace ; now I
supposed that there were no barbel in the swim or else the
dace would not have fed so freely, and I have still every
reason to believe I was right in my suj^position. On the
other hand, I can remember taking half a dozen barbel and
the same quantity of dace out of one swim, though as a set
off to this I have known good catches of barbel and not a
single dace among them.

When I was first initiated into the mysteries of the Trent
and its fish, I supposed, as the barbel was a big fish, I
should require very powerful tackle to take it. I had for a
companion an old friend with very much the same opinion ;

THE BARBEL. 83

in fact, you may put us down as being very much un-
initiated just then. Well, as it happened, we had got our
ground bait in all right, more by good luck than good
management, I must now confess ; the water was very bright,
the tackle very coarse. My old friend, who had a predilec-
tion for spectacles, had them as usual astride his nose, when,
by accident, they fell off, and sank to rise no more. There,
in fact, we were in fine water with coarse tackle, trying to
catch barbel. Of course it was " no go." The result was
only two small fish in five hours. " There are no barbel in
the swim," said my old friend ; " let's give it up and go
home." " Oh, no," said I, " let's try a little longer. I believe
it is all owing to your spectacles that we are getting no barbel,
for I believe there are a lot down there, only they keep
putting your gig-lamps on in turns to examine the bait."
The idea of a big barbel with a pair of goggles on was too
much for my old friend's risible faculties. He looked at me
and laughed, then drew the cork from the bottle, and, as he
said " the joke was too good to pass by without wetting,"
took a good swig. About half an hour after, another
angler came down with his rod and tackle, we explained our
difficulty to him ; he knew his business ; he looked at our
worms, they were all right ; so, at our invitation, he put
his tackle together, and now, for the first time, I saw my
mistake. His tackle did not look strong enough to land a
roach, while his line, I thought, would hardly do to whip
hooks on with, so fine was it. In about an hour, however,
eight more good barbel lay on the grass, all killed with his
fine pale blue tackle, without losing a single fish. This
was rather a severe eye-opener to us, and proved by demon-
stration that fine tackle was decidedly superior to ours.
Those anglers who go in for extra fine fishing, use a sort of
gut that is sold at the tackle shops, called "drawn gut:"
it is very fine and very strong. I like a length of it on the
bottom of my barbel tackle. I have seen Mr. Eudd, of
the Eeindeer Inn, Newark, use a barbel tackle made
entirely of this fine-drawn gut, and with a very light float
he has succeeded in making some grand catches of barbel.
Once, in particular, I remember he and three visitors were

g 2

84 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

barbel fishing and used that sort of tackle, and at nearly
every swim he was fast in a barbel till he had landed a very
good catch, whilst his companions could scarcely show a
single fin. Fishing for barbel with this extra fine gut is
perhaps not a very safe plan. I find the ordinary fine gut
as recommended for chub, and stained as directed in Chapter
II., to be all that is required. Some anglers like round bent
hooks, and some like sneck bent ones. I think a round
bent Carlisle hook is the best, for you can put a worm on
it so much nicer than you can on a sneck bent one. An
old friend of mine, when barbel fishing, after the first mad
rush or two of the fish and when he once begins to wind on him
and gets the float above water, hardly ever allows the float
to disappear again, but holds him tight and lets the spring
of the rod kill him. I don't recommend this, but still it is
done by that old friend of mine, and he is a very good and
successful angler. If your barbel is only a small one, it is
perhaps as well to hold him tight, but if he feels heavy
don't risk losing fish and tackle by not allowing him to have
a little of his own way. The mouth of a barbel being
situated very much underneath, and as he has some very
hard leathery jaws, it is certain if you hook him firmly you
need not fear the hook cutting through. A moderately
sharp stroke is necessary to fix the hook well, and when he
is once well hooked, the hold very seldom gives way.

" Tight corking " is a plan that is adopted by many barbel
fishers on the Trent. For this style a cork float a trifle larger
than the one in use for "traveller" fishing is the best, except
that it must be adjusted so that the bait lies well on the
bottom, say about two feet deeper than the distance between
the float and the ground. The bait is thrown in and allowed
to swim down as far away from you as you think requisite ;
it is then held stationary, and you can tell at once by the
bobbing of the float when a barbel attacks the bait. This
plan is chiefly used if the swim be a deep hole or eddy not
far from the bank. I like the plan under these circumstances,
but as a general rule I prefer to fish with a traveller float, so
as to let the bait be always moving about over the swim, or in
other words, wherever the ground bait may be. (I have given

THE BARBEL. 85

full instructions for throwing the float and hait to any dis-
tance required in Chapter II.), but if the water is over eight
feet deep I should use a slider or " traveller " float. At the
beginning of the barbel fishing season, say during the month
of July, two caddis on a No. 7 hook and a light float and
tackle will be found a good bait, especially in such places as
the piles or at the bottom of the woodwork of old bridges,
or in the eddies and streams that run from a weir. Barbel
will sometimes take a lump of cheese or a bunch of gentles,
or in fact almost any bait, for I have known them to take
a bit of paste or a grain of creed wheat or malt, when roach
fishing, and the sport a three-pounder will give you on fine
roach tackle is something for you to remember. Worms
and scratchings are, however, the principal baits for barbel, and
as I have said and directed, it is necessary to well ground bait
for them. Fair catches of barbel have been made without
any previous baiting, a dozen worms or so being clipped up
and thrown in as you go along, but it is not a very safe plan.
Indeed, it may be said that even after a pitch has been well
baited it is not certain that one will catch fish, and the angler
is more often disappointed than not. Barbel fishing now-a-
days is a very precarious job, for barbel are more often " off"
than " on." Years ago they were nearly always "on" during
the months of August, September, and October, but of late
years the angler has to put up with two or three disappoint-
ments for one success.

If you find it is not possible to fish the place with a float,
if, for instance, the stream runs too fast, or you wish to fish
in the rushing, boiling waters of a weir tail — which latter
place I may impress upon my readers is a capital one for
barbel — (there are generally two or three lazy eddies in the
close vicinity of a weir, and in these the big ones love to lie),
you will have to do what is locally known as plumbing or
ledgering. For this plan a bottom tackle about a yard long
with a few split shots on it is required, and the " ledger " is
either a long pear-shaped lead, or a flat triangular one. Some
anglers put this lead on their lines and pinch a split shot
below it close to the loop of the tackle, but I think it is best
to put the ledger on a small length of fine gimp, and make

86 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

a loop at each end. The reel line can be fastened to one
loop and the loop of the tackle can be put through the loop
on the gimp. The hook is brought through the tackle loop
and drawn tight, it is then perfectly fast. The lead is liable
to cut the line if it is put on that, so I think the gimp is
better. When this plan is adopted in the rough waters of a
weir, a stronger line and tackle is used. The waters are
mostly discoloured by the stream stirring up the sand at the
bottom, and there are mostly a lot of big stones, piles and
obstructions generally in the neighbourhood of a weir. When
also a fish is hooked and bolts for his " hover," it has to be a
clear case of " pull devil, pull baker." The hooks and baits
for this style are the same as for float fishing.

If the angler has not the time to properly bait a swim, he
can fish in a style known as "roving" for barbel. Having
found a likely-looking spot, he cuts up a very few worms and
throws them in, and then fishes it with either the traveller
float, the ledger, or tight corking ; if he gets a fish or two, well
and good, if not, he looks for another place and tries again.
Should the water be low and bright you will find, as a rule,
the barbel in the deepest holes, but if, on the other hand, the
water is high and very much discoloured, you will find them
on the shallows ; for they, like pigs, like to root amongst the
sand on the bottom. I remember only last year that one of
the night-line parties set their lines during a fresh on the
shallows below Winthorp, and for two or three nights, while
the water was up, they had some very nice catches of barbel,
but as soon as the water went down they ceased catching barbel
there, the fish having retired into the deep holes. During a
fresh in August and September some good barbel are often
taken by ledgering or long corking close to the bank, for they
are then roving about in search of food. A friend of mine
told me some time back, that he had given instructions for the
baiting of a barbel swim with worms some few years ago. He
anticipated it had been done according to his instructions,
but judge of his disgust when they went to fish it to find that,
instead of throwing the worms in the hole where there were
ten or twelve feet of water, they had been thrown into the
wrong place, so that they worked into an eddy of about four

THE BARBEL. 87

feet deep on ordinary occasions. However, there had been a
lot of rain a few days before, and the water was just rising,
and it was the luckiest chance in the world (as it afterwards
turned out) that the bait was put in where it was. The
water rose a yard during the day, and at night they had one
of the best catches of barbel he ever saw. If the bait had
been put in the hole, ten to one if they would have caught a
single fish. This case goes to prove that barbel rove about
the shallows during a fresh.

I have always found that just when the water is rising,
you can catch barbel ; but it is no good to bait a swim during
a fresh. The first day the water conies on is worth all the
rest of the time it is up put together.

A piece of a lampern on the ledger tackle is a very good
bait for big barbel ; these baits (lamperns) are a peculiar eel-
shaped fish. Very heavy fish have been killed by its agency,
especially late in the season when the lamperns were running.
There is one thing finally I must mention as a caution to the
angler. It is this, don't overfeed the barbel while they are
biting. Many a day's sport has been spoilt by this very
foolish plan. If the fish go off biting a little, throw in
about half a dozen broken worms to set them on the feed
again ; this number will generally be found sufficient.

As a fish for the table, the barbel is one of the very worst ;
it is coarse, watery, bony, and flavourless ; but if the angler
fancies he should like one cooked, he can prepare it the same
as I directed for big chub.

88 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE,

CHAPTER V.

THE ROACH.

To be a successful roach fisher is the highest attainment in
the bottom fisher's art. He must be possessed of great skill,
patience, and ingenuity, and also a thorough knowledge of
the habits of the fish. Further, he must be able to detect
the places where roach are likely to be found, and know
what places they avoid ; he must pay particular attention to
a number of the most minute details, a good swim must be
selected, and then must be fished at the exact depth. A
very fine tackle must be used, and in hooking a roach, the
angler must have a regular roach trick, that is, he must do it
without a jerk of any kind, simply in a momeDt by a single
turn of the wrist. Walton says, " When you fish for roach,
you must have a small hook, a quick eye, and a nimble
hand." Walton, too, says that the roach is " accounted the
water sheep for his simplicity or foolishness ;" but roach now-
a-days are not so foolish and simple as they were in old
Izaak's time. 'Tis true the roach in a pond, where they are
small and half-starved, and where they seldom see the
presence of an angler or a rod, might be foolish, and allow
themselves to be caught by any sort of bait and tackle (and
I know that roach in our well-fished river, during the latter
part of May, are perfectly reckless, and will allow themselves
to be caught by dozens with the cad bait, when the spawn
and milt has been running from them) ; but the well-fed,
good-conditioned, and aldermanic roach of our well-fished
river are not to be caught by any tyro during August and
the following months, for they are amazingly shy of the
hook. They seem to me to be highly educated then, and
pretty wide-awake to the angler's proceedings. A reckless

THE ROACH. 89

stamping up and down the bank, or a peering over into it,
or working a plumb all over it, to see how deep it is, are all
fatal to the success of the roach fisher. His motto must be
"fine and far off," thus to keep out of sight as much as
possible. Then, and then only, with suitable tackle, baits,
and a good swim, he may stand a chance of deceiving a few
roach.

The roach is a member of the carp family, and his specific
name is Cyprinus Rutilus. When in good condition he is
a handsome fish. One writer, paraphrasing Yarrell, thus
describes him. " The colour of the upper part of the head
is dusky green, with blue reflections, becoming lighter on the
sides, and passing into silvery white on the belly, the irides
yellow, cheeks and gill covers silvery white ; dorsal and caudal
fins pale brown, tinged with red ; pectoral fins orange red ;
ventral and anal fins bright red ; the scales are rather large,
marked with consecutive and radiating lines ; large eyes, the
circles of which are of a gold colour, and the iris red ; their
scales are very smooth, except during and just after spawning
time, when they feel to the touch like a nutmeg grater."
This seems to me to be a pretty fair description, and any one
reading it, who has never seen a roach, would come to the
conclusion that he is a very handsome fish. He also has a
small head and a leather mouth, with a pecular top lip.
This lip, if you take hold of it, raise it, and bring it forward,
shows to you that it has the power of elongation, and that
it is shaped something like a hood. This power seems to prove
that the fish can take his food on the bottom like a barbel ;
or retaining the lip in its ordinary position that he can take
a bait in midwater, or on the surface like a dace. I have
found, however, that roach are, for the most part, a ground-
feeding fish. As an illustration I may say, I was only last
year fishing a good swim with a friend. The swim was well
baited, and we both had to stand side by side, and allow
our floats and baits to travel down together ; we each fished
with the same bait. I fished, however, on the bottom, and
he was some eight or ten inches above it. We did this by
mutual consent, and during the whole of the time he never
caught a roach, and I did not take a single dace. We both

90 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

had very good catches, and strange as it may appear, that my
fish were roach and his were dace, the conclusions I arrived
at then backed up my former observation, viz. that roach are
for the most part, a ground-feeding fish ; I know that they
will take an artificial or a natural fly on the surface ; it is the
formation, therefore, of the mouth that allows them to take
a bait at all depths. (The above will be found a good plan
to fish a swim that you know contains both roach and dace. )
I have been rather particular in my description of a roach,
because the would-be roach anglers ought to know the pecu-
liarities and habits of these fish, and also because during
certain stages of their growth, they may be confounded with
fish of an apparently similar character, but which on closer
observation, side by side, are widely different. Koach
spawn about the latter end of May, and are very prolific
fish. They are then very slimy, and have a lot of rough pim-
ples on their scales. When they have done spawning they
retire into deep holes, or among the thick weeds, and live
upon the weeds and the insects found among them. About
the latter end of July or so they come out of the weeds, and
take more to the open water ; and they may be found some-
times in considerable quantities by the side of rushes, flags,
or weed beds, especially if the water is from five to eight
feet deep. About this time, when as old roach fishers say,
" The weed is out of them," and the slimy coat they wore
among the weeds has worn off, their scales are smooth and
bright, and their fins nice and clear. They are in very good
condition, and are very shy ; and it is now that it requires an
artist in the business to take them. Eoach prefer a sandy
bottom, do not like a muddy one ; in fact, a river roach, I may
say, is a very clean fish. His baits have to be clean and sweet.
If there be any suspicion of dirt or sourness about them, he
will have none of them.

The roach fisher should be able to find out what sort of a
bottom the river has before he fishes it. I know a very good
roach fisher, who, when he is on the look-out for a new
swim, has a lump of lead with a flat bottom, on which he
sticks a piece of soap, and by letting this down to the bot-
tom, generally manages to bring up enough of the sand or

THE ROACH. 91

whatever it is to judge by. Roach very seldom exceed three
pounds in weight ; and we have very few instances where
the fish reach this. A two-pound roach would be considered
a giant if taken from the Trent; and I have only seen
one roach that reached this weight. This was caught by a
labourer with a large lob- worm for a bait ; it weighed 2 lb.
5 oz., and it was literally quite greyheaded. The Avon, I
believe, has the biggest roach j I have heard of them being
frequently taken from that river of the weight of from two
pounds to two and a half pounds. Two-pound roach are
sometimes taken in the Thames ; but in the Trent I only
know of the solitary one mentioned above. A half-pounder
is a sizeable fish, a pounder is a good one, while a pound and
a half fish would make the heart of a Trent angler rejoice ;
indeed, I have known the first prize for a specimen roach to
be taken with a pound fish. I once took fifteen roach that
weighed fourteen pounds; and again, seventeen fish that
weighed fifteen pounds ; and an old friend of mine once took
six grand fish close to Newark, weighing seven pounds, and
not an ounce difference was there in the weight of them.
It appears that big roach are more plentiful in the Trent
than I had thought possible. When the bream hole at the
bottom of Foottitt's meadow was netted some years ago (so
one of the men who were engaged in that business told me),
there were several roach got out that weighed from two to
three pounds each, and since I penned the foregoing notes,
there have been several caught and weighed in our local clubs
that have turned the scale at from one and a half pounds to
one and three-quarter pounds a-piece, and only a few weeks
ago, two were weighed in that scaled two pounds, one ounce,
and two pounds, four ounces, respectively.

Eoach are very fond of a lazy eddy by the side of a swift
stream, and being a bulky fish are not found much in very
strong and rapid waters. They like the slow, lazy curls
under bushes, or the slow streams by the side of flags, rushes,
&c; quiet lie-byes or corners away from the main stream are
very much affected by roach ; streams that flow at the rate
of not more than two miles an hour ; or in the curls and eddies
in the vicinity of a weir, or in the neighbourhood of an old

92 BOTTOM WISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

wooden bridge, and sometimes they are found in the shallows
of a mill tail. These are the places where roach are princi-
pally found, and it is in such places as those that the suc-
cessful roach fisher pursues his quarry. The food of roach
consists of grubs, flies, grasshoppers, worms, cad baits, weeds,
and water insects, gentles, bread, paste, rice, pearl barley,
creed malt, wheat, &c, &c. The last few that I have men-
tioned are the very best hook baits you can have. Indeed,
to put it correctly, gentles stand first, cad baits second, worms
next, then paste, pearl barley, creed wheat, and malt. These
baits, if they are properly used, are all that is required by
the bottom fisher for roach.

As a fish for the table, they are a little better than chub
and barbel. Nicely fried, a good roach out of a gravelly
stream, during the autumn and winter months, is not to be
despised, and is a very palatable addition to the breakfast-
table. "The Freshwater Fisheries Act of 1878 "seems to
me to be hardly satisfactory as far as roach are concerned, for
on the 1 5th of March these fish are in the very best condi-
tion, and could very well be taken for another month — that
is, as regards the Trent ; while on the 15th of June they
have not all of them done spawning, and for another month
at least they are slimy, lumpy, and in a generally wretched
state. I think, therefore, that anglers ought not to take them
before the middle of July.

Having looked at the roach and his habits, we will turn to
the tackle that is necessary to take him ; the rod, reel, and
line described in Chapter II., and recommended for chub,
will do, but if the angler goes in for roach fishing alone,
then a rod that is lighter will be better \ such an one, for
instance, as I have now before me. The length is about
eleven feet tapered from the butt to the point to a nicety ;
wire guards are on the rings, and these prevent the line from
catching or hitching round them. Such a rod will hook a
roach in an instant, by that almost imperceptible turn of the
wrist so necessary in a good roach angler. It is well balanced,
and only weighs about 12 oz.; this is a splendid roach rod,
but, as I have said before, for the working-man angler who
goes in for general bottom fishing, and can afford only one

THE ROACH. 93

rod, the first-mentioned one will be the best ; if he goes in
for roach alone, he can, if he likes, have one of the very finest
Derby twist lines, instead of the next size recommended for
chub ; and his bottom tackle should also be of the very finest
gut he can buy. He should make his bottom tackle from
three to five feet in length, to suit the depth of the water ;
though a five-foot tackle will be long enough if he has to fish
fifteen feet deep. Some anglers use horsehair for their tackle,
which will do very well ; but I have seen gut thinner than
horsehair, and I am sure that fine gut is better in all respects
than hair. I have used no hair lately, and I have come to
the conclusion, after careful practice, that extra fine gut is
best I think the best plan for roach tackle is to have an
extra fine-drawn gut bottom or trace, about a yard long, with
a loop at each end, and a dozen or so of various-sized roach
hooks, tied or whipped on single lengths of this extra fine
drawn gut, with a loop at the other end ; this loop is to be
joined to one of the loops of the trace, in the manner already
described elsewhere ; and the other loop of the trace is to be
fastened to the reel line, the number of shots required for
the float being put on the trace. This plan of your roach
tackle has two very good points in its favour ; first, it is
cheaper in the end, because I have found that I don't waste so
many as with ordinarymade drawn gut tackle ; and secondly,
it is much easier for you to change the hook, if you want to
use a different size; instead of being at the trouble of taking
the whole tackle off, and re-shotting another, you would only
just have to take the bottom length off, and replace it with
another that had the necessary-sized hook to it.

A very important article in a roach fisher's outfit is his
float ; if the water is quiet or very nearly so, he must have
a float made of the smallest of goose or crow quills, one that
will carry about three or four split shots ; but if there is a bit
of a stream, he can increase the size of his float, and the
number of shots on the tackle. He need not on any account
have a float any larger than will carry about eight small
shots ; indeed in very quiet waters a self-cocking float will
be the best. This can be easily made out of two small
quills. Use the two tops and join them together with a little

94 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

plug of wood in the middle, in the bottom piece of quill two
or three small shots are placed. This float should be about
four inches long, and it can be fastened to the line with
a quill cap on each end ; to make this float watertight,
it should be bound where the join is, tightly and closely,
with a bit of well waxed silk or cotton. The utility of this
float is apparent to all thoughtful anglers, because when you
scatter your ground bait in a still water it breaks up and
sinks very gradually ; and then if you plump the hook bait
in, and there is a long necklace of split shots on the tackle,
the bait sinks so much differently to the way in which the
ground bait did, and the shy and suspicious roach would see
the fraud at once. When the water is clear in these still
quiet places, the nearer you approach nature the greater is
your chance of success. The ground bait as just noticed
sinks down gradually, and the hook bait ought to do the
same ; so if the weight is in the float, without there being
any on the tackle, the hook and the bait will sink down as
gradually as did the ground bait, and be more likely to de-
ceive the fish. The float for roaching in ordinary swims on
the Trent will carry about half a dozen split shots ; and I
must again impress upon the angler, that he ought not to
have one of them less than eighteen inches from the hook.
The others also ought to be down the tackle at distances of
six inches or so from each other ; the bait will then swim
straighter in the water, and the fish will be less wary than
if all the shots were huddled together in one place on the
gut. The float of a roach fisher should be so nicely weighted
that it will indicate in an instant a roach bite. The angler
may ask himself the question, What is a roach bite % The
answer would be, " When the fish snaps at the bait and
takes it;" but I believe that in quiet or semi-quiet waters,
a roach does not snap at a bait and swallow it instantly ; in
paste fishing this is so especially. I remember reading some
time ago of experiments tried with different fish in an
aquarium. Dace and trout snap at the bait ; but the roach
generally took it in a different way ; he would swim up near
the bait, open his mouth and draw in a current of water, to-
gether with the bait. Should it please the fish, it is imme-

THE ROACH. 95

diately swallowed, and the water ejected through the gills,
hut the moment he finds out that there is something amiss,
such as a line attached to it, or the taste does not suit him,
he instantly blows it out with great force, along with the
mouthful of water he has just taken in ; and the bigger the
fish, the more cautious they are in this proceeding. In
fishing with gentles for roach it is a very common occurrence
to find the gentles blown up the tackle, sometimes a couple
of inches from the hook ; the roach had tried to blow the
bait from his mouth, but the angler had been too quick for
him, the hook had penetrated the mouth, and the bait had
been blown up the gut, instead of both hook and bait being
forcibly ejected, which would most certainly have been the
case had the angler waited another instant before he struck.
The would-be angler will now see at once the necessity of
having a float that will indicate a bite of this description,
and the smaller the quill, the better it will be. Some
anglers in roach fishing only have the extreme tip of the
float out of the water. Now I think this is scarcely enough ;
he should have half an inch at least out, on purpose to pro-
perly indicate a roach bite. When the roach draws in the
bait, in the manner described, the float perhaps does not bob
down, but merely tilts over a little sideways, and the
angler ought to respond on the instant. How many times
has an angler seen his float give a hardly perceptible bob,
and has waited until he has had another and more decided
one, and then found on striking that his bait was gone, and
there was no fish on his hook 1 The crafty old roach had
drawn the bait into his mouth at the first little bob of the
float, and that was the time to have met him by the magic
turn of the wrist. In the moment between the first bob and
the second, the roach found out that there was something
wrong, and so blew the bait out, and it was the very act of
blowing out that caused the second and more decided bob of
the float. One of the very best roach fishers we have in
Newark tells me that he has very often noticed this peculiar
biting of the roach when he has been fishing with a stationary
bait in quiet waters. He says he always gives a short twitch,
let the float move as it likes ; sometimes, he has noticed that

96 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

the float has been thrown upwards a trifle ; and then again it
might only tilt over a little ; and he is now of the firm con-
viction that all these moves indicate a roach bite, a conviction
that I most heartily share. It is always the largest and best
roach that bite in this sly and unobtrusive manner ; it is
nevertheless true that anybody can catch roach at those odd
times when the fish are quietly sucking down the bait and
hooking themselves ; but it is not very often that he is " on,"
like that. Very small fish will bob down the float and make
the angler think he has got a most important bite ; but the
big fellows in a quiet water, when they are not very well "on,"
are not to be taken by anybody. When you are fishing with
gentles in a slight stream, and your float is travelling down,
you cannot notice this action of your float, but it will be the
best to strike promptly on the least indication of a bite -y more
roach have been lost by waiting a trifle for a second bo b, than
have been taken. I think I have shown the necessity of
having a float to properly indicate a roach bite, and now we
will look for a minute or two at the roach hooks ; these should
be carefully selected and tested before whipping them on the
gut. Some anglers like a hook that is short in the shank and
very fine in the wire ; as they say " you can thread a gentle
on them so much nicer," but I don't care for them, because
if your hook is very short in the shank you cannot hook your
fish properly (they do not strike sufficiently true on the point
of the hook). Tie two hooks on two pieces of gut, the one
with a short shank, and the other with a shank a little longer,
and fix the points in something, and then pull the gut gently,
and you will see then what angles the hooks and gut form.
The one with a short shank will approach a right angle a great
deal nearer than the one with the longer one ; so you will see
by this that when you strike a roach with the short shanked
hook, you will most probably draw the hook out of his mouth
instead of into his jaw ; or, in other words, when you struck
the fish, the hook failed to penetrate the jaw, because the
angle formed by the point of the hook on the gut and shank
was too great : whereas a longer shanked hook would have
pulled straighter from the point. Hooks that are extra fine
in the wire, too, have their objections. They will spring

THE EOACH. 97

open when you strike a fish with them. A fish with a hard,
leathery mouth takes a hook of this fine wire, and instead of
it at once penetrating the jaw, it springs open, and the barb
is not buried, and the result is the loss of the fish. I like a
hook of a medium length in the shank, and moderately stout
in the wire ; and if you take notice of your hooks, you will see
that the points of some point outwards from the shank, while
others point inwards. I like those pointing inwards, for I
have fancied that I have hooked my fish better with them.
When the point stands very much outwards, the hook is liable
to cut itself out ; but when they stand inwards they are more
liable to take, as it were, a fresh grip the further tliey go in.
These hooks should be very neatly and closely whipped to the
gut, and the best sizes you can use will be No. 8 lor the tail,
end of lob- worms ; No. 9 for cockspurs, paste, creed wheat, or
malt: Nos. 10, 11, and 12 for gentles, according to the biting
of the fish, or the fineness of the water, and all these hooks
should be the bright, round bend, Carlisle hooks. If the
water is fine, use a small hook, and when you whip these
hooks to the gut be sure and have the gut on the inside of
the shank : and, as I have before said, use gut that is round
smooth drawn, and of the very finest description. If the
angler, however, fancies he would like a hair tackle, the
best hairs for the purpose are those from the tail of a young
chestnut horse. Black hairs are not so good J in fact, don't
have them if you can get anything else. Personally, I have
long since discarded hair in favour of the very finest gut,
and this gut should be stainel as recommended in Chapter
II. During the summer and autumn, or, indeed, any time
when you can get them, gentles or maggots are the best bait
you can have for roach. Some fishers like white maggots,
and some yellow ; the yellow ones are the best ; they are best
procured from a bullock's liver; hangth s liver up somewhere
where the blowflies frequent, only before so doing slash it all
over with a knife, the flies will then lay their eggs in the
crevices ; when it appears to be sufficiently blown, it should
be taken down and put in a vessel of some kind ; in a few
days the eggs will have hatched, and in a few more will
have fed themselves up to their full size. They should then

H

98 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

be removed into another vessel half full of bran, and only a
few pieces of the liver left with them to feed on ; as soon as
they lose the dark spot, and assume a pale yellow colour, they
are scoured and fit for the hook. They should be kept in a
cool place, with plenty of air. The white gentles are bred
from fish ; three or four cods' heads well blown, and treated
in the same manner as the liver, make capital white maggots ;
but the yellow ones are the best. Gentles can be kept far
into the winter, and if the angler desires this, he should get
his bullock's liver, or whatever it is, well blown late in the
season, and then press it into a box that is half filled with
sand and bran ; it is then covered over with the sand and
buried in the earth, and when the angler wants to use his
gentles a couple of months after, he will mostly find them in
good condition ; gentles for ground bait can be procured
from a bone or knacker's yard. These are not fit for the
hook : "a quart or two of them will be sufficient to bait the
swim ; in slow-ruuning swims on the Trent this is as good a
ground bait as can be used. The angler scatters them in
during the time he is fishing, and good sport is often
obtained by this means ; indeed, it is more often practised by
Nottingham anglers than any other plan for roach fishing.
Two gentles are put on the hook, and the fisher throws in
and lets his float swim down as far away as he thinks fit,
very often thirty or forty yards from him. When the fish
slacken in their biting he scatters them another handful of
the coarse gentles, and a very few of the scoured ones.

It sometimes happens when the angler is fishing with
gentles and the fish are very shy — biting and nibbling very
cautiously, though sufficiently to move the float — that the
angler strikes time after time, and yet cannot hook his fish or
only just feels them for a moment, and that when he has
drawn out his bait he finds that his gentles are nothing but
a bit of skin. The fish have sucked and squeezed the insides
out. When this is the case I have found the best plan is to
take off the No. 10 hook you are using, and whip on instead
a No. 1 2, and instead of having two gentles on, only use one,
and sticking the hook through the thick end of the gentle,
just let it go twisting down the stream in a lively manner.

VI.

cieo^J*

THE EOACH. 99

Sometimes I have managed to deceive a few after using this
" dodge."

If you can manage to find a few cad baits or if you have a
few wasp grubs with you, you will find it to be to your
advantage to change the baits pretty often, that is, if the
fish are biting very slow and shy ; i.e., sometimes use one
gentle, then two, or a wasp grub and a cad bait. 1 have
found all these dodges to answer ; in fact, if the angler wants
to be a successful roach fisher, he must try all the dodges that
suggest themselves to him, but he must beware of overfeed-
ing the fish, his business being to attract them and not to
overfeed them. A quart or two of coarse gentles are plenty
to fish a forty yards swim all day. Two or three handfuls of
them are scattered in before the fisherman's tackle is put
together, and then after he has got the proper depth he puts
in another handful After this he takes about a dozen of
his scoured gentles and throws them in, just to give the fish
a taste of what they may expect. He only now renews his
baiting when the fish give over feeding, and this must be
done sparingly. Thus by all the dodges I have named, viz.
changing the baits, fishing fine and far off, keeping out of
sight as much as possible, he may manage to secure a bag of
roach, should the day be anything like, even if the fish are
only biting indifferently. If the angler has not been able to
procure any coarse gentles and has only a few scoured ones
with him, a very good substitute can be made for his ground
bait as follows : — Take a basin-full of broken bread or refuse
crusts and put them in a small receptacle, arid pour boiling
water upon them sufficient to cover them. Put a cover over
it then to keep the steam in, and let it stand an hour or two ;
the water is now to be drained and the bread squeezed up so
that no lumps are left. While the bread is going through
the process of scalding, the operator can have a pound of two-
penny rice in a bag boiling on the fire (be sure that the bag
is big enough to allow the rice to swell), and when it is
thoroughly cooked and the bread ready, a quartern or so of
bran is added, and the whole mixed well together till it is a
very stiff pudding. A handful or two of barley meal is an
improvement to this. It is necessary to be sure that this

h 2

100 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

mixture is made fresh just before it is wanted to be used, for
it is apt to turn sour. Mind and make it up as stiff as you
can, for if it is too soft it will rise to the surface and swim
away. The. cost of this ground bait is only trifling, and I
have proved its efficacy to my own satisfaction. The quantities
I have given will make about a dozen lumps the size of your
fist, and will be plenty for any ordinary swim. It is all the
better if you can manage to drop two or three lumps of it in
your swim the night before you fish, a round stone about the
size of a large walnut being placed in each lump, which
should be dropped in quietly. Be sure that the bran is
sweet and not musty when this ground bait is being made,
or your chance with the roach will not be a very good one.
When this ground bait is used and one is fishing with gentles,
a very few of the latter scattered down the swim will be an
improvement. A little wrinkle I will also give you now :
the biggest fish very often lie at the extreme end of the
swim, and so don't be afraid to let your float go a few extra
yards. I have seen splendid roach struck time after time
when the float has been forty yards away, ay, and hooked
too.

Of course, paste, creed malt, or wheat, can be used in this
style of fishing, and with that ground bait ; but good roach
anglers adopt a different plan for paste baits. They use
the paste and grain in nice quiet waters by the side of
streams, just over some flags or weeds are very good spots, or
where a corner or any obstruction forms a slow eddy ; in
fact, anywhere in a very lazy stream that they know or think
contains roach and is of four or five feet depth. Paste
baits are fished as a stationary bait, and this style is locally
known as " pegging." The tackle is the same as for the
other method, and is hardly ever used or practised above a
yard from the bank, unless the rushes or weeds extend
further out. Your pill of paste is put nicely on the hook
and then thrown out, the slight stream gradually works
the float and bait down till it is from five to fifteen yards
below you, according to circumstances, and it is then held
stationary, the float indicating when you have a bite. I
have taken good roach by this plan when the stream has

THE ROACH. 10 L

worked the float to within a foot of the bank. It is
necessary in following this plan, to sit on the bank as low
down as possible, so as to be as much out of sight as you
can ; there should be a steady, gentle current for this style :
you throw your ground bait in a yard or two above you, so
that it works down the stream, you then try the depth, and
arrange the float so that you are at least six inches deeper
than the swim ; or deeper than this, if the current is a little
stronger, and then you fish it, as already indicated. Capital
bags of roach are often taken by this plan ; especially if the
angler roves about after them, and tries every likely-looking
pl;ue he comes to ; and I know places, or stretches of the
river, a mile long, and every yard almost has been a suit-
able place. Various plans are adopted for making paste*,
but as good a paste as you can have is made of a bit of
white bread crumb, the bread being dipped in water and
squeezed until all the water is expressed, it is then worked
up with the fingers to the proper consistency. This makes
a capital paste for this " pegging " business. Some anglers
say this paste is improved by adding a little honey and gin
to it, but I have never found that to be any better than
the plain paste. Coloured pastes are sometimes used with
advantage; they are made exactly the same as the plain
bread paste mentioned above, excepting the colouring. To
colour a paste red I roll the paste about a lump of red
lead, and work it well, until it assumes a nice pink colour.
Don't get any more of the lead, however, among the paste
than you can help. A little vermillion added to the paste
is better, however, than red lead. Another coloured paste I
use is made by adding a little chrome yellow to the bread
paste. Some good roach have been taken by these coloured
pastes, but I don't personally think they are an improvement,
on the whole, on the plain paste ; when I fish with paste, it is
very seldom I use anything but the plain. Nevertheless, I
know a very good roach fisher who uses these plain coloured
pastes, if I may be allowed the term, and he certainly does make
some oood catches at times. The angler can, however, please
himself, but whether he uses the plain or the coloured, when
he makes it his hands must be perfectly clean, and it would be

]02 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

an advantage when the angler goes for a long day's paste
fishing and the weather is warm, to take a bit of bread with
him, so that he can make another lump of paste by the river
side if necessary, as the one he mixed before he started
would have a tendency to turn sour after a few hours.
These pastes should be rolled up in a bit of damp white rag,
and I suppose I need not tell you this ought to be clean. I
might just say that new bread is nothing like so good as
bread a day or two old, and home-made bread is not so good
as that from the baker's.

The ground bait that I have described can be used in this
fishing, but anglers generally take a few pieces of bread with
them, and chew them up and spit into the swim, or rather
blow them out of their mouths, and some good catches of
roach are sometimes made by this plan without any previous
baiting. Creed wheat and malt are very good baits during
the months of August and September, and are used a good
deal on the Trent. An old angler has often told me that he
does not consider the roach are in condition until they will
take malt, and I agree with him. When I cook my malt
and wheat I put it loosely in a calico bag and boil it in the
kitchen boiler. Be sure you allow the corn to have plenty
of room to swell however, that is, don't tie the string of the
bag too close to the corn. I boil it in the boiler, because it
then has plenty of water, and after two or three hours, when
the skin cracks open and shows the white inside, it is ready.
It looks nice, white, and clean when it is cooked like that,
whereas some anglers stew it in a jar ; and when cooked
like that it looks black, dirty, and disagreeable. This bait
is used in the same manner as the paste, one or two corns
being put on the hook ; for ground bait use brewers' grains.
Beware, however, of overbaiting with brewers' grains, for
many a good day's sport has been spoiled by a too free use
of this ground bait. I have seen anglers come down to the
river with a huge bag of grains and dash them in by the
peck, when about as many as would fill a quartern measure
would be ample ; the roach feed on these grains, and when
fishing with malt I have taken roach with their mouths full
of it. It is of no use fishing with malt and wheat before

THE ROACH. 103

August. We don't expect cherries and plums on the trees
in January, and the fish don't expect grain to be coming
down the river only at harvest time. Instinct is sometimes
stronger than reason, and to be a successful angler we must
take lessons from nature herself. Before I have done with
this paste fishing for roach, I will just shortly consider a
very vexed subject among anglers, and that is, the question
of scented pastes. Some say that roach are attracted long
distances by scented baits, and grow quite eloquent about
the merits of their chemically prepared pastes. Now I could
never find out that they ever made a better bag of roach
than could first-rate anglers using plain paste. True, we
have odd cases of certain individuals who have made a good
bag of roach by using these scented pastes, when other
anglers in the same water and on the same day have failed
to take any, but in the course of my experience I have only
dropped across one angler who could do it, and he was an
old pensioner living in the fens of Lincolnshire. He used to
prepare his paste with something, and certainly it did smell
very nice, and I know he has taken great catches of fish out
of those large fen drains, but whether it would have acted
among the educated roach of the Trent I cannot say. The
old man promised to give me the recipe of how it was made,
but I suddenly left that part of the world, and when I went
back to visit the old man he was laid in the village church-
yard. I have tried these scented pastes a time or two, but
I must confess that my experiments have not been crowned
with a deal of success. We know that experiments have
been tried and fish have been attracted by chemically
flavoured food, but whether they would not have been equally
attracted by plain food is not shown. A short time ago a
bait was advertised and sold under the name of " Ching,"
and the advertiser said it would take fish by the bushel, or
rather, fish would take it and be caught by the bushel. 1
know some anglers who bought and tried it, but it turned
out a delusion and a snare. I examined a bit and it looked
to me to be nothing but a bit of bread, and it smelt as
though it was flavoured with aniseed. I have an extract
which has been taken from some fishing-book, in which the

104 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STtLR.

following passages occur : — "An old Nottinghamshire angler
to whom, when a boy, I was indebted for many valuable
hints, told me that when fishing in the Trent, he used to
meet an old collier, who was not only a most successful
angler, but one who could lure the fish on to his hook when
'everybody else failed; this naturally excited the curiosity of
the neighbouring fishermen, and as the taciturnity of the
collier equalled his skill, they resolved to find out his
secret. They watched him, and found that his pastes were
coloured and scented ; but with what 1 After an investiga-
tion not much unlike espionage, they discovered that a
variety of essential oils, saffron, and balsam of Tolu entered
into the composition of the old man's pastes, and that he
changed them month by month to suit the varying appetite
of the fish he angled for." A friend also told me a little
while ago that when he lived at Stratford-on-Avon, there
was an angler there who could catch quantities of roach
with his scented paste ; he said he told him how to make
it, and it was nothing but " oil of rhodium " that was mixed
among the bread. My friend says he has been to and
worked in several counties since then, and he could never do
anything with it in any other river than the Avon ; in short,
I don't believe in scented pastes, and I will leave the experi-
ment of trying them to those who have more time on their
hands than I have. Plain bread paste is good enough for
me, when I feel inclined for a bit of paste fishing. Mr.
King's " Natural Bait," however, is an exception to the
general rule of bought nostrums. This powder, when mixed
among the bread paste, forms a very white and tenacious
bait, and is very attractive ; I have tried it and found it
to be a genuine lure, as I have made several very nice
bags of roach by its agency during the last two or three
seasons ; a threepenny packet mixed in a lump of paste the
size of a small hen's egg being plenty for a long day's fishing.
As the winter advances and the roach begin to get in the
deep holes, the cockspur worm is a good bait, as also is the
tail end of a lob-worm ; large worms clipped up very small
are the best ground baits you can use for this method, only,
as I have before said, be very sparing with your ground bait,

THE EOACH. 105

especially in the winter. When the water is very much
discoloured any time during the year, worms are the best
bait for roach, and when the water is rising the angler can
fish on the grass slopes by the side. The fish are roving
about, and are looking for food ; also when the water is low,
keep your eyes open, and note where a nice grassy slope
comes gradually out of the river, that is free from obstructions.
This, when covered with a rising water, will be found a
capital place to take roach with the cockspur or the tail end
of lob ; but as soon as the water begins to go down again,
the fish retire with it into the main stream, and it is very
little good fishing in a falling water during flood time. I
have taken good roach during the winter, when snow has
lain on the ground, and the weather has been altogether
disagreeable, by a little judicious baiting, and using the tail
end of the hook bait ; anglers, therefore, need not despair,
and think they cannot get any roach fishing. If they
know the winter haunts of the fish, they can get some
sport, and the roach they do catch in the winter with
the tail end of lob are generally big fish and in splendid
condition.

Although roach, as a general thing, are found in deep,
quiet water, yet in the early part of the season they are
sometimes found in the shallows of a mill tail, or in the
gravelly shallows that flow from a weir, and they may
then be caught by a cad bait, or with gentles, fishing with a
float and a short tackle. Jf the angler is so minded also, he
can whip for them with an artificial fly — red and black
palmers will be the best — and as an improvement he can
put a gentle on the point of the hook. Eoach can also
be taken by daping a live insect on the surface, in such
places as follows : — Where a lot of weeds, &c, hinders
you from float fishing, or in any place that you know
contains roach, providing that there is something on the
bank that will allow you to keep out of sight. A blow
and the cowdung fly are the be.st for this purpose. There is
also a certain water-weed (conferva rivalis) that roach will
take as a hook bait, when they are vegetably minded. That
roach are sometimes vegetarians I know, because I have

106 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

opened roach that have had some half-digested weeds in
their insides, though catching roach with a weed bait is a
branch of sport I have yet to learn. Ledgering for roach is
not often practised on the Trent, but sometimes during a
thick, heavy water it is tried with success. It resembles
what I have described in ledgering for barbel, only the lead
is smaller, the tackle finer, and the hook is a No. 8. The
bait is of course a worm.

The wind comes in for a fair share of odium, when the
angler is only having indifferent sport, and east winds I
know are not good for roach fishing, although I have known
good catches to have been made when the wind is in the
north, which I have heard some anglers say is a much
worse quarter than the east. Roach can be caught when
the wind is settled in any one quarter; it is when the wind
is shifting about to all points of the compass in a few
hours, that it is fatal to the success of the roach fisher. A
rough wind is not good for the roach angler, and if we could
have it as we liked, a west, or a south-west wind is the best
of all. A morning when the rime frost hangs about every-
thing should be carefully avoided by the roach fisher. If
the sun should manage to struggle out and lick the rime off,
then the angler might venture to go towards noon, with
some chance of success. I remember that an old friend and
I were once roaching on the Trent ; it was very cold, and
the snow was falling fast. We were fishing with bread
paste, and yet we managed to take a bag of fish, though the
wind was in the east. I must confess, however, that in
the winter roach fishing is very uncertain. More often have
I been disappointed than I have taken fish, but neverthe-
less, as I have before said, roach are to be taken in the
depth of winter, if you know their winter haunts, and the
day is anything like fair. Snow broth is fatal to your
chance of success. Before I finish with the roach, I might
say that occasionally the angler takes a fish that he sup-
poses to be a roach, but which in reality is a rudd ; it has
a more coppery tinge than the roach, is shorter and deeper,
the back fin is nearer the tail, and while the roach has
a projecting upper lip, the rudd has a projecting under lip.

THE PIKE,

CHAPTER VI.

THE PIKE.

107

As this little book more particularly relates to tt Bottom
Fishing in the Nottingham style," I ought strictly, perhaps,
not to mention the pike, but as there are plenty of bottom
fishers who occasionally indulge in a little pike fishing, per-
haps a few hints to the tyro as to what a pike is like, and
how to catch him, will not be unacceptable. The pike is a
member of the Esocidse family, and his scientific name is
Esox lucius. He is more frequently called the " Jack " by
anglers nowadays, though formerly he was only called Jack
when he was under four pounds, and " pike " when over
that weight. The fish has also been termed " the freshwater
shark," and certainly he deserves the name, for in very truth,
he is a tyrant of the water. When hungry, the voracity of
this fish is very great, few things seeming to come amiss to
him. Hundreds of anecdotes are told about how he will
seize anything from a flat leaden plumb, to the hand of a
child. Among such anecdotes are references to his seizing a
swan's head and neck, a mule's lip, a Polish damsel's foot,
tender kittens and puppies, &c, &c. I have seen a pike come
up with a dash, and snap at a water wag- tail that has stood
on the edge of the water-weeds ; and once I had hooked a
nice roach, and was getting it towards me, when, with a
sudden rush, a large pike seized the roach, and the next
instant both were gone. Pike will sometimes dash at a
highly-coloured float under the impression, I presume, that
it is something edible ; and will even swallow one of their
smaller brethren or offspring perhaps. In fact, when hungry,
the pike is perfectly ferocious, but when his appetite has
been appeased, he is scarcely to be tempted. Practised pike
fishers are well aware of this, and know the difference between
the "runs" when he is hungry and when he is not. When
not very hungry, he will mouth a bait and play with it, with-

108 BOTTOM FrSHLNG IN THE NOTTCNGHAM STYLE.

out any intention of swallowing it, and will then allow him-
self to be hauled about, and pulled up to the surface of the
water, only, with a flap of his tail, to drop the bait from his
jaws, and roll again over into the deep water. In spite of
his voracity there are, however, some fish he does not care
about. A tench is not a good bait, neither does he like a perch,
although some do fish for him with small perch which have
been denuded of their back fins. Although also he will take
a frog, he will have nothing to do with a toad. Notwith-
standing this, his voracity is great, for we read that,
" shrouded from observation in his solitary retreat, he follows
with his eye the shoals of fish that wander heedlessly along ;
he marks the water-rat swimming to his burrow — the duck-
lings paddling among the water-weeds — the dab-chick and
the moor-hen leisurely swimming on the surface, he selects
his victim, and, like a tiger springing from the jungle, he
rushes forth, seldom indeed missing his aim : there is a
sudden rush, circle after circle forms on the surface of the
water, and all is still again in an instant."

The pike when in good condition is a handsomely marked
fish, his whole body is mottled with green, yellow, and white.
One great characteristic of the pike is his dorsal or back fin,
which is placed a deal further back than in most fishes ; it is
opposite the anal fin and is very near his tail. The body is
rather long and slender, rounded on the back, and the sides
are very much compressed. What a head and mouth he has !
The very look of it is suggestive of ferocity, the head is de-
pressed, the jaws are large, oblong and flattened, and furnished
with a perfect phalanx of formidable teeth of various sizes ;
his eyes are on the top of his head, and have a very villainous
look with them. We can fancy the sensations of a shoal of
roach or dace, when his head and eyes are suddenly thrust
into view. I once saw a pike rush at and seize the leg of a
duck, and a great quacking and flapping of wings was the
result, and it is common to hear of pike drowning ducks,
geese, and even swans, when they have seized them. In the
case of the duck just mentioned, however, the pike was only
about a four-pounder, so after a struggle the duck got away.
In Ireland, 1 believe, a big pike will sometimes drown an

THE PIKE. 109

eagle ; the eagle, it appears, having pounced on the pike when
the latter has been basking near the surface, has embedded
its talons in the flesh of the fish so deeply as to prevent its
extricating them. A traveller corroborates this story by say-
ing that he had himself seen a big pike with an eagle fastened
to his back lying dead on a piece of ground which had been
overflowed, but from which the water bid retreated. It will
be seen from this that the pike, voracious as it is, is sometimes
the prey of feathered enemies.

The pike is a solitary fish, though big ones are often found
in pairs. After floods and frosts, however, they may some-
times be found collected together in numbers in favourable
eddies, or in a backwater, or at the tail of an island, reed
beds, or at the end of old locks, &c. Good ones are some-
times found in the rough water of a weir also, and they are
occasionally met with in a full stream. Generally, however,
they prefer the quiet parts of the river. A deep corner away
from the main stream, where a lot of reeds and rushes grow
by the side is a sure find ; a backwater or a cutting that has
an entrance from the river generally holds a few good fish ;
while a big lake often is a perfect pike paradise.

These spawn about March, and deposit their eggs on the
weeds in shallow waters, such as ditches and backwaters, and
after a short rest they scour themselves in the stream. After
this they take up their regular haunts for the season. While
they are performing the operation of spawning, such is their
lazy and absorbed manner that they may nearly be taken out
with the hand, and poachers profit by this, and either snai-e
the fish or else catch them by snatching, though they are at
this time very unwholesome as food, and ought not on any
account to be taken. A pike in good condition is a good fish
for the table, the flesh is white and firm, and of a deal better
flavour than chub or roach. Those from a river and running
water are a great deal better than those taken from a pond,
and a pike out of season and condition is about as filthy a
mess as can be tasted.

Formerly, the pike was a scarce and expensive fish in
England. During the reign of Edward I. (about the, close
of the thirteenth century), jack was so dear that few could

110 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

afford to eat it, the price was double that of salmon, and ten
times higher than either turbot or cod. In 1466, pike was
one of the chief dishes in the high church festivals given by
George Neville, Archbishop of York. In Henry YIII.'s
time, also, these fish fetched as much again as house lamb in
February, and a very small pickerel would sell higher than a
fat capon. Pike under favourable circumstances and in good
localities will grow to a remarkable size. I have heard that
in some of the large lakes of Ireland they will attain the ex-
traordinary weight of eighty pounds, and in Wales it is said
there are enormous fish in its deep mountain tarns, but in
England they do not exceed the weight of forty pounds, and
it would require to be a carefully preserved and a very
favourable water to possess one of even that weight. The
lakes, broads, and meres of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Hunting-
donshire are credited with holding some big fish. There is
a story also of a monstrous pike being caught at Lillieshall
Lime Works in 1765 out of a pool about nine yards deep,
which had not been fished for ages. The water was let off
by means of a level, and brought up to drain the works, when
this enormous pike was found at the bottom ; he was dragged
out by means of a rope in the presence of hundreds of spec-
tators, and was said to have weighed upwards of one hundred
and seventy pounds, and was thought to be the biggest ever
seen. Such is the story, but whether it is correct or not, I
cannot say ; it has, however, been placed on record as a fact.
The celebrated naturalist, the late Frank Buck land, in
writing about this fish, says, "From the days of Gesner
downwards, more lies — to put it in very plain language —
have been told about the pike than any other fish in the
world ; and the greater the improbability of the story, the
more particularly is it sure to be quoted." Jack, as a rule,
do not run very large in the Trent, and it is only occasion-
ally that one of twenty pounds is taken, but there are some
districts where fish of that size or even a pound or two over
are taken. The occasions are, nevertheless, very rare, and a
Trent angler must be content if he gets one of that size
during the term of his natural life. A ten-pounder ought to
content him, a twelve-pounder make him happy, while one

THE PIKE. Ill

of fifteen pounds or over ought to make his heart rejoice to
such an extent that he would call his friends and neighbours
together and give them a banquet in honour of the occasion.
An eight-pound fish is not to be despised, while one of six
or seven as a fish for the table, and a bit of sport for the
angler, especially out of a stream, is hardly to be equalled.
It is true the pike is not a very good lighter j a ten-pound
jack being nothing like a five-pound barbel for pluck and
dogged resistance ; still, however, a five or six-pound jack on
the light tackle of a Trent spinner, in a stream, is not to be
despised. Two of the finest pike, I suppose, that have ever
been taken out of English waters by the rod and line were
taken a year or two ago by Mr. Alfred Jardine. They
weighed thirty-six pounds each, or the two together seventy-
two pounds. These are grand fish in the estimation of all
anglers who have seen them, and are preserved, and were
exhibited at the Norwich Fisheries Exhibition. I believe
they received a valuable prize there as specimen fish. There
must, however, be a great deterioration of the race of jack
during these last few centuries ; for what are Mr. Jardine's
fish, or indeed the monsters that have been taken from the
Irish lakes, compared to that historical pike captured in the
vicinity of Mannheim in the year 1497 a.d. 1 To one of the
gills of this fish was found suspended a medal with the follow-
ing inscription in Greek : "I am the first fish that was put
into this pond by the hands of the Governor of the Universe,
Frederick the Second, on the fifth day of October, 1232."
By this it will appear that the fish had reached the ripe old
age of two hundred and sixty-five years, and he is said to
have weighed three hundred and fifty pounds, measuring
nineteen feet in length. His skeleton is said to be preserved
in the Museum at Mannheim.

Various are the methods employed for the capture of the
jack. He can be shot, trimmered, huxed, and snared or
snatched, but these are methods unworthy of a sportsman, and
should be carefully avoided by the true angler. He legiti-
mately is taken by live baiting, dead gorge fishing, and spin-
ning with both the natural and artificial baits. Of all the
methods that are adopted for the capture of the pike, spinning

112 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

is certainly the most scientific, and is practised more on the
Trent than is any other style. I will commence with that,
therefore, and shall be as brief as possible in my instructions,
merely giving the tyro a few hints, so that he may know how
to go on. Those anglers who would like to know the whole
art of jack fishing, I would recommend to purchase Mr.
Pennell's " Book of the Pike," which treats the subject in an
exhaustive manner.

The rod for pike fishing differs from the ordinary bottom
rod in one or two particulars. It is stronger and stitfer, and
is nothing like so fine at the extreme point, the rings also on
it are larger, so as to allow the line to run freely through them
without the possibility of a catch or tangle. My favourite
pike rod is in three joints, twelve feet in length, fitted up with
very strong and large-sized safety rings, as described in Chapter
II. It is not necessary in a pike rod to have the Bell's
Life rings on, although the angler can please himself, as scores
of pike rods are so fitted. In a river like the Trent, where it
is often necessary to swing your bait out extra long distances,
and the rod is subjected to a severe strain, it should be built
specially for the purpose. I like plenty of timber in the
grasp of the hand, and the ferrule on the butt should be a
size larger than the ordinary three-quarter inch one that is
generally put on this class of weapon. Of course, when a rod
is made after this pattern, extra long and powerful, it is apt
to be heavy, but it need not on any account weigh more than
from one and a quarter pounds to one and a half pounds at
the most ; and in order to use this long rod comfortably, I
have a big, hard-wood knob or button on the butt end, so
that when I am spinning it can always be pressed and held
tightly in the hollow of the thigh ; by this plan the bait can
be swung out great distances with the utmost ease. For all
ordinary purposes of jack spinning, perhaps, a light eleven-
foot rod would be better, as being more handy to use, especially
on a small river, or from a boat ; and pike rods are made in
greenheart, very light and powerful, and also in mottled cane ;
but, however, the would-be pike angler can please himself.
Let him go to a good practical rod-maker, tell him what he
wants, and in the end he cannot be very far out.

THE PIKE. 113

The reel described and recommended in Chapter II. for
the bottom fisher will be just the thing ; except that the size
should be a four and a half inch one, as it will hold the line
better, and the bait can be spun home much more comfort-
ably ; and for a line I should use a plaited one, as they are
better than the twisted ones. Select one of middling stout-
ness, but not too thick or heavy. A Nottingham spinning
line or one that is made by the Manchester Cotton Company
is the best. Undressed ones are best, the dressed lines for
spinning are not so good in my idea. The lines recommended
are very cheap, and will do for any sort of pike fishing.

To spin a bait properly the angler requires a trace, a lead,
and a flight of hooks on which to fasten his bait. The trace
consists of a yard of stoutish gimp with a steel loop and
swivel on one end and a large loop on the other, to which the
reel line is fastened. Some anglers use stout twisted gut for
these traces, but gimp is the cheapest. On the bottom of
this trace, and fastened to the steel loop and swivel is a lead,
and a lead that hangs below the line is the best. I used to
make these leads something in this fashion : — I took one of the
long pear-shaped leads that are termed heavy corking weights
on the Trent, and bent it slightly in the middle, so that it was
in the form of a crescent. I next put a piece of gimp through
the hole, and then one of the spring loops and swivels on
the gimp, lapping the two ends of the gimp over each other,
and binding them tightly together with a bit of waxed silk.
The bound ends are then worked round till they are inside
the hole of the lead, and the two pieces of gimp are next
bound together to each end of the lead. A loop of the gimp
is now at one end, and one of the spring loops and swivels at
the other. The gimp loop of this contrivance is then hooked
on the spring loop at the bottom of the trace, and this forms
a first-rate lead. The desirability of having these leads is
because they hang as it were below the line, and keep it from
twisting and kinking, which it must do if the lead is only a
straight one merely threaded on the gimp. A better lead
than this has been brought out by the Proprietor of the
Fishing Gazette, and is a decided improvement on the old
system.

I

114 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

At the bottom of the lead there is another foot of gimp

or so. with a loop on one end and another of the spring loops

and swivels on the other, and at the end of this last there is

another foot of gimp with a small loop at one end, and the

flight of hooks at the other. Some tyros may want to know

why this trace, &c., cannot all be in one piece, without

having so many pieces and so many swivels in it ? The reply

is that the bait must revolve or spin in the water, and if there

were no swivels on the trace it would not do that very well,

to say nothing of twisting and kinking the line. I like plenty

of swivels on my trace, and the spring loops and swivels may

be bought at any tackle shop, being very cheap. These

spring loops and swivels are also fastened together and are

very useful things, as they enable the angler to disengage any

part of his trace from the others in a moment. Some anglers

only have their traces divided into two parts, with one

swivel, but I like it divided into three or four with as many

swivels, because if one swivel gets fast during the process

of spinning, there is another to keep twisting. This, then,

is the spinner's trace : and now for the flight of hooks. There

are various flights in use, but the one that is known as the

" Pennell " flight is the best. It is chiefly remarkable by

having the lower hook or hooks formed like the letter S ; it

also has a sliding lip hook and one or two flying triangles.

This is a very simple arrangement and is a very deadly one.

The sliding lip hoop, as you may infer from its name, is made

to move up and down the gimp of the flight, purposely to

adapt it to any-sized bait. A piece of line wire or gimp is

whipped to the side of the hook, so as to leave two loops, one

at the end of the shank and the other near the bend of the

hook. The gimp of the flight is then put through the loop

nearest the bend, and twisted two or three times round the

shank, and then passed through the other loop. By loosening

the coils of gimp that are round the shank, the lip hook can

be shifted up or down to suit the requirements of a large or

small bait. The lower hook, as I have said, is like an S,

and between this hook and the lip hook there are one or two

flying triangles, so called because they hang loose, and are

not fastened in the bait at all ; they are on short pieces of

THE PIKE. 115

gimp, which in turn are whipped firmly to the gimp of the
flight. If dace are used as bait, two flying triangles are
deemed best, but if gudgeon or bleak are used one is better.
To bait this flight, it is best done in the manner described by
Mr. Pennell himself ; the bottom or tail hook being inserted
first : " The point is inserted by the side or lateral line of
the bait near to the tail, and passing it under a broadish strip
of the skin, and through the end of the fleshy part of the
tail, bring it out as near the base of the tail as practicable
Next insert the small reversed hook (the top hook of the S)
in such a position as to curve the bait's tail to nearly a right
angle ; finally pass the lip hook through both its lips, always
putting it through the upper lip first when the bait is a gud-
geon, and through the lower one first with all others. This
is very important in securing a very brilliant spin." The
flying triangles of course hang free. This is a splendid flight,
but I fancied when I first made and used one, that it might
be improved on a trifle. The bait spun well, but there was
such a long distance between the bottom hook and the lip
hook, and nothing to hold the gimp to the side of the bait,
which would often buckle in the middle, and cause the gimp
to stand away from the bait in an awkward manner. I there-
fore had a smallish hook, and whipped it on the gimp the
reverse way to the lip hook, somewhere between the two
triangles, and then stuck it well in the side of the bait. I
found that it acted well. Another kind of flight and one
that is more used on the Trent than any other, is made
with two or three fixed triangles and the sliding lip hook.
These triangles are all whipped tight to the gimp, and
just above the bottom one there is a single hook whipped
on the reverse way. To bait this flight, take the bait
and put one of the hooks of the bottom triangle into the
flesh of the tail, bringing the point out on the same side ;
draw up the tail so as to bend it well, and then put the
reversed hook in to keep it bent, next insert one of the
hooks of the second triangle in the side, and then one of
the third triangle in the side near to the shoulder ; and
lastly put or slide the lip hook down to the mouth of the
bait and put it through both lips. The three triangles should

i 2

116 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

be straight by each other along the side of the bait, and no
loose gimp between them, or the bait will not spin so well.
Another kind of flight that is mostly used by the more expe-
rienced of the Trent professionals, and is considered by them
to be the simplest and most deadly in use, is made with only
one or two fixed triangles, and no lip hook at all ; I consider
the two triangle flight to be the best. These two treble
liooks are whipped tight to a length of gimp (sixteen or
eighteen inches long, is right) as near to one another as
possible, so that there is not above a quarter of an inch of
gimp between the end of the shank of the end one, and the
bend of the hooks of the other ; and there is a loop at the
other end of the gimp. In baiting this flight, put the loop
of the gimp in the eye of a baiting needle ; and pass this last
in at the vent of the bait, and bring it out at the mouth,
drawing the gimp after it, until the shank of the first treble
hook is in the vent ; you then stick one of the hooks of
the end treble well in the bait towards the tail, taking care
however, before you do, to bend this latter downwards a
bit; so that the hook will keep it bent ; and in order to keep
the bait in good condition as long as possible, it is necessary
to give it some little protection, or the strain of throwing
soon tears open the vent and lets out the insides ; for this
purpose the best plan is after the flight is baited as directed,
you bring the loop of the gimp back again, and pass it under
the gill covers, and again out at the mouth and draw tight ;
this you will see holds the head of the bait as it were in a
loop, and puts most of the strain where the bait is the
strongest to bear it. The trace that we generally use to
spin this flight with, is rather more simple in its construction
than the one described some time back ; the bent lead is
the same, only there is a brass box swivel at the thin end,
and a buckle swivel at the other ; and you must be sure
that this lead hangs below the line. Joined to the brass
swivel is about a couple of feet of gimp, with a loop at the
far end to attach the reel line to ; the loop of the flight is
just looped in the buckle swivel at the thick end of the lead,
and it is ready for use. This flight and spinning trace hcis
the merit of being very simple, easy to make, and very

VII.

Trent spinning flight and trace. Page 116.

Rod rings. Page 26.

THE PIKE. 1J7

cheap, and yet very deadly in its use, for when a pike
once takes the bait in his mouth, it is very seldom we miss
him. The great attractiveness of a bait on this flight lies in
the fact that it does not spin with perfect precision, but
'* wobbles ;" it travels through the water in a curious spiral
course, and not like the " Clipper," that in spinning looks
like a glittering line of silver. Long and careful practice
has taught me the fact that in spinning a natural bait for
pike the more" it wobbles and the more strange its gyra-
tions through the water, the more likely is it to attract the
attention of the fish. In an artificial bait, now, the case
seems to be different, for I have nearly always had the best
success when the artificial used has been the truest in its
spin, although I remember on one occasion trying a " Clip-
per " well over a place where I knew there was a good fish
without any success ; and some half-hour. or so after I got him
the first cast with an old wobbling spoon bait — indeed one of
our very best anglers told me some time ago that out of all
the lot of artificials ever made, none of them would lick the
old spoon ; but this is an opinion that I cannot agree with ;
still I should advise anglers to carry a spoon bait with them
when jack fishing. The flight as just noticed is not generally
understood by anglers, so I have been very particular in my
description of its make, its use, and its peculiarities. All
sorts of flights are made that the ingenuity of man can
suggest, or his hands form for the destruction of the jack ;
but those described will be found entirely sufficient for the
angler's purpose. I may just mention two more contrivances,
however, that have been brought out for spinning with dead
bait ; one is Mr. Gregory's 4t Archimedean " spinning tackle ;
it is thrust in the mouth and down the belly of the bait ;
the tail requires no bend as the fans at the mouth of the
bait causes the spin. The other is a contrivance brought
out by the Proprietor of the Fishing Gazette^ called the
"Fishing Gazette Spinner," and is a capital contrivance
with which to spin a dead bait. The triangles of an
ordinary flight are simply inserted in the sides of the bait,
without bending the tail, and the " Spinner " performs the
spinning operation itself, which it does to perfection.

118 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

The baits for spinning are dace, gudgeon, bleak, and small
roach. A bleak I may say is more frequently called a
whitling on the Trent ; it is a brilliant bait, but soon wears
out on the hooks j the others being tougher, last longer. A
Thames spinner when he throws his bait pulls off the reel
a sufficient quantity of line, and either gathers it in the
palm of his hand, or else lays it in coils at his feet ; the
Trent spinner avoids this by casting directly from the reel ;
he winds up all the spare line till only the trace and bait
hang from the point of the rod ; he has the forefinger of one
hand laid lightly on the barrel of the reel, and then brings
the point of the rod behind him, and makes his cast by
sweeping the rod and bait smartly over the river, in the
direction he requires. If the angler is not careful the reel
is apt to turn so much faster than the line can travel through
the rings, and a sad tangle is the result ; this can be avoided,
however, and regulated by the forefinger that is on the barrel
of the reel. When the cast is made the forefinger is lifted off,
and if he sees it is likely to travel round too fast, he can
check it again by laying the forefinger lightly on the edge
of the revolving part of the reel. So soon as the bait
strikes the water it can be stopped at once by pressing a
little harder. It is rather difficult to get into the throw all
at once, but as the saying goes, "It is easy when you know
how ; " a little practice will soon put you up to it ; and when
you do get into it, you can throw your bait anywhere you
like to within a foot or so ; and thirty or forty yards are by
no means uncommon distances. In casting from the reel,
some anglers throw with one hand and some with the other ;
that is, some have the right hand above the reel and some
the left. I always throw in what I consider to be the proper
manner : I tightly press the knob of my long rod into the
hollow of the left thigh ; the fingers of the left hand are
tightly clasped across the back of the reel, with the forefinger
at the top and reaching over the barrel to the front plate, so
as to be in readiness to stop the reel as already noticed ;
the thumb is clasped over the rod, i.e. the rod is tightly
clasped in the hollow between the thumb and forefinger;
the right hand firmly grasps the rod about a foot above the

THE PIKE. 119

reel, and then the cast is made as already indicated. I find
this is the best plan to hold the rod, especially if the rod is a
heavy one and the bait of the largest size. In the picture on the
cover of the first edition of this work the angler is making a
left-handed cast, with the left hand above the reel and the
right below it, and is regulating, or stopping, the reel with
the forefinger at the bottom edge of the reel instead of the
top as in the right-handed cast. (I might say that the picture
as just noticed would have been better if it represented the
rod as being a little longer.)

AY hen this left-handed cast is about to be made the rod
point is in the opposite direction to what it is for a right-
hand one, i.e. on your right hand for a right-handed throw,
and on your left hand for the left. However, the angler
will find it to his advantage to learn both styles, for some-
times he may drop across a place that cannot be fished by a
right-handed cast. "When you have thrown your bait, you
wind up the line on the reel, and the bait comes spinning
and glittering towards you like a thing of life, or more
properly like a partly disabled fish trying to escape. Wind
the bait as near to you as you can, lift it out of the water
and repeat the cast ; never let the bait sink to the bottom, or
the hooks may catch hold of some obstruction, and give you
a lot of trouble to disengage them. Try all sorts of dodges
also during spinning ; spin slowly, spin quickly, let the bait
spin near the surface, or down deeper in midwater, or jerk
it a little with the rod point ; act, in fact, all sorts of dodges.

When you know there is a jack about, search all the
water within reach of the cast well, don't let a yard of water
go unfished. When a jack takes the bait, and he is hungry,
he generally takes care that it shall not be a doubtful matter.
Hit him rather smartly, as the hooks having rank barbs,
would fail to penetrate the hard mouth of the pike if you
did not strike well home. Some anglers, when they feel a
fish, give him a few seconds' grace. This is not absolutely
necessary, as a pike when he means to take a bait, seldom
misses his target, and striking and hooking can be done at
once, as well as if one waited. Pike are very often lost
when spinning, but mostly through the carelessness of the

120 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

angler. Play the fish firmly but carefully, and keep a tight
line on him, for if the line be slack and the hooks not very
fast in, he will shake his head like a bulldog sometimes,
and probably shake hooks and bait out of his mouth. We
had rather a curious experience of this character two or three
seasons ago. A very large pike had its home in the deep
water of the u Corporation swim " at Winthorp ; every now
and then he would startle anglers by suddenly, with a
mighty swirl and rush, coming surging into the bream swim
just below, and on one or two occasions robbing their hooks
of a large roach or a pound bream. Of course he was not
allowed to continue this little game without some effort
being made to stop him ; and several of our best pike-men
made that particular one the object of their especial attention.
During that season he was hooked no fewer than half a dozen
times, and always — lost. " Strange this," you may say, but
nevertheless it was no more strange than true ; he clean
beat several of us (and I have to own that I was among the
list of beaten ones). He seemed to prefer a small roach on
the wobbling flight, as noticed a little while ago ; and we
fancied that he seemed to enjoy the fun of being hooked.
When a favourable breeze used to ripple up the water, and
tiny waves liplapped among the stones at our feet, some
one or other of us used to stand on a particular ledge of the
bank and throw over him ; when, sometimes at the very
first cast, out he used to come with a rush that made our
hearts leap into our throats, and snatch at the bait like a
hungry dog at a bone, hardly ever missing his grab ; then we
used to strike — well, some — till the line tightened with a
heavy " thung." Back into his home went the fish with a
bang that made the reel screech again, and then in an
instant he would double again, and come towards you at a
pace that fairly baffled all efforts to wind the line on the
reel, so as to keep a tight line on him ; the next instant he
rose to the surface, shook his head like a terrier with a rat,
the hooks would then come out of his mouth, and with a
swirl of his mighty tail he vanished into the depths below.
This was the experience that a full half-dozen of us had to
undergo, and some of them two or three times over. I am

THE PIKE. 121

afraid there was a good deal of language let loose on those
occasions that will not bear printing in this book : anyhow,
he was an oldish customer, a u regular sneezer," said one
defeated angler j u an out-and-out top sawyer," said another ;
but, however, he met with an inglorious end, after having
had a narrow escape at the hands of Joe Corah, who got a
flight made with some extra large hooks, and got him partly
out — (no landing-net or gaff-hook with him of course). He
having incautiously put his fingers under its gill covers for
the purpose of landing it, got the skin scraped off for
his pains. The fish now made a last despairing kick and
plunge, the hooks flew from his mouth, and he rolled into the
deep water, and was seen in that swim no more ; sic transit
Gloria Mundi. A few months after he was taken in the
salmon nets, but his past glory and strength had vanished ;
he was as long and as thin as a rail, his inside partly eaten
away with some dire disease, and his weight was only twenty-
two and a half pounds, if my memory proves correct,
whereas in the days of his prosperity he was thought to be
thirty pounds at the very least. There are two useful
lessons that the angler may learn from this anecdote ; one is,
if beaten with a big fish by using an ordinary flight, try
some bigger hooks j and the other is, never go jack fishing
without a big landing-net, or a strong gaff-hook ; the latter
for choice, because you might get hold of a big fish, and if
you do, your chance is all the better by having one of these
to help you. When you have landed your fish, the next
job is to get the hooks out of his mouth, and it is "ware
hawk " here. Don't put your fingers in his mouth, or indeed,
close against it, for he can bite, and to some tune too. He
will snap at you like a savage dog, and if he once gets a
fair hold, you will most likely remember it for the rest of
your natural life. The best plan would be to rap him over
the head with something heavy, and then force his mouth
open with a bit of stick, pulling out the hooks with a
pair of flat-nosed pliers. Contrivances have, however, been
brought out on purpose to prop open the mouth of the pike,
so that the hooks can be disengaged without fear of the fish
closing his jaws over your hand. Before concluding spinning

122 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

for pike, I may be allowed to again refer to Mr. Gregory's
" Archimedean Spinner " in detail. Its merits are so obvious
that it were a pity to omit description. It consists, as I
have said, of a long brass hook and lead to thrust down the
belly of the bait, three triangles, a single hook to stick in
the head of the bait, and the " Archimedean fins " at the
head to cause the spin. To put on a bait properly, thrust
the brass hook with the lead, in the mouth of the bait, and
down the belly, with the point towards the belly, taking
particular care that the head of the bait is brought as
closely up between the Archimedean fins as possible j when
you have done this, the bait will be perfectly straight ; next
bring over the hook at the top, and send it well into the
head of the bait, and adjust the treble hooks to suit the
size of the bait you are using. This can be done by draw-
ing the gimp through the tubes, but take care the hooks are
not twisted before putting on the bait, or the gimp will not
draw properly through. A six-inch dace is as good a bait
as you can use with this tackle. Do not bend the tail at
all, let it be perfectly straight, and the fins of the tackle will
cause the bait to have a brilliant spin. Mr. Gregory tells
me that with this very tackle, in the season 1880-81, he
killed fifty-eight fish. I might just mention that these
tackles are made in five sizes, two for pike and three for
salmon and trout. I must now just caution the angler to
examine and test his hooks, and the spring loops and
swivels, before he makes his tackle, or if he buys his tackle
ready-made before he uses them, for I have lost a good
fish or two by the spring loop snapping at the bend, and
the hooks of the flight either breaking, or pulling straight.

If the angler wishes to fish in a backwater, or any other
place that is choked up with weeds (and he cannot very
well use the spinning bait there), he fishes with what is
called the gorge bait. The gorge hook is a double hook
securely fastened to some stout twisted brass wire, about
six inches in length. Around the shank a piece of conico-
cylindrical shaped lead is cast, and to bait this it is necessary
to have a flat baiting-needle, about seven inches long. Put
the loop of the tackle in the eye of the needle, and push the

THE PIKE. 123

point of the needle in at the mouth of the bait, then drive
it right through the body, and bring it out between the
forks of the tail. The lead is now pushed into the belly of
the fish, until the hooks lie by the side of the mouth ; next
the tail can be tied to the gimp, then hang the loop of this
contrivance in the spring loop at the bottom of the trace, and
it is ready. In the weedy places where this is used, there
may be a few holes and openings that are comparatively free.
Drop or throw the bait into these openings, and work it
with a series of jerks up and down, letting it sink to the
bottom, and then drawing it to the surface with a jerky
motion. When a fish seizes the bait, the angler must let
him take it where he likes, letting out the line from the reel,
so that the fish shall not feel any obstruction. The fish
begins to swallow the bait ; when he stops, — and the angler
allows him ten minutes to perform this operation, unless he
begins to move off before, — at the end of that time, wind up
the line and pidl a little ; striking is not necessary, as the
pike most likely has got the bait down his belly, and all the
striking in the world won't make it any faster. This is a
plan of fishing that I don't like, because if you only hook a
pound fish or he swallows the bait, you cannot return him
to the water — he must be killed. I don't practise this plan,
if the place can anyhow be spun over. Another method of
pike fishing is by live baiting. For this method, the spinning
trace is dispensed with, and a single length of gimp, about
two feet long, is used. At the bottom of this there is an
arrangement of hooks, and at the top a loop ; the hooks are
generally a triangle at the bottom, and a little above it there
is whipped a smaller single hook. This small hook is
fastened to the fish, at the side near to the back fin, by the
help of the baiting-needle, and the triangle hangs loose
against the side near to the belly of the bait. A double
hook is sometimes used instead of a triangle, especially if the
water is fine, because the hooks will lie closer to the side of
the fish, and the pike not notice them. Another sort of
live-bait tackle is made by merely having a double hook on
the bottom of the gimp : the baiting-needle is passed under
the skin, near to the shoulder of the bait, and brought out a

124 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

couple of inches lower down, the gimp is then drawn through
until the shank of the hook is under the skin, and the hooks
are laid close to the side of the bait. The " Jardine " live-
bait snap is a very useful and simple one, being merely two
treble hooks (but one of the hooks forming each treble is
smaller than the other two) fastened at the proper distance
from each other on a length of gimp. In baiting, the small
hook of the end treble is put well into the shoulder fin of
the bait, and the small hook of the other treble in the back
fin ; very good, very simple, very cheap, and a good killer. Tho
" Saddle " live-bait snap is another very useful one ; it has
two treble hooks of the same pattern as the " Jardine," but
each one is on a separate bit of gimp, about six inches long ;
the other two ends of these bits of gimp are fastened
together in a small brass swivel, so that each hook hangs
independent of the other ; at the other end of the swivel
there is another length of gimp, about two feet long, in
baiting this the small hook of one treble is firmly fixed in
the bait on one side near the head, and the small hook of the
other treble is fixed in on the other side near the tail, so
that the bait swings as it were in harness. A large float
is used with these baits, and is put on the line, and there-
after a running lead which is fastened halfway between
the float and the bait. When a pike takes these live
baits, I advise you to give him a minute or so to get it
well into his mouth, but don't give him time to gorge it,
and then strike smartly. A single hook is sometimes hung
through the lip of a bleak, or a small dace, by way of a live
bait ; but a pike when he takes this bait must have time to
gorge. There are several other sorts of snap hooks and
live-bait tackles that have been introduced to the public,
and amongst others an arrangement in which a live bait can
be fastened to the tackle by means of india-rubber bands,
instead of having the hooks stuck in the body of the bait.
For that, however, and other inventions, I must refer the
angler to the nearest tackle-maker. All sorts of creatures
have been recommended as baits for pike, such as frogs, rats,
mice, small birds, &c, but I don't much believe in any of
them, except, perhaps, the frog.

THE PIKE. 125

I might just mention that there has heen a live-haft
tackle lately brought out and patented, called " The Derby
Live-Bait Harness/' which is an arrangement for fastening
a live bait secure, without having to stick any hooks in
him at all, and according to all accounts this is a great
improvement on previous attempts to make pike tackle after
this plan.

Pike are not confined to fish or spinning baits, for I know
that sometimes they will take a worm. A friend once took
lour pike about four pounds each with a worm on fine roach
tackle out of one hole in about an hour ; he hooked the lot
in the corner of the mouth, or else perhaps they would have
cut the gut and escaped. I also have taken an odd one or
two with the worm, and I have lost some owing to the fish
severing the gut with their teeth. Artificial baits for pike
are so numerous and various in design, that to give a de-
scription of them would require a very long chapter. The
old-fashioned spoon bait is still used a great deal, and kills
fish ; but improvements have been brought out these last few
years, that we now very seldom see the old spoon bait in the
hands of a scientific pike fisher. First and foremost among
the artificial pike-bait makers stands Mr. Gregory of
Birmingham ; his baits are splendid articles and beautifully
finished. I have tried the " Colorado," the " Clipper," the
u Windsor Bee," and the "Fishing Gazette Spoon." These
are all grand baits, and spin well in dead water ; and where
there is a difficulty in procuring fish baits, they are very good
substitutes. I can most cordially recommend any of thot*e
baits to the angler. Another sweet little bait Mr. Gregory has
just brought out is called the " Wheeldon." It is a lot smaller
than the others, and for small pike, or waters that contain
no fish heavier than four pounds, it will be found just the
thing ; it looks to me to be admirably suited for perch spin-
ning. If perch are inclined for running at your spinning
bait, one of these will be just the lure for them. There
are also "Phantoms," " Plano-convex baits," "Archimedean
minnows," and artificial fish in every shape, style, and size,
which, as I said before, would take a very long chapter to
describe ; but this is already drawn out to a greater length

126 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

than I had intended, and so I must refer the reader to the
tackle makers. The baits mentioned above are plenty good
enough for me, and any one of them will kill when the pike
are inclined to feed, but I suppose I need not say that
natural fish baits are the best, if you can get them.

Pike will sometimes take a very large artificial fly, if fly
it can be called. Its body is as thick as a man's finger, and
the wings are two peacock's feathers, and it is as big as one
of the stuffed humming-birds that you see in glass cases.
It is worked over weeds and open places, with a series of
jumps and bobs. The late Frank Buckland gives such a funny
method of making an artificial pike bait, that I really must
reproduce it here. He says, " Procure the tip of the tail of a
brown calf ; remove the bone, and substitute a slip of cork ;
make a head with a champagne cork ; put into it boot buttons
for eyes, attach a piece of leather boot-lace for a tail, and
dress with ordinary hooks. These big lake pike, who are
very artful fellows, will not be up to this calf's-tail bait —
they will take it for a swimming water-rat, and the chances
are that they will snap at it, especially on a windy day."

One word, and I have done. The angler should always
pay very great attention to weed-beds, reeds, and flags, or a
sheltered shallow corner, in the immediate vicinity of a deep
hole, or just below an island, where the stream is, as it were,
broken in two, and a quiet eddy formed in the middle.
These are all favourite places, and some good pike are often
found therein.

SALMON FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 127

CHAPTER VII.

SALMON FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

When I first struck out the lines and put my rough notes
into shape for this little volume on bottom fishing in the
Nottingham style, I had not the slightest intention of giving
the novice any instructions at all on fishing for salmon ; but
this famous style is rapidly getting into universal use and
increasing popularity in many of the fishing districts of this
empire ; so in the hope that it may prove interesting and
useful to those anglers who can occasionally indulge in a
little sport of this kind, I am tempted to add a short chapter
on the subject ; but it will only be a very short one. just giving
the outlines of worm fishing and spinning as it is practised
on the Trent for those fish.

At the outset it is only right and fair to say that I am
only a working-man angler, whose experience of fishing is
almost exclusively confined to the lower Trent ; I have not
travelled all over the three kingdoms in my search for sport ;
consequently I cannot say whether this plan would answer
well on the famous salmon streams of the north. Being a
navigable river, and in some parts of its course winding
about most wonderfully, the Trent has a remarkable diver-
sity of surface and streams ; at some points there are long
deep stretches that flow on calmly and gently ; at others it
goes rippling along over the gravelly shallows ; then anon
it is compressed into its narrowest bounds, and the water
goes surging through in a strong current j then again it
widens out very considerably, and forms those still and quiet
lagoons that is the home of the bream and the pike ; or after
weeks of dry weather when the parched and thirsty earth has
been cracking open in all directions, then our river is as
sluggish as possible, and can be fished in most places with the
very lightest of tackle ; or when the scene changes, and constant

128 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

and heavy rains on the hilly districts causes it to rush along
in a tearing, foaming flood, sometimes obliterating well-known
and familiar landmarks, undermining the banks, till with a
gurgling splash, great masses roll into the depths below,
and often altering completely the character of what had
been well-known swims till then.

When we take into consideration all these facts, and prac-
tical experience has taught us that the tackle that can be
comfortably used in one stretch would be next to useless in
another, perhaps it would be difficult to lay down a hard and
fast line as to the tools required for this especial business.

The old saying that " When doctors differ who can
agree 1 " can be applied to salmon fishing with much more
force than to any other branch of angling ; for even in such
a simple method as the Nottingham style we find great
authorities differ very widely in the general mode of pro-
cedure. Some of the Derby men — and they are considered
good hands at this particular business— use cane rods fifteen
or sixteen feet in length, and consider none others will do
so well, as a swim fourteen feet deep cannot be fished with
a shorter rod, utterly forgetting when they bring in a verdict
like this that the Slider float is specially made to meet a
case of this kind, and to render it comparatively easy to fish
a swim even double and treble as deep as the rod is long.
Then, again, some great authorities assert that in order to fish
for salmon in the Nottingham style it is necessary to have a
heavy and long greenheart rod ; others say that the line
must be fished as a tight line, while others go quite opposite,
and say it must be loose ; another will say that you must
have a float, and still another that a float is of no earthly use
at all. In the face of all these conflicting opinions, the
novice is apt to get puzzled, and scratch his head in sheer
despair. In this short chapter I shall try in the plainest
possible language to put him in possession of what I by
practical experience consider to be the best and safest plan.

I don't want it to be understood for a moment that the
plan I describe will answer well in any and every salmon
stream, for there is a wide difference between a navigable
river like the lower Trent and one of those famous northern

SALMON FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 129

streams with the water rushing and swirling among the
huge boulders of its rock-bound course, with here and there
a deep and mysterious pool; perhaps flung into sombre
shadow by the dark reflection of some giant mountain.
Salmon angling as practised by some of the cleverest adepts
in the art, those who know the use and mysteries of the long
fly rod, the reel, the line, and the whole of the beautiful flies
that excite the admiration of us poor bottom fishermen, is a
sport of the very highest order j and when other sports are
given up in favour of this, it is very seldom that the sports-
man lays it on one side again, until his tottering feet refuse
to carry him in safety over the stony bed of the river, and
his enfeebled hands cannot grasp the rod with their past
strength and vigour. Even some of us humble bottom
fishermen — to whom I claim to belong — can feel some of this
attractive power; for who can forget it when he lias once
seen his float shoot under the surface, and felt the first wild,
mad rush of a fresh run salmon ? certainly not I. " Hech
mon," said one worthy Scotch parson to another, " when ye
get up o' the fine Sabbath morn, and find the river i' splendid
ply, don't ye jist feel tempted to tak' a cast o' her ? " " Nay !
nay ! brither," replied the other, " I dinna' feel tempted, but
I jist gang."

Ah ! well I suppose it always will be so, this feeling of
sport ever uppermost, and " once an angler, always an
angler," will be the motto emblazoned on our escutcheons.

Volumes have been written about the art and glory of fly
fishing for salmon, and some of the writers have utterly
condemned any other plan for capturing the "King of
Fishes," while to use a vulgar worm is dubbed " unsports-
manlike," and even "rank poaching;" but why the plan
should have applied to it these terms I fail to see, because it
is a well-known fact that on some salmon rivers the angler
may flog the water with his fly till his arms are stiff and
then not succeed in rising one single salmon (fish, I was
going to say, but a big chub might take the fly) ; where-
as if a bunch of worms was tripped along the bottom
the chances will be all in the angler's favour ; or, to come
a step nearer fly fishing, a good artificial " Devon " or a

130 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

" Derby Killer " would prove successful when a fly would be
utterly useless, although, as the Editor of the Fishing Gazette
forcibly put it in a footnote to a letter in that paper a few
weeks ago, " the salmon might be educated to it by persis-
tent fly fishing," There is something in this that is well worth
the attention of our salmon fishermen, because the Trent is
a salmon river on which the fly, let it be fished ever so
cunningly, seems to meet with little or no success.

As to the natural history of the salmon, his nature and
habits, I shall say nothing in this chapter beyond what I
have already hinted in the few remarks above, nor shall I
give a single hint as to fly fishing for him ; but as briefly as
possible I will glance at the modus operandi of the worm
fisher and spinner.

A diversity of opinion exists even among our Trent men
as to the length, the weight, and the pliability of the rod for
this business ; but I fail to see the utility of carrying about
a rod one foot longer or one ounce heavier than is absolutely
necessary to meet the requirements of the case. The
ordinary twelve-foot strong barbel rod will do very well for
worm fishing for salmon, for it is a patent fact that if a rod
will kill a ten or twelve-pound barbel easy, it stands a very
good chance of killing a salmon ; in fact, I can remember a
light eleven-foot roach rod and one of the finest of drawn
gut tackle, killing a very nice fresh run fish of nearly eight
pounds in weight, and another of sixteen pounds was got
on an ordinary light chub rod j it would, however, take up
more space than can be spared in this chapter to give an
account of all the odd salmon that have been killed in the
Trent by these rods when barbel and bream fishing, even those
that have come under my own observation ; but I must
mention the case of the very biggest that ever I saw killed
by one of these ordinary barbel rods. Tom Bentley was
fishing with worms a short distance above Newark, when he,
at twenty minutes past twelve one day, hooked a fish, and
at twenty minutes past four — or after a struggle lasting
exactly four hours — succeeded in landing a magnificent
salmon; short, thick, and in splendid condition, weighing
no less than thirty-two and a half pounds. It was exhibited

SALMON FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 131

on a slab in the shop of Mr. Kelly, fishmonger, Castle Gate,
Newark, and was much admired. There is no question as
to the accuracy of this statement, for I saw the rod when
it was bending to the weight of that fish ; besides this, the
local bench of magistrates had something to say on the
subject, as our old friend Tom was fishing without a licence
from the Trent Board.

If the angler wishes to combine spinning with float
fishing, or even fishing with a running lead where float
fishing would be out of the question, it would perhaps be as
well to have a rod built for the purpose, one that shall be
light and handy enough to throw out a float well, and yet
strong enough to stand the wear and tear of spinning, as an
ordinary barbel rod would hardly have this much to be
desired combination. I had hold of a rod the other day that
seemed to me to be just the very thing ; it was built after the
pattern of a Nottingham barbel rod, except that it had
rather more timber in its construction, and was when put
together twelve feet six inches in length ; it was not so stiff as
an ordinary pike rod, but notwithstanding this I believe it was
more powerful ; it had a hard- wood knob on the butt end
for the purpose of resting the rod in the hollow of the thigh
while fishing. It tapered beautifully, and struck splendidly
straight from the very point ; altogether it looked to me to
be just the very beau ideal of a Nottingham rod for fishing
for heavy and powerful fish; I might add that it only
weighed one pound six ounces. I carefully took its measure,
and intend before very long to make myself one as near like
it as possible.

The ordinary plain 4J inch reel, or the centre pin, or Mr.
Slater's patent reel as described in Chapter II., will be just the
very things for this business, and it won't matter which the
angler has, as one will do about as well as the others; however,
he will have to regulate that according to his pocket.

For a line I should recommend the strong silk twist,
barbel size ; some anglers say that an eighty yards length
would be quite sufficient, but he might meet with a fish
that would take that lot out, and still want more ; and as
these lines are less than two shillings each, it would be

k 2

132 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

scarcely wise to risk losing fish and tackle for the sake of
an extra line, so I should say have two and join them very
neatly together, then he will he prepared for any emer-
gency ; besides, when one line gets worn he could change it
end for end, and so use the other one ; these lines are
plenty strong enough, and yet not too thick to comfortably
use with a float.

For fishing slow-running streams, the angler can have if
he likes a large-sized pelican quill float, but I prefer three
or four cork floats of various sizes, because in salmon fishing
with the worm it is necessary to have a large-sized bait,
and to have your tackle weighted so that the bait is always
well on the bottom ; so that a small cork float that will
carry some eight or ten BB split shot in addition to a small
corking weight will be found the best for streams that only
run moderately fast ; while for deeper, heavier swims, he can
have a larger float and increase the number of shot on the
tackle or the size of the corking weight lead ; and he must
not forget to have a fair-sized slider float for fishing swims
that are above twelve or thirteen feet in depth, although I
can fish a swim fourteen feet deep without a slider, but with
an ordinary cork float and a twelve-foot rod, and throw the
bait out thirty yards from where I stand ; but, however, it
will be necessary to have a slider float as all anglers are not
alike in their management of a rod (full directions for
making a slider will be found in Chapter II.), only it should
be a good-sized cork float.

The bottom tackle is a very important part of the outfit,
and the angler should be very particular when he makes this,
and see that every length of gut is strong and sound ; it need
not be too thick and coarse ; the best, the cleanest, the roundest,
and the strongest lengths picked out of a hank of good strong
barbel gut will be found all that is required ; he need not
go to the expense of giving say fifteen shillings or a pound
for a hank of salmon gut, when the other will do just as
well ; and he should also see that every knot is firm and
strong, so that the salmon, heavy as he is, cannot pull them
asunder ; this gut should be stained with the slate-coloured
dye as described in Chapter II., and the angler must re-

SALMON FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 133

member that before he ties the lengths together he should
steep them at least half an hour in lukewarm water, so as to
render them pliable, and the knots come together firm and
strong. In tying the lengths together, the knot as described
in Chapter II. will be found aU that is required. Although
some anglers object to salmon tackle being tied with this
knot, they prefer another sort of double knot that is tied
after this fashion : lay the two ends of two separate pieces
of gut together till they overlap one another about a couple
of inches, with the other ends pointing in opposite directions ;
a single knot is then tied with the two overlapping ends in
the centre, but it is not drawn tight, but left as a sort of
small ring or eye ; then take the long length and the short
one that are on the right side of this eye and pass them
both through again from the opposite side, and then draw
tight. This is a very sound and secure knot, but it looks much
more clumsy than the other. These knots will be all the better
if the ends are not cut close off, but about a quarter of an inch
left at each side, and bound neatly and closely with a bit of
well-waxed silk each side the knot ; about four feet will be
the proper length for this tackle. And now the angler will
want some hooks, and the very best in my opinion will be
the round bent, bright Carlisle, and the best size for the
bottom one will be a No. 2, and there should be a No. 4 as a
lip hook, tied so that they will be about two inches apart
from bend to bend ; these hooks should be whipped on with
thin but strong silk, waxed with shoemaker's wax, and as
near up to the bend as possible, or rather, I might say, till
the whipping is level with the barb, taking care, however,
that the whipping should be done as closely and as strongly
as possible ; then the angler should get a pinch of vermillion
and mix it with two drops of the spirit varnish described in
Chapter II., and with a small camel's hair brush just touch
the whipping over with it, and this will make the hook
whippings the same colour as the worms you use for bait,
besides protecting the lappings, and giving them a good and
glossy finish ; the split shots can be added when the angler
gets to the riverside to use it. I think I have now made it
pretty clear to the novice as to the tackle required for

134 BOTTOM PISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

worm fishing with, a float for salmon ; no lengthy list of
articles is required that would involve him in a very great
expenditure ; but I had nearly forgotten to mention that he
ought to have a good strong gaff hook and staff, but this
need not cost him above three or four shillings. A stout
clearing ring and cord would be a very useful thing in one
of his coat pockets, in case his tackle should get fast over
some obstruction on the river bottom.

If the angler is in the habit of spending a lot of his
spare time by the waterside, he will probably notice the
places that the salmon frequent, for they very often jump
clean out of the water, and drop on the surface again with
a splash as though a big dog had been thrown in. He will
soon notice that the places where they are seen to jump the
most are those deep steady swims which the barbel fishermen
patronize so much ; although sometimes he may see them
jump from a shallow rapid current ; but still the deep steady
swims are the best to try for them in, as these are their
resting-places in their journeys up and down stream.

We will suppose now that the angler has selected a swim,
and clipped up some half a dozen or so big worms and thrown
them in by the way of a bit of ground bait, and has put
his tackle together with the corking weight on the line
close to the loop of his bottom tackle, and his split shots on
the latter, sufficient to cause his float to ride nicely down the
stream, with the red-tipped quill and about half an inch of
the cork out of the water, and has baited his hooks after the
following plan : he takes a fair-sized well-scoured lob-worm,
and sticks the bottom hook in it about an inch from the
head end, and brings it out again about the same distance
from the tail, till, in fact, his worm has been worked up the
gut as far as the lip hook, then this latter is stuck through
the head of the worm to hold it in its position, the point
and barb coming right through; he then takes another
worm about the same size as the first and hangs its head
end on the lip hook, and its tail on the bottom hook, so
that there is at least an inch of each end left free to wriggle
about ; then he wants another worm rather smaller than the
other two, and this he hangs on the bottom hook by about

SALMON F1SHENG IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 135

the middle, so as to form altogether a real good lump of
worms with plenty of ends to wriggle about. You want a
real good-sized bait for a salmon, and if you could firmly
thread on your hooks four good big worms your chance of
getting a run would be all the greater. You now make
your cast either direct from the reel or by pulling down
the line from between the rings of the rod, as most fully
explained elsewhere. When the cast is made and the float
has settled into its position, the knob of the rod is, as already
indicated, dropped into the hollow of the left thigh, the left
hand firmly grasping the rod close against and partly on
the top edge of the reel back with the fingers in readiness to
act as a brake or check to the revolving part of the reel the
very moment that check is required ; then with the finger
and thumb of the right hand you pay off the line, so that
the float shall travel down the swim without any catch or
hindrance whatever, taking care, however, that there is no
slack line between the rod point and the float if you can
help it When the float has travelled down the swim, say
thirty or forty yards, or whatever length it is, without a bite,
you wind it back again and repeat the operation. I believe
I have before given an outline of fishing a swim in this
style, but in spite of this the plan does not seem to be
thoroughly understood by anglers generally, so I hope it will
not be thought a waste of time if I have just looked at it
again in detail. If the angler gets a bite, he allows the
salmon a second or two to get the bait well into its mouth
and then strikes sharply, at the same moment pressing his
finger-ends on the edge of the revolving portion of the reel,
so that his stroke shall take effect and the hook be driven
well home. After this takes place, of course the angler has
to be guided very much by circumstances, checking his reel,
letting it run, or winding it home as well as he can ; but he
will soon find out the best and quickest plan to kill his fish,
I myself prefer to use my finger ends as a check, and
would not give a penny for a check action to the reel, if
that check action was only to be used as a help to kill the
fish ; indeed, I think this killing the fish with your fingers
on the edge of a fast revolving reel to be the true Notting-

136 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

ham style of salmon fishing. It sometimes happens that the
angler sees a salmon roll up out of a sharp, rattling stream
that is not above four feet deep, and has a tolerably level
sandy or gravelly bottom without any big stones or obstruc-
tions in its course. A place like this is best fished with a
rolling lead, and no float at all. For this plan the tackle
can be the same as for float fishing, except that it need not
be above a yard in length, with two or three swan shots on
it at intervals. The hooks and the bait are exactly the
same as before, and the lead can either be a flat ledger or a
couple of the long pike leads ; I should prefer the latter, as
they will be less likely to catch over any obstructions on the
bottom, and easier set free if they do catch. These leads
can either be threaded on the line close against the loop of
the tackle, or they can be done as recommended by some of
our very best fisherman, i.e. fastened on a separate short
bit of gut, a lot thinner and weaker than the rest of the
tackle, so that they hang independent of it ; a short bit of
gut will do with a loop at one end, so that when the angler
fastens his reel line to the loop of his bottom tackle he can
fasten the leads on at the same time. If during the passage
of his bait down the stream the leads should happen to get
firmly hitched under a stone, why, by the gut there being
the thinnest it would break first, and the angler only lose
his leads, instead of both leads and tackle, as he would do
if they were threaded on the line. This bait is thrown
direct from the reel as described in ledgering and spinning
for pike, and is allowed to travel down the stream (the angler
will feel the leads roll along the bottom), letting the line run
off the reel so as not to check the bait, but remembering
always to keep a tight line as the bait runs down the swim.
After it has travelled the required distance, which need not
be above forty yards unless special circumstances require it,
the angler winds up the line on his reel and repeats the cast.
This plan of fishing a salmon swim is in my opinion a very
good one, but it must not be confounded with plumbing and
ledgering, in which the bait is fished as a stationary one ; it
is, as I have just hinted, a travelling bait, pure and simple —
your bait is all the while travelling or rolling down the swim

SALMON FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 137

from one end to the other of it. I know of several swims where
it is absolutely necessary to fish in this style, there not being
above four or five feet of water and a very strong current, so
much so, in fact, that no matter how heavy your lead is, it
will travel along the bottom at a very rapid rate ; in fact,
it is very hard work to fish a strong swim properly in this
style; you cannot throw your bait out and rest the rod
across a forked stick and sit on the bank and lazily watch
the rod point for a tug, but you must always have rod in
hand and eye and fingers always on the alert. By this plan
the angler is enabled to cover a lot of water, and if he is sure
of his ground as to what sort of a bottom it is, it will be best
to first have a few swims as near to the bank on which he
stands as possible, say within five or six yards, and then to
keep increasing his distance, or cast, till he has covered the
whole of the water between where he stands and as far across
the river as he can comfortably throw his leads and bait. Of
course the angler can, if he likes, hold his bait a bit, that is, to
not let it travel down the swim as fast as it likes, but only
pay off the line very gently so that it will take more time in
its passage down ; in fact, I have seen a bait thrown nearly
across the river, and before it has travelled thirty or forty
yards down stream it has worked to within a very few yards
of the bank on which the angler stood by his merely
checking it a few times for a second or so at once. But the
angler will soon find out the best and safest plan to fish a
swim after he has once mastered the ground-work of his
proceedings.

Long corking is a plan that is sometimes adopted in
certain swims, and these swims are within three or four
yards of the bank and, say, from eight to twelve feet deep,
with a very steady current. The tackle for this plan is
exactly the same as for float fishing, only you must arrange
the float so that the bait is well on the bottom, say a couple of
feet more between the bait and float than the swim is deep.
This is a very easy and lazy plan, for the place is such an one
that the angler can sit down on the bank and just toss his bait
out and allow it to float down some eight or ten yards and
then hold it stationary, or let it creep down inch by inch if

138 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

he likes, but so steadily that it would only move a couple of
yards or so in five minutes. This is a very good plan to fish
those deep steady swims close under the bank or nearly so,
and I know that in such places as these salmon are some-
times found. Sometimes a salmon might choose as its rest-
ing-place a spot without any current at all and a good distance
from the bank ; and when this is the case he is fished for
with a lead or stationary bait, locally known as plumbing or
ledgering. A flat ledger lead is used, and the bait and
tackle are the same as for the rolling bait ; it is then cast to
the required place, and the angler can just hank his line
over the handle of his reel, rest his rod in a forked stick, and
wait for a bite. Personally, if it can be managed anyhow, I
prefer to fish a swim with a float travelling down, as first
described ; but it cannot be always managed, and the angler
must learn to adopt that plan that is best suited to meet the
circumstances of the case.

A shrimp or a prawn fished on a single hook in the same
manner as the worm is a pretty good bait for salmon on
some waters, but I cannot say how it would act on the Trent,
never having seen it tried.

I need not give any directions in spinning for salmon, as
the modus operandi of the spinner has already been most
fully described in the chapter on pike ; it is only necessary
to say that instead of the trace being gimp, it should be very
strong gut, with the hanging lead and plenty of swivels.
Natural baits are sometimes spun on a spinning flight or an
Archimedean tackle ; and here I might add that while the
pike seems to prefer a wobbling bait, the salmon likes one
that spins most truly and glitters most beautifully, but
artificial baits seem to be the most in use, and the " Derby
Killer " and the " Devon n the most successful.

In bringing these few instructions for fishing for salmon
in the Nottingham style to a close, I will just say that let
the fly fisherman scoff at the plan as he likes, he cannot alter
the fact that some considerable skill is required in order to
successfully kill a big lively salmon on the, comparatively
speaking, fine lines and tackle of a Nottingham bottom
fisherman.

THE PERCH. 139

CHAPTER VIII.

THE PERCH.

The perch is a member of the Percidae family, and is a true
representative of the " spinous finned " fish (of which there
are very few different sorts found in the waters of Great
Britain), and his scientific name is Perca Fluviaiilis. When
he is in good condition, he is a handsome fish ; the body is
oblong, and is covered with small, hard and rough scales.
He has a large mouth, and the gill covers are spinous or
prickly. His jaws and palate are well furnished with teeth ;
in colour he is a sort of a pale green, with a white belly, and
there are some dark transverse bars striping his sides ; his anal
and tail, or caudal, fins are of a bright red, and the golden
irides of his eyes are very beautiful. The back is very
humped, the dorsal or back fin is surmounted by sharp spines
or prickles ; there is one very great characteristic, and that is,
he has two dorsal fins. Taking the perch altogether, he is a
very handsome fish. One drawback he has, and that is, he
is not a very comfortable fish to handle. You hook one, and
swing him into your hand, like a roach or dace, and he will
elevate the spines on his back, or you may perhaps catch
your hand against the edge of his gill covers, and a very sharp
stab will be the result. He might very well be called the
water hedgehog, in that respect. The baits for perch fishing
are worms (a well-scoured tail end of lob- worm is, perhaps,
as good as any, though he likes a bunch of small red worms,
or a brandling) ; minnows are an excellent bait for him, or a
very small gudgeon, or dace (all fry, in fact, not above two
inches long) ; minnows, however, if you can get them, are the
best. He will sometimes take a lump of paste, or a bunch of
gentles, when one is roach fishing, or a cad bait when fishing

140 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

for dace in a stream, and he will very often take the very-
small hook and scrap of worm of the gudgeon fisher. When
ledgering for barbel with worms in a weir hole, he is often
taken, but I believe his principal food is the small fry of fish.
I have taken them when I have been spinning for pike with
an artificial bait, and have seen them dash at a six-inch
dace on a spinning flight, with back fin extended, and mouth
open, to within a few inches of it, and then turn tail and re-
treat j and very often they have only been perch of half a
pound or so, In lakes and waters where perch run very-
large, it is astonishing the size of the bait a three-pound
perch will take. You are perhaps fishing with a live bait, a
dace or roach, intended for (at least) a ten-pound jack, and
a three-pound perch will insist on trying to swallow it. A
big perch has a tremendous mouth, in proportion, and perhaps
he thinks that anything he can get into his mouth he can
swallow. "When I see a three-quarter pound perch hanging
from the triangle of a spoon bait (for instance), I always
think of the old saying about the eyes being bigger than the
belly. Perch are found in almost any river, canal, lake, and
pond in the kingdom : and in ponds, &c, where they run
small, and are ill-fed, can be taken anyhow — a worm on coarse
tackle they will then take greedily. A good river perch, in
the months of August, September, or October, is quite another
thing ; he is a good deal like a roach, and is not to be had by
a mere tyro. About the latter end of June or so, perch are
found in the streams, and are often caught when dace fishing
with worm ; a month or two after they get into deeper and
stronger waters, or seek the quiet eddies and deep holes near
old piers and piles of bridges, weir depths ; and it is then
that they are very shy, being well fed. It requires fine
tackle and a very delicate bait to entrap them then. After a
sharp winter, when the frost has just broken up, and the
river is tearing down in high flood, the perch are driven
into the still corners and eddies, and at that time and in
those places they are sometimes congregated together in large
numbers. They have been on short commons most of the
winter, and are very hungry, and will then take almost any-
thing, after the water has cleared down a little. In good

THE PEKCH. 141

perch waters, I have heard of as many as two hundred fine
fish being taken out of one hole, by two rods in a few hours,
when they have been in that condition. That instance is
the exception, however, and not the rule. In January and
February they are taken in the largest quantities, but in the
autumn and early part of the winter they are not to be had so
easily.

Perch spawn in April, and deposit their eggs on the weeds
and rushes, the submerged branches or fibrous roots of trees
or bushes in the still backwaters, or up ditches, and these
hang about the weeds, &c, like long festoons of lace; it is
then that swans, &c, should be kept away, for they will
gobble up this spawn by the yard. One singular point in the
perch is that out of every dozen that is captured, eleven of
them are female fish. Some naturalists infer that the perch
are bisexual, and that they are self-concipient, but one thing
is certain, they are very prolific, even a small perch contains
a vast quantity of eggs. Perch in some localities will reach
a considerable size. I have heard of them reaching a very
heavy weight in the Danube, but in England they very
seldom exceed the weight of four pounds, and this is by no
means common. A three-pound fish is a very heavy one, a
two-pounder is a good one, while a pounder or a three-quarter-
pounder is not to be despised, while even a dish of half-
pound perch does not fall to the lot of the angler every day.
The Thames, the Kennet, and the Hampshire Avon are perhaps
the best rivers in England for perch, for we hear of them
being taken out of those rivers very often of the weight of
from two to two and a half pounds, while in the broads of
Norfolk and Suffolk, and the meres of Huntingdonshire, we
hear of them of the weight of four pounds and even a few a
little over. The Trent does not seem to be much of a perch
river, either as regards weight or numbers. I don't see why
it should not, but such is the fact. I have never yet seen
or heard of a two-pound perch being taken out of the Trent.1
Some localities are better stocked with them than others,

1 Since writing the above, I have seen a brace that were taken out
of this river with the salmon nets, weighing a trifle over two pounds
apiece.

142 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTLNGHAM STYLE.

perhaps, but I must confess that in all my rambles up and
down the Trent, I have never found a place that abounds
with perch either little or big. Once I got a pound fish from
out of the rough water of Averham weir, and two or three
three-quarter-pounders from the mouth of the Devon, and
another place or two, and a few half-pounders from various
places, but they are by no means common, and I don't think
I ever caught above half a dozen perch in one day from the
Trent in my life ; the Devon and the Witham seem to be
better stocked with perch than the Trent, for I have seen
several good catches from those rivers. An angler went up
to Barnby to fish the Witham a few months ago. It was, in
fact, just after the break up of last winter's frost, and when
he got there the river was tearing down nearly bank full and
very much discoloured. He thought when he saw it that it
would be of no use fishing, but there was a big drain or dyke
a little distance away, and as there was a deep hole at the
mouth of this drain where it ran into the river he thought
he would go and have a look. He found that a short dis-
tance up this drain, a very few yards in fact, the water was
nothing like so much discoloured as it was in the river, so he
determined to have a try. It was a beautiful quiet eddy,
whereas a few yards outside the river rushed down in a tor-
rent : he clipped up a few worms and threw them in, and
then baited his hook j his float had hardly reached the per-
pendicular, before down it went, and in another minute a
half-pound perch was landed ; this was rather encouraging,
and so he set to work in earnest, and for two hours the biting
was very fair, and when he left off, he had something like
thirty perch, and some half-dozen roach, and many of the
perch were very good fish. The perch had run up the mouth
of this drain, to get out of the way of the heavy water out-
side, and being hungry, had taken the bait freely. Nothing
like that has been done on the Trent, and I have tried all
such likely-looking spots up and down the river, on purpose
to see if I could not break the spell that seems to be cast
over it, but without any very great results, and I have long
ago come to the conclusion that the Trent is not much of a
perch river. The largest perch by far that I have seen

THE PERCH. 143

captured in the neighbourhood of Newark was taken out of
the Devon, it was only an ounce or two short of two pounds.2
I have, however, an idea that if they were properly angled
for there are some good perch in Besthorp Fleet (a large
sheet of water a short distance from the Trent, about eight
miles below Newark), in fact, I think of experimenting
there before long. A perch is a splendid fish for the table,
a small one out of a stagnant pond is not very good, but a
good river perch is excellent; his flesh is white, firm, and
flaky, without so many of the objectionable small bones of
the roach. I have them opened and well cleaned, and a little
salt rubbed down the backbone, and then simply broiled in
their jackets. When they are cooked the skin and scales all
slip off, they are then seasoned to taste. The rod, reel, and
line described in Chapter II. will be most suitable for perch
fishing, and the tackle may be stoutish roach tackle, about
three or four feet long, with a No. 5 or 6 hook on the end.
A perch has a large mouth and so it is better to have a large
hook ; the float can either be a quill or a very small cork one,
according to the strength of the stream. I prefer a quill and
tackle (except in the case of the hook), as recommended for
dace fishing when the bait is worms. A few worms cut up
as you are fishing and thrown in, is quite sufficient for ground
bait ; the hook bait is a worm, the tail end of a well-scoured
lob-worm is the best of all, while brandlings or small red
worms can be tried for a change. When a perch takes the
bait, give him a second, and then strike lightly, and play
him carefully, for if you prick, hook, and lose a perch or
two, it is fatal to your chance of success, unless they happen
to be well " on," which is not often the case ; and if you
get a shoal of perch in a biting humour, nothing would be
more annoying than to prick a fish or two. The rest of
them are frightened, and fly out of the swim, and nothing

2 Two fish larger than this have come under my observation since
then ; one was caught in the ballast hole with a pike bait, and another
in the Witham with a worm, weighing something like two and a half
pounds apiece. I got the best dish of perch I ever got in my life
about two years ago out of the Witham, capturing fifteen fish that
weighed 12| lbs., using live minnows on a single hook for bait.

144 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

will entice them back again (this holds good with either
worm or minnow fishing), or if you do entice them back
again it will be a couple of hours wasted, and the tish will
be shy and bite very gingerly. The most common plan of
taking perch is with the minnow, and this can be used in
several fashions. The most common method is with a single
minnow and float. The float is a light cork one, and the
tackle is about four feet of medium gut, sufficiently weighted
with split shots. Don't have a great clumsy float, bat one
of the lightest cork floats you can find. One that will carry
six or eight middle-sized split shots will serve, and the lowest
shot should be about a foot from the hook, which should be
about a No. 4 or 5. Some fasten the hook near to the back
fin, but I like to hook them through the lip. This bait
should be very near the bottom, and the float should travel
down the swim, something like traveller fishing for barbel.
The minnow is a capital fellow to work about ; and if you
know a perch haunt by the side of a row of bushes or a line
of flags, reeds, &c., the little fish will soon attract the atten-
tion of Mr. Perch. When the float bobs down with a perch
bite, don't strike at once, give him a few seconds, and let
him have a trifle of line ; and when you feel the quick tug,
tug, tug, which ensues, strike firmly, but don't hit him too
hard. The reason why you give him a few seconds is be-
cause the hook is at the lip of the minnow, and a perch
takes them by the tail, and he has the whole of the minnow
to get into his mouth before the hook can take effect ; at
least that is my impression. With this tackle you can use
worms, for some odd times he will not look at the minnow,
but will take a well-scoured worm. In swift boiling Maters,
or in a rapid stream, in which very often the largest perch
are to be found, and where you cannot very well use a float,
then an arrangement that is called a paternoster is used.
This paternoster consists of about four feet of gut without
any split shots on it ; and at the bottom there is a plumb, or
heavy ledger, to keep the bait well down. Above this lead
there are two or three hooks on which the minnows are
impaled ; two will be sufficient. On the gut bottom, about
a foot from each other, two loops are tied — the bottom one a

VIII.

FRESHWATER FISHES.

THE PERCH. 145

few inches from the lead, and in these loops a piece of fine
gut about six inches long is also tied with a No. 4 or 5 hook
on the end. The minnow is baited in the same way as for
the float tackle. Do not use a dead minnow, but see that
he is perfectly lively. To use this, cast the plumb down
and across stream ; when the plumb touches the bottom hold
it tight there, and let it stay a minute, then slowly wind up
the line and draw the baits towards you, but let them come
very slowly ; when you get them as near you as you can,
lift the plumb out of the water and make your cast again.
Throw it in all directions so as to search the whole of the
water well; when you get a bite, remember what I said
before, don't strike at once, but give the fish a few seconds,
so that he may have time to get the bait in his mouth well.
I have heard of anglers fastening bones at regular distances
on a cord, by way of an attraction for the perch. I should
suppose the bones have a supply of meat on them, and have
not been picked clean. A first-class angler says they are a
capital attraction for perch ; I, personally, cannot say, for I
never tried the scheme, and so cannot speak from experience
on that matter. The artificial minnow is sometimes spun,
but I think it is like spinning the natural one — a very sorry
business. If you must have an artificial bait for perch, per-
haps Mr. Gregory's " Clipper " would be as good as any, for
I have caught one or two on it. Spinning for perch, how-
ever, is not very profitable. Where perch abound the worm
and the minnow worked as I have described will be found
all that is required. I have heard that perch are taken in
some districts with an artificial fly, but I have never seen
one caught with a fly, nor have I caught one myself. I am
told that a big showy fly is the best, and that it does not
matter about the pattern, as the perch are not very particular.
I have used big showy flies for chub, and in places where I
have taken perch with worm, but not a single perch has yet
taken my fly.

146 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

CHAPTER IX

THE BREAM.

The bream is another distinguished member of the carp
tribe, distinguished because he is of rather a peculiar shape,
being nearly as broad as he is long. His back stands up a
good height, and his belly bows round to a good depth. In-
deed, I have a short cutting before me from a journal in which
'a writer describes a bream as being like a pair of bellows,
" the handles forming the head and the spout the tail f my
author, however, spoils his remark by adding, " they are like
a pair of bellows in flavour." Well, I know they are not
very good as an edible, but like a pair of bellows ! The scien-
tific name of the bream is Cyprinus Brama. There are three
sorts of bream in English waters, but the most common are the
carp bream or golden bream, and the white bream or silver
bream called by some bream flats. The carp bream is the larger
of the two sorts, and is not a very handsome fish ; it can easily
be recognized by any tyro, being very thin and also wonder-
fully broad. The fins are of a very dark colour, his head is
not out of the way large, and he has rather a small mouth,
when we consider the size of him ; his skin is very slimy in
a general way, but I remember taking two or three two-pound
fish, and they were as clean as a dace. This was in Septem-
ber, and I hooked them in a slight shallow stream. They
were very beautiful on the back, looking as though they were
shot with mother-o'-pearl and gold, while their bellies were
silvery white, the scales on their sides were smooth, round,
and hard ; in fact it seemed to me that they were a different
species of bream altogether, and I can only suppose them to
have been the third species, Ahamis Bugganhagii, or the
Pomeranian bream, which is a very scarce fish in Britain.
These bream had the distinguishing features of the carp bream,

THE BREAM. 147

namely, very dark fins, head and mouth small, but the back
(shot, as I said, with gold and mother-o'-pearl) glittered when
taken out of the water as though phosphorescent ; the scales
were small, round, hard, and as smooth as glass, without any
superabundant slime on them; the sides and belly were
silvery white. They were all about one size, the smallest
was a trifle over two pounds. I cannot remember taking any
bream either before or since that were so beautifully marked.
Carp bream are generally found in sluggish waters, they are
very fond of a deep quiet hole that has a sandy bottom. Old
anglers on the Trent, when they are on the look-out for a
bream swim, watch what they suppose to be one very
narrowly, early in the morning or late at night, because bream
in warm weather will rise up to the surface, and when they
do rise they leave a large bubble on the surface. In suitable
holes bream are sometimes congregated together in very large
numbers. There was a few years ago a famous bream hole a
short distance below Newark ; when the fish were " on," a
good bag of bream was almost a certainty from there, but one
day the hole was netted, and upwards of two tons of fine
bream were taken out of it, and since then scarcely any fish
have been taken from it. I have noticed that bream are
sometimes very roving in their habits, swims that contain
quantities of bream one week becoming tenantless the next,
as far as we could make out, and we have found them again
in places where we never supposed any bream to be. Bream
spawn in June, and during this operation each female is
accompanied by three or four males. These fish are found
in rivers, lakes, and ponds, but I believe the Bedfordshire
Ouse is the very best bream river in England, its deep
sluggish streams being exactly suited to them. The Broads of
Norfolk and Suffolk contain vast quantities of fine bream, and
the Trent has some good ones in many of its deep quiet holes.
This fish will sometimes attain to a very great size. I have
seen them taken from the Trent when they have scaled seven
and eight pounds, but such are by no means common, four or
five pounds being a good weight. Although I believe it is
put on record as a fact that a seventeen-pound fish was once
taken from the Trent, I have a cutting from the Fishing

l 2

148 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

Gazette now before me in which the following passage
occurs : "At Hoveringham (on the Trent) three years ago,
two splendid carp bream were caught by Mr. Beck in his eel
nets. I was present at the weighing of these fish, and they
scaled twelve and a quarter, and twelve and three-quarter
pounds respectively." Grand fish they would be, but I must
confess that I have never seen any approaching that weight.
The bream is not a very good fish for the table, its flesh is
woolly, watery, and disagreeable, and it has a great quantity
of small bones in its flesh. It will take a bit of paste, a
lump of gentles, or a cad bait, but the very best bait for
bream is a well-scoured worm. The rod, reel, and line re-
commended for barbel and chub will do for bream, and your
tackle should be the same as recommended for the same fish.
Don't have a float any larger than a swan quill if you can
help it, and it ought to be a slider, for bream are, as I said
before, found in deep holes ; and as the stream is sluggish,
do not use any heavier tackle than what will ride comfort-
ably in the swim. Everything should be as neat as possible,
for the bream is rather a cunning customer. They are very
uncertain in their feeding, often refusing to look at a bait
after the swim has been well baited. I have seen a well-
known bream swim baited with a thousand worms a day for
nearly a fortnight before the bream took it into their heads to
come " on f but when they once did come " on," the sport
was good ; and once I remember an angler baiting a swim day
after day, in the hope that he would soon get them, when at
last he had a bite, and soon landed a three-pounder. He now
fished away in earnest, and landed ten good fish in an hour,
when they left off feeding as suddenly as they began, and he
did not get a single nibble neither that day nor the next ;
while on the other hand, as just noticed, I have known
several members of a private fishery to put their resources
together, and join in at baiting a swim, and after they have
expended a good deal of time and a lot of worms over the
job, the bream have come on and well rewarded them for
their trouble, the lucky anglers getting good bags every day
for a fortnight ; but, as I have said before, bream fishing is
only a very uncertain job.

THE BEEAM. 149

Charlie Hudson, who lives somewhere against Dunham
Bridge, within easy distance of one of the deepest, if not the
deepest, bream swims on the Trent, viz., the celebrated Dun-
ham Dubs, is about as good a bream fisher as any I know.
He often pilots gentlemen to that hole, and assists them in
landing some u pluggers," as he calls them. He makes it his
especial business to keep that hole well baited during the
autumn j and for this purpose I know he often uses whole
bucketsful of worms. H any strange angler was to see
Charlie's landing-net for the first time, he would probably
think that there were some rare-sized fish when that thing
was wanted, for the hoop of it was at one time round a fair-
sized barrel, only he had cut it and bent the two ends down
a bit, and then nailed it fast on a twelve-foot clothes-prop,
and the net itself looked as though it had some time or other
been part of an old strong eel net. I shall have to go down
and see Charlie before long, as it is now a long time since I
saw him, or heard anything about him and his exploits among
the bream.

A friend of mine was telling me an anecdote the other
day about a man who lived on the borders of a very big pond
or lake that had a large quantity of big carp bream in its
waters. As soon as August got well in he used to begin to
bait up a swim or two, and for this purpose he used to mix
together a ground bait, most queer in its construction — bul-
lock's blood, brewers' grains, boiled potatoes, scratchings, bran,
and barley flour being mixed up into a stiff pudding, and
thrown in, and this process he used to repeat for a few days,
until he had thrown in something like a big wheelbarrow
load altogether. He used the tail end of well-scoured lob-
worms for his hook bait, and my friend assured me that that
man has taken as many as two hundredweight of fine bream
in a single day's fishing, and that the sport has continued
some seasons every day for a fortnight, or more. His swims
were generally a nice distance from the bank, and a night or
two before he fished he used to anchor his old boat in the
proper position for fishing his favourite pitch, and go back-
wards and forwards to it by means of another small boat.
While fishing he used to wear a huge apron reaching from

150 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

his chin to his feet, for the bream in that place were very
slimy and dirty. Another bream fisherman who fished in a
similar place to ' ue one just noticed, used to ground bait
with a still queer? I mess. He used to go to the butcher's
and beg the contents of a slaughtered bullock's stomach, and
mix this up with boiled potatoes, bran, and barley flour. He,
too, used the tail end of lob-worm for the hook, and very often
made some tremendous bags.

The most successful ground bait for bream on the Trent
seems to be lob-worms, either cut up small or thrown in
whole, the same as directed for barbel fishing in Chapter IV.,
and the best bait is the tail end of a well scoured maiden
lob-worm ; a small cockspur or brandling twisting about on
the point of the hook sometimes is an improvement, and
can be tried if the bream does not come very freely to the
tail end of lob. The large brandlings as described elsewhere
are a beautiful bait for bream.

The hook should be a No. 7 or 8, as bream have rather a
small mouth, and you should fish as near the bottom as you
can ; in fact, the directions for worm fishing for barbel will
answer to the letter for bream, so it would only be a waste of
time to repeat it. But I should just like to mention that
the new sliced hook (Mr. K. B. Marston's patent) looks to
me to be beautifully adapted for worm fishing for bream, that
is, if that patent could be applied to an ordinary No. 7 or 8
round bend, bright Carlisle hook, and I don't see why it
should not. In fishing with the tail end of lob it often slips
down to the bend of the hook, and part of the shank is ex-
posed ; now this slice on the upper part of the shank would
hold the worm nicely in its place, without any chance of its
slipping down. This is an important matter, and deserves
careful attention, as a tail end bait only just covers the hook
— or, I should say, there is only a quarter of an inch above
the shank top, and a quarter of an inch below the point to
hang loose.

When a bream takes the bait give him a second or two
to get it well into his mouth, he is rather a nibbling biter
and likes to suck at the worm (and that is the reason I like
most of the worm on the hook, and not much of a long end

THE BEEAM. 151

hanging down), and then strike firmly, but not too hard, for
you are fishing with fine tackle, and might break it with too
hard a stroke. When you feel that you have hooked your
fish play him carefully and look out for squalls, for he has
such a tendency to bore downward ; if, however, you play
him firmly and keep a tight line, you will soon tire him out,
heavy as he is (and he does feel very heavy on a line, his very
deep sides holding against the water). In a very few minutes
he turns on his side, and the landing-net is slipped under him.
I was once playing a big bream, and I had got him exhausted,
and a companion slipped the net under him. The net was
very tender, and the fish went right through it, making
another bolt. Playing a heavy fish in that predicament
was a little bit of change in the sport, but I succeeded at last
in landing him.

The bream may be taken with the ledger the same as recom-
mended for the barbel; in fact the instruction in worm fishing
for one will answer in every respect for the other, except that
the bream likes a smaller bait, and you use a smaller hook.
The white bream are often taken with the same tackle, the
same baits, and in the same swims as the roach ; they very
seldom exceed a pound in weight and are greatly inferior to
the carp bream.

152 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

CHAPTER X.

THE CARP AND TENCH.

Carp and tench are mostly linked together on the angler's
tongue, why, is not apparent, unless it is because that they
are generally found in company. They are both of them lake
or pond fish generally, although sometimes found in rivers.
In some respects they are totally unlike one another, for in-
stance, the carp has the largest scales of any freshwater fish,
while the tench has the smallest, excepting the eel ; a small
carp is a very good bait for pike, while a tench is the very
worst. However, as bottom fishing for carp in ponds or lakes
may be equally well practised for tench, I have connected the
two fish, and so the instructions for one must answer for the
other. A short description of these fish I will, however, here
give. The carp is a cunning member of the Cyprinidse or
carp family, and his scientific name is Cyprinus Carpio. He
has very large scales, as I have said, and a Roman nose, like
a barbel. Carp spawn in May, though I have read some-
where that they spawn three or four times in the year. This
I cannot verify; observation shows to me that they only
spawn once, and that in May. However, I will not argue
the point as to whether they spawn once or more, but one
thing is certain, they are very prolific. The female fish con-
tains a vast quantity of eggs ; indeed, I have read that when
the roe is extracted from some specimens, it will turn the
scale against the rest of the fish. These fish will sometimes
reach a very heavy weight, and are found in England of the
weight of from twelve to twenty pounds, but the latter, how-
ever, being by no means common, from six to ten pounds
makes a very good fish. In Germany carp reach to an extra-
ordinary weight, thirty and forty pounds being a common
size, while it has been put on record that " a carp was caught
in 1711, near Frankfort on the Oder, which was more than

THE CAEP AND TENCH. 153

nine feet long, and three round, and which weighed seventy-
pounds f and in the lake of Zug, in Switzerland, one was
taken which weighed ninety pounds. Carp are found in
lakes and ponds, and sometimes in rivers, the big ones being
the most shy and suspicious fish that swim in our waters.
Small ones of a pound or so will sometimes bite very freely,
but the big ones are not to be had except with great difficulty ;
indeed, it often happens that when the angler has exhausted
all his patience and ingenuity, the carp has not come to hand
and rewarded him for his trouble ; for as the poet justly
remarks, —

" Of all the fish that swim the watery mead,
Not one in cunning can the carp exceed."

All sorts of baits are recommended in carp fishing — pastes
of all sorts and colours, sweetened with honey and sugar, or
flavoured with gin or brandy ; green peas, small green beans,
while others swear by a bit of half- boiled potato, a bunch
of gentles, or a few grubs. Perhaps, however, as good a bait
as can be used is a well-scoured worm, a brandling, or a
cockspur. If you know of a lake or pond that contains carp,
it will be as well to bait a pitch. If you keep your eyes open,
you will soon see which is a favourite feeding-ground, and a
day or two before you fish, get the right depth. Having
done this, throw in a handful or two of chopped worms the
first thing in the morning, or whatever ground bait you pro-
pose trying, and, if possible, repeat this for two or three days.
When you come to fish, if you can keep quite out of sight,
and you have a beautiful well-scoured brandling on your hook,
you may perhaps delude one of the big fellows, though hook-
ing one would be the signal for the rest to bolt. You should
then go to another part of the pond, and operate there in the
same manner, and so give the carp in the first swim time to
recover from their astonishment. Whatever you do, don't
insult the carp by fishing for him with a heavy cork float,
a long necklace of chain shot, and a coarse tackle ; the self-
cocking float, the one split shot, and the fine tackle recom-
mended for roach fishing must be the order of the day.
Remember that —

154 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

The carp whose wary eye
Admits no vulgar tackle nigh,
Essay your art's supreme address,
And beat the fox in sheer finesse."

The tench is a good deal nicer-looking fish that the carp.
The following is a good description of him : " All fins are
rounded at the extremities, tail fin not at all forked, nearly
square with corners rounded off; mouth small and toothless,
with one barbel at each corner ; scales very small ; colours,
head, sides, and cheeks, golden green, darker on the back and
fins, orange yellow under the belly, irides bright orange red."
Tench spawn in May, and seem to go raving mad while they
are performing the operation. I have seen them dancing and
twisting about in the most absurd manner, rushing and chas-
ing one another through the weeds, and then stopping side
by side for a few minutes, refusing to be scared by anybody.
They are like the carp, very prolific, no less than 300,000
eggs have been estimated in a fish of three and a half pounds.
They are very tenacious of life, and will live a long time out
of water. The tench do not grow so large as the carp, six
or seven pounds being perhaps their limit ; and this depends
on the quality of the lake or pond they are in ; in small ponds
they do not often exceed two or three pounds. There is an
account, however, of one that was found in a hole among
some old roots, in a piece of water, in which old rubbish had
been thrown for years; it was ordered to be cleared out,
which when done a lot of fine tench were found, and this one
in the hole had literally assumed the shape of the place in
which he was found ; it weighed eleven pounds nine and a
half ounces, and is the largest on record. As a fish for the
table the tench is a good deal better than the carp ; his flesh
is white and firm, and not at all bad eating. The fish has a
very thick skin, and is very slimy. It has been called the
" physician of fishes," and the reason, it is said, why the pike
will not eat him, is because when the pike is wounded, the
pike rubs the injured place against the side of the tench.
Pike have been known to take tench occasionally, though it
is thought that this is the result of accident, rather than
design.

THE CARP AND TENCH. 155

The rod, reel, and line described and recommended in
mub and barbel fishing are right for carp and tench fishing.
As I have said before, your float should be as small as you
like, the self-cocking one will be the best if you can use it,
if not the lightest quill you have got, one that will carry four
or five small split shots will be quite big enough. In fact,
the remarks on the subject of floats in the chapter on roach
will fit in exactly for carp and tench fishing; the tackle
should be the same as recommended for chub, and as fine as
you dare fish with. The split shot should be very small and
a long way from the hook, which latter can be a No. 7. or 8.
A bit of bread can be steeped, well crushed up, and mixed
up with a handful of bran, if you intend to fish with paste,
but use your ground bait sparingly, don't toss a thousand or
two of worms in, the same as you would for a big barbel
swim ; a handful or two of worms, or bread and bran, at once
will be quite enough, if you are fishing with worms. I
believe a smart brandling is as good as any of these ; thread
it carefully on the hook, so that every part of it is hidden in
the worm, or Mr. Carp will soon find the latter out. Allow
the bait to be plenty deep enough — better let it lie a few
inches on the bottom than hang clear. If the carp bites,
don't be in a hurry, for he is a very slow biter; the float will
sometimes bob and tremble for a few seconds, don't meddle
with it till it bobs under water and begins to glide away,
then strike firmly, and if he is a big one, look out for
squalls, should there be a weed bed handy so that he can
pop in it. If you wish to use paste, the bread paste re-
commended in roach fishing will do, only instead of it being
plain, it is best mixed with a little honey ; a few pellets
of this can be thrown in before you begin to fish. The
cunning old customers, however, will rob your hook of this
paste continually, therefore I should prefer the worm myself.

The chief requirements of an angler for big carp in a pond
are, first, very fine tackle ; second, a nice bait ; third, keep out
of sight, and make no noise ; fourth, plenty of skill; and fifth,
a very large stock of patience, and then you may perhaps
catch one or two, and perhaps not, for fishing for carp and
catching carp are two different things, and should not be con-

156 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

founded in the J =ast. Should the angler be so fortunate as
to drop across i, big pond that has not been fished since the
" Middle Ages," and it contains an abundance of fine carp
and tench, then the probability is that he will get a little
sport ; but in well-fished waters these fish are not to be had
without a lot of trouble. The angler must be up to all sorts
of dodges. If the pond has a lot of weeds or water-flowers
on it, and the carp are on the surface, as they very often are,
grubbing about and eyeing the weeds; to see if there is anything
good to eat among them, a nice worm is just hung over the
edge of a leaf or flower j the fish will very often take it with-
out any preliminary hesitation, as he would if it were on the
ground. ; but it is a very risky proceeding, carp being more
often lost in the weeds than captured, after they have been
hooked. Small carp will sometimes bite pretty freely, as
they have not had the education of their elders. When
I was in the fens of Lincolnshire, I used to watch a few
cunning old carp that had their home in a very large
pond. A friend of mine used to try all manner of dodges
for them, but he never got a big one, a few pounders and
some nice tench was about the extent of his captures. A
river carp will bite a little more freely than a pond carp,
for they are taken in some places when fishing for barbel ;
or they sometimes get in a roach swim, and take a few
gentles or a bit of paste. It is not a regular thing to fish on
purpose for them in rivers ; when the angler does get one, it
is a lucky accident ; an odd tench or two are also sometimes
taken when bream fishing. Cyprinus Tinea is the scientific
name for tench.

THE DACE. 157

CHAPTER XT.

THE DACE.

This is a bright, handsome, well-made member of the carp
tribe, and his scientific name is Cyprinus Leuclscus. He is
only small in regard to size, but the old saying runs, " Little
fish are sweet," and that old saying is very applicable to the
dace, both in respect to its culinary qualities and its ren-
dering of sport to the angler. The dace is the very fish to
train up the young angler in the way he should go, for not
being so shy as the roach, it will bite bolder ; and the young
fly fisher can then try his 'prentice hand on him. This fish
will spring freely at the artificial fly, and quick striking has
to be the order of the day with dace. I do not know that I
can say much about bottom fishing for dace, for the tackle
and baits that are recommended for roach will be exactly
right for their capture. The dace, sometimes called the dart,
the dare, and the darden, is very rapid in his movements,
darting through the water with extraordinary speed. Dray-
ton, the poet, writing about him, says, —

" Oft swiftly as he swims, his silver belly shows ;
But with such nimble flight, that ere ye can disclose
His shape, out of your sight like lightning he is shot."

One may readily confound a small chub with the dace, and
remain under the impression that when he has caught a nine
or ten-ounce chub it is a very fine dace. If he looks at
them carefully, however, the following differences may be
noted ; the anal fin of the chub is red, while that of the
dace is not; the scales are larger on the chub than the
dace, the mouth of the chub is bigger, and the dace has fifty-
two scales on his lateral line, while the chub has only about
forty-four. I have mentioned it because I have seen anglers
with a small chub (which if it had been a dace would be a

158 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

very large one carefully put on one side as a " weigher in
for the specin^n dace prize. Dace are found in swifter, shal-
lower water as a rule than roach, although they are very often
taken with the roach ; indeed, I question if an angler fishing
in a roach swim on the Trent can make a bag of roach
without there being a dace or two with them. In the
months of May, June, and July, dace are found on the
shallow streams, the eddies by the side of a swift stream, in
the water at a mill-tail, over a bank of weeds, or in the
streams from a weir ; and they are there sometimes in very
great numbers, and may be caught with a cad bait or a
gentle. As the summer advances and the days begin to
shorten the dace retire into deeper swims, and are then
caught almost exclusively by bottom fishing. Sometimes
they get into a barbel swim, and will insist on swallowing a
big bait intended for the barbel, and it has often struck me
as being strange that a little fish like the dace can get such
a big bait and large hook in his mouth. When a swim is
baited for barbel and no barbel are attracted therein, the
dace get possession, and the angler has a fine time of it, for
dace can take the barbel hook and bait. This question was,
however, discussed in the chapter on barbel.

Dace fishing is a branch of sport that is a good deal
followed by many Nottingham anglers, indeed some of them
make a speciality of it and are very successful ; using cad
baits and gentles during the early summer, tail end of lob
during the autumn, and cockspurs and red worms during the
winter, fishing for them during the hot weather in the shal-
lowish streams that run moderately fast, and ground-baiting
with gentles or lob-worms clipped up very small. A good
place for dace down the lower Trent is in a nice little shallow
eddy by the side of a rattling current ; although I have
found them in all sorts of swims and places. It will only
be a repetition and a waste of time to give any instructions
in dace fishing, as the general directions in the chapter on
roach are about the same in stream fishing for dace.

During the winter the dace pass into the deep quiet holes,
and are then caught with the roach, fishing with cockspnr
worms. They spawn early in April, and for a week or two

IX.

The Tjbitch.

The Perch and GtUdgeoh.

The Pike or Jack.

THE PACE. 159

after performing that operation are as rough as nutmeg-
graters, again getting into condition about the middle of
May, and will then take the fly or bait on the shallows.
The new " Act," however, says no J the dace must not be
touched until the 16th June. Dace very seldom exceed a
pound in weight ; indeed, I should suppose that to be the
very top weight for them in England ; it is only in certain
rivers and under very favourable conditions, however, that
they reach that weight. In the Trent a dace of half a pound
is a very good one, while occasional ones of nine and ten
ounces are taken, though they are very rare. The biggest
I ever took weighed a trifle over ten ounces, and I caught it
out of a deep hole when bream fishing. They are a good
sporting fish, and will fight bravely to the last ; while as a
fish for the table, they are a deal better than the roach.
They are generally boiled or fried dry. In bottom fishing
for dace the tackle recommended for roach will do. In the
early part of the season when they are on the shallows they
are very fond of a cad bait, or a couple of gentles, and may
sometimes be caught in considerable numbers ; they may
also be caught fly fishing.

A light single-handed trout rod is used for this work, and
the flies are the palmers, red, black, or grey, the black gnat,
or a coch-y-boudhu. He can also be caught by " dibbling "
the real insect on the surface, as is described elsewhere. An
improvement on the artificial fly will be a gentle or a cad
bait placed on the point of the hook. During the autumn
and winter months, when the dace retire into the deep quiet
holes, they are caught also in exactly the same way as was
fully described in reference to roach fishing. The ground
bait can be the same, the only exception being that the dace
do not care for paste and grain so much as roach, though
they are sometimes caught with those baits. Cockspur
worms and gentles are the best lures therefore.

160 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE,

)

CHAPTEE XII.

EELS AND FLOUNDERS.

These fish are generally connected together by Trent anglers
similarly to roach and dace, or carp and tench. Why is not
clearly apparent, because there is a vast difference in their
shape, nature, and habits. The eel, as every one is aware,
is long and thin, somewhat after the shape of a snake, while
the flounder is a flat fish, like a plaice. Perhaps the reason
is that where the flounder is found there also are eels, and
both of them are taken on the same tackle and with the
same bait.

Angling for eels as a sport is not of much consequence ;
and as it is a sport that any boy can successfully follow, few
instructions are needed. As the fish, however, run to a good
size in the Trent, and are excellent eating, I think them
eminently worth mention. Eels are by no means " coarse "
fish as far as their gastronomic value is concerned. Perhaps
the only time when the term coarse can be applied to them
is when the angler is barbel fishing; or, intent on nobler
sport, at that time a miserable little quarter-of-a-pound eel
takes the carefully prepared worm bait, and twists and
tangles up the tackle in a horrible way ; for of all the Gor-
dian knots ever fabricated, those tied by a small struggling
eel are the most complicated. The problem about the eel
could not be satisfactorily explained until very lately, as to
how they produced their young, and where the breeding-
grounds were. Years ago, ay, and even up to the present
time, old and deep-rooted notions about the breeding of this
fish are entertained in various districts : some supposing they
were born of the mud ; others from particles scraped off the
bodies of large eels when they rubbed themselves against
stones ; others from the putrid flesh of dead animals thrown
in the water ; others that they are bred from the dews

EELS AND FLOUNDERS. 161

which cover the earth in May ; others from the water alone ;
others, and this is the most curious of all, that they gene-
rated from stray pieces of horsehair that were thrown, or
found their way into the water. I believe it has, however,
been proved lately that they produce their young from ova or
eggs the same as other fish, and that they deposit their spawn
in the sea, that is, as far as migratory eels are concerned.
Non-migratory eels, of course, cannot get down to the sea,
and so they deposit their spawn under stones, or among the
sand and mud at the bottom of ponds or rivers, but I will
not commit myself on this question, leaving it for abler
pens than mine. Very old anglers here say that the silver-
bellied or migratory eels come into the Trent from the sea
with the swallows (I don't mean that the swallows come
from the bottom of the sea and travel alongside with the
eels, but that they both arrive about the same time) and
disappear from the river when the swallows go away. I
think they are not far wrong. Other old anglers say that
the silver eels come into the river with the first new moon
in May. There are, I believe, four different sorts of eels in
the Trent— two that migrate and two that do not. The
silver eels that migrate are, if you examine them carefully,
two distinct species ; the one sort has a sharp round nose,
and is of a bright silvery colour on the belly, and a very
pretty dark green on the back; the other has a broader,
flatter nose, and the belly is tinged with gold, as also are his
sides ; the back is darker than the other sort also. These
two sorts are commonly called " browett eels " on the Trent.
Last year I and a friend caught two eels down at Carlton
about two pounds each. They were the silver eels, and they
were very marked and distinct species, as I have described
above. The non-migratory or yellow-bellied eels are also
divided into two sorts, the nose of the one being very much
sharper than the other. I have caught some of these yellow-
bellied eels with a mouth like a frog ; they are, however,
not so big, nor anything like so good eating as the silver-
bellied ones. Trent eels will sometimes reach a very great
weight — four, five, or six pounds being frequently taken in
the net. The two largest eels I ever saw taken from the

162 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

Trent we1 i caught on a night-line at Collingham, with a
nest of young blackbirds for bait. The two weighed a trifle
over fifteen pounds ; one was eight pounds and the other
seven. I have seen several six pounds each ; but these big
ones, when you come to cook them, are very oily. The best
for the table are those from a pound to two pounds; they,
are very rich and luscious. The poet truly says, —

" The Trent hath such eels, and the Witham pike,
That in England there is not the like."

In Italy I have heard that the eel will reach the extraor-
dinary weight of twenty pounds, but I believe the biggest
that was taken in English waters weighed a trifle over eleven
pounds. The yellow-bellied or non-migratory eels in the
Trent very seldom exceed a pound and a half ; though in
some lakes and ponds they range considerably over this. In
Balderton ballast-hole, for instance, eels of this species are
taken of the weight of three or four pounds.

There is hardly a piece of water of any description in
England, even a muddy horsepond, or ditch, that does not
contain eels of some sort. They are found in almost any place,
in the foul, muddy, and stagnant water of a cutting, or in the
boiling waters of a weir. The eel gets under stones, in holes
in the bank, or in the brickwork of an old wall, or among the
piles and old rotten wood of a landing-stage ; and sniggling an
old eel out of these places, when the weather is hot, and other
fish refuse to feed, is not bad fun. Eels are caught in various
ways : in baskets, bucks, hives, &c, &c, and when they are
running they are caught in very great quantities in the nets.
Mr. Thorpe, at the Water Mill, Newark, once took three
tons in his nets in a single night, a most extraordinary catch.
It was a few years ago, and the catch has not been equalled
there, either before or since. Eels are for the most part
nocturnal fish, and it is at night that they do their " running,"
and that the big ones are caught. Some aver that the eel
will travel over land, from one pond or lake to another, and a
correspondent, recently writing to the Fishing Gazette, said
that an old fisherman told him that the eels came out of the
river during the night, and picked up the worms on the

EELS AND FLOUNDERS. 163

grass. He was further assured that the fisherman had seen
them scuttling back again into the river, on his approach.
Now I should suppose that the " old fisherman " was poking
fun at that writer, for I must confess that I have been by the
river-side all hours, night and day, under all sorts of circum-
stances, i.e. when it rained, when a very heavy dew was falling,
and when very fine — in moonlight, starlight, or darkness —
and I have never yet met an eel on his cross-country journey,
nor have I disturbed any, when they have been worming.
Furthermore, I never yet met anybody who could positively say
they had done so. Large eels are not often caught with rod
and line, though odd ones sometimes are picked up by
angling, when the water has been very much discoloured.
As I said before, they " run " at night, and they choose the
darkest nights for this. Night-liners very seldom set their
lines during the bright moonlight. These night-lines consist
of several yards of very strong string with ten or a dozen
hooks on each, fastened about a yard from each other. The
hooks are big ones, and are tied on strong twisted horsehair ;
the bait is a very large lob- worm, or a young bird, or a bleak,
for it must be noticed that large eels are fish and flesh eaters ;
a piece of lampern is also a very good bait on a night-line.
Grand fish of four, five, or six pounds are taken on these
lines, while a big barbel or chub are occasionally pulled out
on them. A piece of brick is fastened to each end of these
lines to sink the baits well. The lines are then thrown in
the river and left, and in the morning a drag hook and cord
is used to pull them out. Sniggling is another method of
taking eels ; for this a stick about six or eight feet long is
used, with another short piece lashed at the top so that it
forms a right angle ; a few yards of coarse twine and a stout
needle will complete the outfit of a sniggler. The string is
lashed to the needle with a bit of waxed silk, beginning at
the eye end of the needle, and finishing about the middle, the
point of the needle will then be upwards. The end of the
needle-point is stuck into a very thin bit of stick or a crow-
quill, and the needle is thrust into half a lob-worm at the
broken end, until the whole of the needle is in the worm.
The point is then just brought out of the worm, and the

m 2

164 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

point of the needle is stuck very lightly in the end of the
cross piece of stick at the top. The cord is not tied to the
stick at all, but held in the left hand, while the right holds
the rod ; and then the angler looks about him for a suitable
place, such as a hole under the water in an overhanging bank,
or under a stone, or in old walls, or old rotten boards under a
landing stage, &c, and when he finds one, he puts the worm
on the end of the stick into it. If there happens to be an
eel there, he will seize hold of the worm and pull it and the
needle from the stick ; the angler will feel the tug, and then
he gently moves the stick away and throws it on the bank.
After a few seconds, when the eel has swallowed the worm,
the angler pulls the string, and as it is fastened to the middle
of the needle, it turns crossways in the throat of the eel, and,
of course, holds him faster than any hook can do. Now if
the eel is a pounder or more, and he has got his tail twisted over
a stone, or a board, or what not, he will refuse to come, and
it is then a clear case of " pull devil, pull baker," but the string
is strong, and the angler has only to keep steadily pulling,
and the eel will tire out in a few minutes, and come out
of his hole, and is soon drawn ashore. I have mentioned
this method because it is easily practised, and a few pounds
of eels are a welcome addition to the angler's basket,
to say nothing of the fun of the thing, when no other
fish will stir. In angling for these fish, the bottom fisher's
rod, reel, and line is used, but the angler need not be par-
ticular as to his tackle, the eel is not afraid of a bit of gut ;
if you want to angle close to the bank, or over a bed of weeds,
an ordinary quill float and a stoutish tackle weighted accord-
ingly will do. The hook is a No. 7 or 8, and the bait is a
worm, which of course must lie on the bottom. If there are
many eels about, they will soon take the bait, and when the
angler gets a bite, he must get Mr. Eel out as quick as he
can, set his foot on him, and stick a penknife in the back of
his head, and then get the hook from him as quick as possible,
for if he lets the eel twist about the tackle a few times, it will
probably take him half an hour to untie the knots and get
all ready for another attempt. Eels are also caught by
ledgering, or plumbing, as it is locally known. A big flat

EELS AND FLOUNDERS. 165

plumb is fastened on the line and a short tackle, or even two,
being used ; the bait is, of course, a worm. The plumb is
wound up to the point of the rod, and the angler throws
directly from the reel to any place he desires. (This throw is
described elsewhere.) When this plan is adopted, a "lazy
back," as it is called, is used. This is a forked stick a good
deal like the letter Y ; the bottom end is thrust into the
ground, and when the angler has made his throw, he hanks
his line round one of the handles of the reel, and lays the rod
on the forks of the "lazy back" aforesaid. The butt is
on the ground ; when an eel bites, the angler will have
plenty of time to pick his rod up, for they are but slow biters
at best. He can tell by the bobbing of the rod point
when he has a bite. If the eel be a big one, and the angler is
getting the hook from its mouth, he must mind not to put
his finger in, for the eel possesses a lot of small sharp teeth,
and his bite is a very serious affair ; the disgorger is a good
thing here.

The flounder is a peculiar, yet withal a very delicious and
bold-biting fish, and is found in considerable numbers in the
lower reaches of the Trent. The colouring of these fish varies
considerably, some of them being of a beautiful bright brown
on the back, spotted with crimson spots, while others are of
a much darker brown, and the spots darker, while others
again are nearly black, without any spots to be seen. I have
taken all these different coloured flounders out of one swim,
and in one day. Odd ones have cream-coloured patches on
their backs, but they are only met with occasionally. They
are of a beautiful creamy white on their bellies. The line
that runs down the middle of the back feels very sharply
rough to the fingers. The eyes and mouth are, as it were, all
on one side, and a peculiar thing sometimes happens. You
may be looking over your bag of flounders, and you may, per-
haps, notice one out of the number to be what we call left-
handed, that is, his eyes and mouth are on a different side to
the majority. It is only very rarely that we catch a left-
handed one ; in a general way their mouths are on the right
side. They spawn, I believe, during the beginning of Febru-
ary, or perhaps during the latter part of January. I have

166 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

occasional^ taken them during Christmas time with the ova
in a very forward state. I believe they bury themselves in
the sand on the shady and quiet parts of the river to perform
this operation, and as breeders they are very prolific. They
get in good condition by the beginning of May ; indeed, we
generally used to start flounder fishing in this district on
"May Fair day," that is, May 14th, if water and weather
were anything like favourable ; in fact, some of us used to
reckon on it, but now we dare not go until June 1 6th.

Taking them altogether, the flounders of the Trent do not
run very big, the average being about four or so to the pound.
Sometimes we get real good ones ; I have taken them and
seen them taken over a pound each. For the table, flounders
are very good, being sweet and luscious, if fried in butter or
lard, and sprinkled over with egg and bread crumbs. This
fish is not to be beaten as a breakfast delicacy. I have known
them to fetch as much as 6d. or Sd. per lb. ; in fact, as Walton
says about some other fish, they are a deal " too good for any
but anglers or very honest men."

Flounder fishing is capital sport when you get in a suitable
place, and find them well on. The best places for them are
slow streams, near the sides, where the bottom is sandy and
clean. He does not like mud at all ; a corner away from the
main stream where the water is, comparatively speaking, quiet,
is almost a sure find ; a row of willows close to the water's
edge, with about from three to five feet of water, a couple of
yards out, is a good spot, provided the bottom is clean and
sandy and the stream steady ; in fact, all the sandy slacks
and shallows of the lower Trent contain flounders, more or
less. Yet he is not confined to these places, for I have caught
him in the rushing waters of a weir when ledgering for barbel,
or out of a strong stream fourteen feet deep when float fishing
for the same fish ; but when we go for flounders, we generally
pick the shallow, quiet, sandy streams, or, I should say,
slacks.

You need not be very particular about your tackle for
flounder fishing, no need for drawn gut of exquisite fineness,
and floats so nicely weighted that if a fish looks at the bait you
can detect it. The rod, reel, and line recommended for chub

EELS AND FLOUNDERS. 167

fishing will be the very things ; your float can be a small cork
one, or a fair-sized pelican quill ; the tackle should be about a
yard long, medium gut, stained, and armed with a No. 7 or 8
hook ; the bait is the tail end half of a maiden lob-worm, and
it should be well on the bottom; ground-bait with coarse worms
cut up very small, and if you get them well on the feed, and
a suitable place, you will have capital sport. A friend and I
one day caught in one swim, fishing from a boat, and allowing
our floats to work down .the steady stream for thirty yards, so
as to cover as much ground as possible, no fewer than eighty-
six, and many of them real good ones.

The flounder is also caught in exactly the same way as
described in ledgering for eels with the " lazy back." The
plumb, the two tackles, and the worm for bait, on a No. 7
or 8 hook. " Pin lining " is one plan of catching flounders,
only this is the way of the pot-hunter. Pins are fastened on
lengths of gut in exactly the same way as described for
sniggling for eels, and ten or a dozen of these are fastened to a
long line at regular intervals. The worm is baited as described
in sniggling, and a stone is fastened to each end of the line to
keep the baits down at the bottom ; if you get a favourable
place and a sunshiny day, you catch a lot of these fish. From
four to eight dozen have been taken by this plan in a single
day.

168 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE,

CHAPTEK XIII.

THE BLEAK — THE GUDGEON THE RUFFE — THE MINNOW.

This is a batch of small fry, and as it is not much trouble to
take them, very few instructions for their capture will suf-
fice. The reason why I mention them is because three of them
out of the four are very good baits for much more valuable
fish. This chapter will be a short one, as a sort of tail end
to my instructions for " Bottom Fishing in the Nottingham
Style."

The words of Michael Drayton will just fit in here for a
text, as regards these fish : —

" The dainty gudgeon, ruffe, the minnow, and the bleak,
Since they but little are, I little need to speak/'

I have substituted the word " ruffe " for " loche," which
appears in the original.

The bleak, sometimes called a "blay," or "willow blade,"
or as it is known on the Trent, " the whitling " is a member
of the carp tribe, and its scientific name is Cyprinus Alhur-
nus. It is a small fish, six inches in length, and two ounces
in weight, this being about its extreme size, and is a very
pretty fish, narrow and flat, sides glittering like silver. Bleak
spawn about May, and are soon as active as ever; they
delight in warm summer weather, and will then disport them-
selves near the surface of the water ; they are very active and
glitter in the water, turning from side to side. They are
found in great quantities in different parts of the Trent, and
generally in large shoals in an eddy by the side of a swift
stream, or about the piles or buttresses of old bridges ; in fact,
the angler can soon find them, for they are mostly near the
surface. I read that the scales of these fish were once used
in the manufacture of " artificial pearls," a pound of which

THE BLEAK AND GUDGEON. 169

went to make four ounces of the guanine, as it was termed.
Four thousand bleak were required for a pound of scales.
Fortunately for the bleak a new substitute has been found,
or bleak at that rate would soon be a " rara avis " in some
waters. Any sort of a light rod and tackle will do for their
capture. I have seen them pulled out very rapidly with a
long thin stick for a rod, a few yards of thread for a line, and
about six inches of fine gut, and the smallest of floats and
hooks, with a gentle for a bait. The light roach and dace
rod, reel, and line will do for the fish mentioned in this
chapter. As the bleak swims very near the surface, the tackle
will only require to be very short. A single length of fine
gut will do with a loop at one end and a No. 14 hook on the
other. A very small float is used, one that will carry about
a couple of very small split shots, and a gentle for a bait.
The hook is put into the thick end of the gentle and the
thin end hangs down and twirls about in a very lively manner.
It is then dropped among the bleak, and as the bait is only
a few inches under water, you will see a dozen fish perhaps
make a rush at it. As soon as the float bobs down strike at
once, and out comes the little rascal dancing and glittering
like a bar of silver ; they are pulled out sometimes by that
plan as fast as you can take them off the hook and bait again.
Bleak can be caught with a very small artificial fly, and
there is worse sport than whipping for bleak on a summer's
evening, with three or four small brown flies on a fine gut cast.
In the winter bleak go to the bottom of deep holes, and are
not so active. They make a capital spinning bait, for they spin
so truly and glitter beautifully, though they are rather tender
on the hooks.

The gudgeon (Cyprinus Gobio) is another member of the carp
tribe, and a nice-looking little fellow he is ; in shape something
like a barbel. The top jaw hangs over the bottom one, and looks
very much adapted for rooting among the sand. Like the
barbel he has a beard at each corner of the mouth. Six or
seven inches is its extreme length, but that size is by no means
common. He spawns about May, and it is some time before
he gets into condition : about August and September are
the best months to take this fish. He is a very toothsome

170 BOTTOM FISHINCx IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

morsel, if fried crisp with egg and bread crumbs. A light
rod, reel, line, and tackle are used for his capture. His haunts
are in rather rapid shallow waters that flow over a gravelly or
sandy bottom. The bait is a small worm, the tail end of a
brandling or cockspur on a small hook is best ; and the bait
must trip along the bottom. The float and tackle recommended
for dace fishing in a stream will be right for the gudgeon, but
the hook must be a size or two smaller. The worm should
be threaded on the hook so that no loose ends hang about, or
he will pull and bother you like a tiny eel. If the water is
very clear, a rake is used in some places to stir up the
sand and make a rather thick water ; the gudgeon then
flock together there, and are then sometimes pulled out
very rapidly. I have seen anglers doing what they call
"muddling for gudgeon." They take off their shoes and
stockings, and roll up their trousers to the thigh, and
shuffle about the sandy shallows with their feet, and then
with rod and tackle fish among the discoloured water. This
plan is adopted if the water be not above two feet deep,
but a heavy iron rake is the best. Owing to the fact that
these fish take so little skill to catch them, it is a favourite
sport with the ladies in various districts where the fish
abound.

A poem of Hood's, entitled the " Angler's Lament," con-
tains the following lines : —

"At a brandling once gudgeons would gape,
But they seem to have alter'd their forms, now.
Have they taken advice of the Council of Nice,
And rejected the Diet of Worms, now ? "

But that must be a bit of poetic fancy, for gudgeon are very
fond of a nice brandling, and a " diet of worms " suits them
precisely. Perhaps, however, the poet had Martin Luther in
his eye when he wrote that. I now must pull up my line,
however, and, as the cheap-jack at the fair says, " show you
something else."

The ruffe, sometimes called the pope, is a member of the
perch family, and his scientific name is Perca Ceruna. He is
very like a small perch in shape, having the same prickly fin
on the back, but is a deal darker than the perch and marked

THE KUJFFE AND MINNOW. 171

more like a gudgeon. The fish is small, four or five inches
being his extreme length ; it spawns in April, and he is to be
found in deep quiet corners, and like the eel is not afraid of
a bit of mud. He will bite freely at a worm, and where the
young angler takes one he will very often find many more.
The ruffe is not much good, except as a bit of practice for the
young angler.

The minnow is well known to any lad who has seen a
stream of water. These tiny fish also belong to the carp
family, and what a little beauty he is, with his splendid
colouring, silvery white, brown, pink, &c, &c. When I
see one it always brings back to my memory the happy time
of my school days, when I used to catch them with a bent
pin and a scrap of worm. They are an excellent bait
for perch, &c, and for this purpose are caught in a hand net
or a minnow trap specially made. They will take a scrap
of worm on the smallest of hooks, and any lad can catch
them with a stick, a bit of thread, a small piece of horsehair,
a bent pin, and a scrap of worm or gentle, or a tiny bit of
paste.

And now, dear reader, I have got to the end of my in-
structions for " Bottom Fishing in the Nottingham Style," and
if I have imparted any real knowledge to those for whom it
is intended, I shall be well satisfied. I will, therefore, wind
up my line, put away my tackle, and bid you farewell ; and
may you have as many happy days on the Trent, or else-
where, as I have had, in the pursuit of this my favourite
sport.

172 BOTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

CHAPTER XIV.

FRESHWATER FISHERIES ACT, 1878.

(41 and 42 Vic. Cap. 39.)

Notice is hereby given that, in accordance with the pro-
visions of the above Act, it is illegal —

1. To fish for, or catch, or attempt to catch or kill, trout or
char during the close season between 2nd October and 1st of
February following, or during any close season, which by
Bye-law may be substituted for the same.

Note. — It is already illegal to buy, sell, or expose for
sale, or have in possession for sale, trout or char
between 2nd October and 1st February following
(36 and 37 Vict. c. 71, s. 20).

2. To use or have in possession with the intention of using,
any light, otter, lath, jack, snare, wire, spear, gaff, strokehafi,
snatch, or other like instrument for the purpose of catching
or killing trout or char.

3. To use any fish roe in fishing for trout or char ; or to
buy, seU, or expose for sale, or have in possession for sale,
any trout roe or char roe.

4. To fish for, catch, or attempt to catch or kill any
" freshwater fish" between 15th March and 15th June, both
inclusive. (" Freshwater fish " include all freshwater non-
migratory fish other than pollan, trout, and char.)

Note. — This prohibition does not apply to —

a. Any owner of a several fishery where trout, char,

or grayling are especially preserved, destroying

within such fishery any "freshwater fish" other

than grayling.
~b. Any person angling in private waters with the

leave of the owner of such waters.

FRESHWATER FISHERIES ACT, 1878. 173

c. Any person angling in public waters with the leave
of the Local Board of Conservators.

d. Any person taking " freshwater fish " for scientific
purposes, or for bait.

e. Any district or part of a district specially exempted
by a Local Board of Conservators with the approval
of the Secretary of State.

5. To buy, sell, expose for sale, or have in possession for
sale, any "freshwater fish," as above defined, between 15th
March and 15th June, both inclusive.

6. To use any dynamite or other explosive substance for
catching or destroying fish.

N.R — The first four of these provisions do not apply
to the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, which are placed
under a separate Act (40 and 41 Vict. c. 98). January 1st,
1879.

174 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE.

The Weight of Fish.

Some years ago I had given to me a stray leaf that had been
torn from some angling book, and which I have carefully
preserved among my piscatorial nicknacks. It contained a
scale for ascertaining with tolerable precision the weight of a
fish when it was in good condition, measuring its entire
length, but it adds this caution, " It must be borne in mind,
however, that the weights given are only approximate."
Now I have several times carefully weighed and measured a
fish when in good condition, especially in the case of the
barbel, the chub, and the roach, and I have found it pretty
accurate. I give the scale here, in the hope that it may be
useful to some of my brother anglers.

3 *

►h .9

W
m

ft

O

fe

o

H
H

Pn

3

O
CD

w

Q

2

<»
Eh

NJ>O^HCONNO(N(NQNU5CONCOO

O rt r-< rH r-l rH rH rH rH rH

mOOOHHHNlMMM^iOKJCO^OOO

3 rH

i

P

(h

^ *"^ r^ ^ ^H i"H rH ••••«••••■
«OOOHHHHNNC0W^lfl(0 * * " *

i

O iH iH rH •

« O© rH rH rH rH <N CM CO * '

1

g'^ ff^HwH^^ -*SH«-I^ r# 9*rH« W-* 05W

g^H^NOO'^TjlH^^OSlOINHHWtCHNO'JIO

rHrH ^-ip-tfH ,_| rH

BOOOHHHNNC0M^»O(01>Q005OHMT?ia©
5 HHHHHH

9

SCOQOH^NCOHHOOOIXIH NN t? r7

O rHrH rH rH

mOOOOHHHNNCOCC^TjiiottH*

f

pq

co ^ff!-^^^. »<w ww-ww-** Ml* H«n|-* Hinww-hI^ H« Hn H<h H*> H« -i|«
05iMOC0i>rHOCD<MTjlcq^C0«C0'*rH0iQ0i>Q0OC0rH^)
• • • iH rH rHrHrH rHrH rHrH ....

OOHHHHNNINMCO'*'<J'>0©COt.00050H(M«lkOO

s

GO ^« OW< 03W -4* -+* HjRHPI WWrfltflH'S -l|<S 05HI rt)« rtlffl H|(S H« «|« r<|«

QOH030'*X05(MJ>NHOTfimt>HCOaC005(M(NN'<}H>HOtOO
u • • • HH rH rHrHrH i-t rH
• • • rr<#
co OOOHHHHNNNwm^^iOCOCONOOOJOHNM^WUxBO
jO HHHHHHHHN

d

o

a

GO

no ^»H«o*»05WnW BW* He»

S CD rH CO O 00 00 00 OS <N O iO (N CO 03 CD CXI O

° rHrH iH rH rH

do * lO CD CD l> 00 Oi O rH OJ Tf lO CD 00 05 r-i CO lO
jO rH rH rH rH rH rH rH rH <N CM CM

5 s

3 -2

VHHHHHHHHHH(NNNN«NN«NNCi5nncOCCmCOCi5CO«^

APPENDIX.

Below will be found a few very useful recipes that I had
overlooked when writing the various chapters ; they will be
found very valuable to the angler, as I know by practical
experience that the information is reliable.

Rod-ferrules, to fasten. — It sometimes happens (and it
cannot always be helped) that the ferrules on a rod get
loose, owing to the wood shrinking a little — and even
what we consider to be well-seasoned wood will sometimes
shrink a trifle in use. When this happens, the best plan is
to push the rivet in with a fine pricker till the ferrule will
slip off easily, then bind the wood that is inside the ferrule
with a bit of well- waxed thread, till you have sufficient on,
then tap the ferrule on again gently with a small mallet till
you get it in its former position, and then put another pin or
rivet in the hole in the side of ferrule, and file off level.

Hooks, to harden or soften. — It sometimes happens that
hooks are not properly hardened ; they will pull open a little,
and will not spring back to their original shape. When this
occurs, the hooks are not tempered sufficiently, and require to
be hardened a little more. The best plan to harden them is
to take hold of the extreme end of the shank with a small
pair of pliers, and hold the bend of the hook in the flame
of a candle or the gas-light until hot enough, which for a
small hook would be about as long as you could count ten,
and for a large one about double the time — this is when they
are heated in the gas-flame. When a candle only is available,
they will require double the time to heat them (gas is the
best, however) ; and when heated as directed, they should

APPENDIX. 177

instantly be dropped into a small vessel containing a little
linseed-oil ; a tea-cup will do nicely, and a tablespoonful of
oil quite sufficient. They should not be dropped in cold
water, as this latter would make the hooks too brittle, and
exactly the opposite to what they were before ; oil will there-
fore be found the best. If the hooks break off at the barb
or at the bend when you are testing them, they are too
hard, and the rest of that sort should be softened ; and the
very best plan that I have yet tried is to push them into a hot
potato. I had a dozen hooks of a fresh shape once sent me
by a friend of mine to try ; on testing them with my thumb-
nail I broke two of them just above the barb. I could see
that they were too hard, so I roasted a large potato, and
while hot I broke it in two and put the remaining hooks in
the fractured part and closed it up again, and put it on one
side to cool, and took the hooks out when cold, and I found
it had made a capital job of them.

Boots, dressing for. — Strawson's waterproof will be found
the very best dressing out for boots. This preparation is very
simple in application, and will keep out the melting snow
In fact, during the winter, or very bad and wet weather, the
angler should never go fishing without his boots being so
dressed, that is, if he values his health and likes to walk in
comfort.

Jack lines, to dress. — " King's Ceroleum " is the best and
simplest dressing for lines that I know of, and has the merit
of being very cheap. Full instructions are given with every
packet.

Chub lines, to dress. — In chub fishing down a stream
during very foggy or misty weather, the damp causes the
line to stick to the rod and rings, and gives the angler con-
siderable trouble to make it run freely. In order to reduce
this to a minimum, the angler should rub thirty yards or so
of his line with a little palm-oil.

Pike baits, preserving. — If the angler wishes to preserve
some natural baits for spinning for pike, he will find " King's
Fish Preservative," treated according to instructions on each
packet, to be the very best and simplest preparation he can
use.

178 APPENDIX.

Wax, hard. — If at any time the angler finds his wax to
be too hard and brittle, and experiences a difficulty in waxing
his silk with it, he should add a couple of drops of oil to
a lump about the size of a hazel-nut, and work it up well
with his fingers ; this will make it soft and pliable.

Oil for hooks, fyc. — Oil used for preserving hooks, swivels
&c, from rust should be boiled, so that if there be any water
in it (as is frequently the case), it evaporates in the steam
and the oil is purified. If this is not done, the hook-points
will often suffer from rust, in spite of the oil. — " Book on
Angling."

Ferrules, to disengage. — When any metal work of this
kind has become strongly fixed, instead of employing oil to
loosen it, use creosote ; this is so very volatile and peuetrat-
ing that it will find its way easily when oil is quite useless.
— " Book on Angling."

Gimp, to stain. — Bright brass gimp is very easily seen by
the fish ; to discolour it, soak it in a solution of bichlorate of
platinum mixed with water (one of platinum to eight or ten
of water), then dry before the fire. The solution must be
very weak, as it is so powerful that it destroys the gimp very
quickly.—" Book of the Pike."

This being so, then I should say, use copper gimp instead
of brass for your flights and live-bait tackles ; copper gimp,
being duller, requires no staining.

INDEX.

PAGB

Act, Freshwater Fisheries . 172
Ancient angling ... 5

Art, Angling an . . .1

Artificial flies for chub . . 68

baits for perch . . 145

baits for pike . . 125

fly for pike . . .126

flies for roach . . 105

flies for dace . . 159

baits for salmon . . 138

B.

Baiting the hook with worm

for chub . . . .52
Baits for dace fishing . . 159

for carp fishing . . 153

for pike fishing . . 118

for chub fishing . . 46

for barbel fishing. . 71

for roach fishing . . 92

for perch fishing . . 139

for bream fishing . . 148

Barbel, The. ... 70

baiting the hook with

worms for . . .81

Baskets, Fishing . . 38

Bleak, The . . . . 168
Blood- worms . . .54
Boke of St. Albans . . 7

Bottom rod, general
Brandlings .
Bream, The .
Breeding-heap for worms

Caddis, or cad bait
Carp, The .

fisher, Requirements

the .
Calf's tail bait . _ .
Can, for ground baiting
Casting a light tackle .

a heavy tackle

a pike bait .

Chub, The .

cooking the.

fare

fishing with locust

fishing with moth

names of

Classification of fish
Clearing-ring
Cock spurs .
Coloured pastes .
Creed wheat and malt

PAGE

19

53

146

54

of

Dace, The

56
152

155

126

78

41

42

118

45

50

46

66

49

50

9

38

53

101

102

157

n 2

180

INDEX.

Dead gorge fishing
Dibbling for chub

for roach

Digestion of fish .
Disgorger .
Drag: hook .

E.

Eel, The

G.

PA.GE

122
63

105
14
37
38

160

Fins of fish .

. 10

Fishing a swim .

. 4D

Fishing Gazette spinn

er . 117

lead

. 113

Fishing with gentles

. 98

Floats .

. 32

for roach .

. 93

— — for salmon .

. 132

— — for chub

. 51

Flounder, The

. 165

Food of chub

. 46

of barbel

. 71

— — of roach

. 92

of perch

. 139

Frog fishing

. 65

97

Gentles, or maggots . .
Gregory's Archimedean spin-
ning tackle . . 117, 122
Ground baiting . . .40

for chub . . .51

— — for barbel . . .73

for roach . . .99

for carp . . . 153

for bream . . . 149

Gudgeon, The . . .169

Gut, bottom tackle . . 33

making . . .35

— — staining . . .34

Habits of chub

PAGE

46

of barbel

71

of roach

88

of pike

108

of perch

of bream

140

147

of tench

154

of dace

158

of the eel

161

Haunts of chub

45

of barbel

74

of roach

91

of pike

126

of perch

142

of bream

147

of dace

158

of salmon

134

Hooking and playing a chub

63

and playing

a barbel

81

and playing

a pike

119

and playing

a salmon .

135

Hooks, tying on
for chub

38

51

for pith and brains

61

for roach

96

for pike

.

114

for salmon .

133

for bream .

150

Introduction ... 1

J.

u Jardine " live bait snap,

The.
" Judson's " dyes

124
34

King's " natural bait " . 104
Knots . . . .34, 133

L.

Lampern bait

S7

INDEX.

181

Landing-net

PAGE

. 38

a.

PAGB

Lead for pike fishing

. 113

Queer fish ....

13

Ledgering, or plumbing

r . 85

for roach

. 106

R.

for bream .

for eels

for salmon .

Leen worms

Line for general fishing

for roach

lor pike

■ for salmon .

. 151
. 164
. 138
. 54
. 32
. 93
. 113
. 131

Eetrospective
Roach, The .

bite, A.

Rod, general

" Corporation " .

salmon

roach ....

pike .

17
88
94
19
23

131
92

112
24
25
25
25

Live baiting for pike

. 123

for perch

Lob-worms .
Locust tackle

. 144

. 77
. 66

rings . . . •

Rod-rings, the "wire guard"

the "Bell's Life"

Rod, winch fittings for

M.

Roving for barbel

86

Maiden lob-worms

. 79

' for chub

51

Minnow fishing .

. 144

Rudd, The .

106

The .

. 171

Ruffe, or pope . . . .

170

N.

s.

Necessity of fine tackle

. 83

Saddle snap, The • .

124

Night lines for eels

. 163

Salmon, The

127

Nottingham reels

. 27

baiting hooks with

the centre-pin

. 27

worm for .

134

the combination

. 29

swim, how to fish a

135

Slater's patent

. 29

long corking for .

137

Malloch's patent

. 30

fishing with a rolling

lead

136

P.

spinning for

138

Pain, can fish feel pain

when

Scented pastes

103

hooked ? .

. 12

Scouring worms .

79

Paste bait for roach

. 101

Scratchings .

75

Paternoster, The .

. 144

Senses of fish

11

" Pegging " for roach

. 100

of fish, sight

11

Pennell flight, The

. 114

of fish, hearing .

12

Perch, The .

. 139

of fish, taste and smell .

13

Pike, The .

. 107

Sheffield anglers .

3

playing the .

. 119

Silk for whipping

35

the " Corporation

. 120

Sleep, do fish sleep ? .

12

Pith and brains .

. 60

Slider float .

42

Pliers .

. 38

Sniggling for eels

163

182

INDEX.

Spawning of chub

. 46

of barbel

. 71

of roach

. 90

of pike

. 109

of perch

of bream

. 141

. 147

— — of carp

. 152

of dace

. 158

Strength of fish .

. 14

Structure of fish .

. 10

T.

Tackle- case .

. 36

frame .

. 37

for chub

. 51

— — for barbel .

. 72

tor roach

. 93

for perch

. 143

for bream

. 148

for dace

. 159

for salmon .

. 132

Tenacity of life in fish

. 14

Tench, The .

. 154

Tight corking

. 84

Trace for pike fishing

. 113

Trent fishing

. 16

as a salmon river

. 127

flight, The .

. 116

The .

18

w.

Varnish for whippings 26

Voracity of pike . 107

TAGB

Walton's " Complete Angler"

Wasp grub .

. 57

how to take

. 57

how to find .

. 58

when to use

. 59

where to use

. 60

Wax, how to mak

e .35

Weather and wind

I . . 106

Weed bait .

. 105

Weight of chub

. 47

of barbel

. 72

of roach

. 91

of pike

. 110

of perch

. 142

of bream

. 147

of carp

. 152

of tench

. 154

of dace

. 159

of the eel

. 162

Winter fishing

. 62

Working-men anj

*lers • • 1

Worm fishing for

chub • 52

for barbel

. 81

for roach

. 104

for salmon

. 134

for perch

. 143

for bream

. 150

for carp

. 155

for dace

. 158

for eels and

flounders . 164

THE 2STOTTIIsra-H[A.3N^ STYLE

JOHN WM. MARTIN

("The Trent Otter"),

4 & 5, Northern Buildings, Lovers' Lane,
NEWARK-ON-TRENT, NOTTS,

Hating commenced business on his own account as a practical
Fishing Rod, Reel, and Tackle Manufacturer, is prepared to
supply Anglers with first-class goods for the above style, at most
moderate rates.

The "Trent Otter's" noted hand-made Nottingham Roach,
Chub, Barbel, and Pike Rods, 11 and 12 feet long, safety rings,
superior finish and perfect action, in partition case, price only
6s. Gd. each. Ditto with "Bell's Life" Rings, Stoppers, and
highly finished, 9s. each.

Very first quality Nottingham Reels, warranted easy running
and perfect action, 3 inch, 2s. ; 3| inch, 2s. 9d. ; 4 inch, 3s. Gd.
each ; none better to be had. Ditto, superior finish, 3 inch, 3s. Gd. ;
3J inch, 4<s. ; 4 inch, 4s. Gd. ; 4| inch, 5s. each.

Centre-pin Reels at moderate rates.

First quality (selected) Nottingham Silk Twist Roach, Chub,
and Barbel Lines, 40 yards, 9c?. ; 80 yards, Is. Gd. each.

ALL KINDS OF BOTTOM A/VD PIKE TACKLE

AT THE LOWEST POSSIBLE PRICE.

Complete Outfits from 5s. to 26s. each. Send for a Descriptive Catalogue
and Price List, post-free to any Address.

BUY DIRECT FROM A PRACTICAL ANGLER AND MAKER, AND
SAVE AT LEAST 40 PER CENT

KING'S "NATURAL" BAIT

(REGISTERED).

The most perfect and successful Bait for Bottom Fishing ever
introduced, seldom failing to ensure a heavy creel of fish.

Strongly recommended by the Editors of the. "Fishing Gazette?

"Land and Water? " Hackney and Kingsland Gazette," J. H. Keene,

Greville JFennell, and by all the leading Anglers of the day.

The " Trent Otter" (Mr. J. W. Martin), writing in the Fishing Gazette, September 1st,
1883, says:— "I had a grand day among the roach on Wednesday, killing 39 fish that
weighed 22£ lbs. ; several of the fish going 1 lb. each. An old sportsman who saw the
fish said they were the loveliest lot of fish he had ever seen. Bread paste flavoured with
King's 'Natural' Bait was the lure I used, and I found the roach take to it kindly; in
fact, all the other baits I had with me were simply nowhere. As a rule, I do not believe
in nostrums of any kind, but from a series of careful trials made with King's ' Natural '
Bait, I have been forced to confess it is genuine, which is more than I can say of some
other baits." Vide Chapter on " The Roach " in this Work.

Of Tackle Dealers everywhere, in Packets, 3d., 6d.,
and Is. each. Postage extra.

WM. KING, 1, New Eoad, Commercial Road, London, E.

BULMER'S

GOSSAMER DRAWN GUT LINES.

Three Yards, 8d. Each.

These are the Lines which have been so often most favour-
ably spoken of by the Editor of the " Fishing Gazette " (Mr.
R. B. Marston), who has used them for several seasons past in
Fly-fishing for Trout, Grayling, Roach, &c. See his notices in
the Gazettes for Dec. 17th, 1881, June 24th, 1882, and subse-
quent notices.

N.B. — To be had stained to suit the tint of any water.

mer Hooks to match Lines, 8d. per doz. ; best
Hooks, 6d. per doz. ; Gut Lines, 4d. and 6d. each.

Flies dressed to any pattern. Price List Post-free.

A. BULMER, 62, Wandsworth Road, London, S.W

CORNER OF NINE ELMS LANE.

ro IU4J/

mm

THE GOLDEN PERCH,

40S, OXFORD STREET,

"•etween Duke Street and Orchard Street,)

LONDON, W,

ALFRED YOUNG,

MANUFACTURER OF

SUPERIOR FISHING RODS & TACKLE

OF EVERY DESCRIPTION.

Salmon, %xan\, fVthe, §Uratj), m^ 0%r §taos.
A large assortment of Trout and Salmon Hies.

RODS, TACKLE, and every Requisite for the NOTTINGHAM
STYLE, as described in this Work.

FLIES TIED TO PATTERN. RODS & TACKLE REPAIRED.

"THE ANGLER'S HANDBOOK," and Catalogue cf Prices, with So
ustraikms of Rods, Firs, Baits, Tackle, etc., post free, yi.

ym, — ^ — ___

ALFEED YOUNG,

402, OXFORD STREET, LONDON, W.

, ■ H^4