176

ARTIFICIAL SPINNING-BAITS.

should be whipped on with light-coloured silk, waxed with white wax.

The fish you intend for baits, provided you cannot keep them alive, having no bait-kettle or well in your boat to do so, should be killed immediately they are caught, and not be allowed to lie about anywhere until they die. If you suffer them so to lie about, they will lose a portion of their scales, and become less brilliant than they ought to be. Dead-bait boxes are made something like sandwich-boxes, some not divided in the inside, and others divided into little compartments, to keep the baits separate, and so prevent speedy decomposition. If baits are put into bran the moment they are caught, they will soon die, preserve their scales and colour, and last good for two or three days.

Artificial Spinning-baits.—The tackle-shops are inundated with varieties oft hem. They will all kill fish more or less successfully; but the majority of them are inferior to the natural bait. The large brilliant ones will kill in deep lakes, the smaller ones in streams; and I fancy they are most useful when the water is beginning to clear after a flood. The best artificial fish-baits are those called 'flexible,' made by Mr. Flinn, of Broad Street, Worcester.

ON BOTTOM-FISHING RODS, HOOKS, LINES, AND BAITS.

THE ENGLISH are, without doubt, the best bottomfishers in the empire, and the London anglers the most accomplished of all. We can account for this easily. English rivers are better stored than those of any other division of the empire with the various sorts of fish which seek their food rather at the bottom than at the surface of the water. In the neighbourhood of London such rivers abound with their numerous angling clubs, subscription and preserved waters; and the easily-pleased (only perhaps with respect to his sports) character of the Saxon, be he of the country or city, leads him to indulge, with infinite patience and pleasure, in all the slow minutiae of bottom-angling, when the inconvenience of distance renders fly-fishing out of the question. Even the fly-fisher from Ireland, Scotland, or Wales, settled in London, stoops from his high art, and, being a lover of nature in her water-side charms, betakes himself to bottomfishing, and partakes of its amusement in company with the joyous, good-hearted, and really

N

178

THE SAXON CHARACTER.

philosophic cockney. In bottom-fishing, the persevering character of the Saxon is developed. He pursues it with that intensity of purpose that guides him in his greater actions, and renders him capable of performing the highest. He prepares himself for a bottom-fishing campaign, as carefully as if he were starting on a voyage of discovery. He neglects nothing that may tend to his success. The fox-hunter and fowler laugh at him, little suspecting that the very bottom-fisher there, watching his float so anxiously from his punt, may be a first-rate horseman or shot; and that he has the wisdom of being satisfied with amusement at hand, waiting for that which at the present time s not. To be amused with harmless trifles in proper season is the acme of practical happiness—

When we cannot make love to the lips that we love,
We can always make love to the lips that are near.

The fly-fisher will very readily become an expert bottom-fisher. He understands already the use, in the most trying situations, of rod, line, • winch, and hook. He has a quick eye and a quick and light hand, and will easily apprehend all the arcana of bait-fishing. All he requires to know is the baits he must use, and a hint or two respecting the best manner of using them. He knows already the habits of the salmon family; he will soon learn the monotonous ones of the carp tribe,

THE BOTTOM-FISHER'S ROD.

179

the different varieties of which form the principal prey the bait-fisher pursues.

The bottom-fisher's rod must be strong and light, not by any means so springy as that of the fly-fisher. It must taper stiffly, not be topheavy, and be just springy enough to strike a fish quickly without the delay too much elasticity in the top pieces would cause. It must be supple, so that pressure will equalise itself from top to butt. Though its pieces be not so fine or so limber as those of the fly-rod, it must taper with equal precision. The lengths of bottom-fishing rods differ very widely. Those that are used for bankfishing in wide rivers are sometimes twenty-four feet long; while those for angling from punts are frequently as short as ten feet. They also vary in strength according to the fish one angles. for. The average length of a bank-rod should be seventeen feet, that of a punt or boat-rod twelve. With a good general rod, having several tops, which you can change as occasion requires, you may successfully bottom-angle for any species of river fish, roach perhaps excepted, which require a specific rod.

The bottom-lines for bait-fishing should be made of good gut, as fine as is consistent with strength, and it cannot be too fine for roach fishing. Roach-lines, at least that portion of them next to the hook, are often made of single horse

180

UTILITY OF THE WINCH.

hair; but gut is better, and can be had fully as fine. All foot-lines should be of the colour of the water, sometimes of a sandy hue for angling after a flood, but generally speaking a very light, transparent green is the best. They should be attached to good, prepared platted reel-lines, and should be knotted and leaded as neatly as possible to avoid catching in weeds or straws that may be swimming down with the current. Grains of shot of different sizes are commonly used for leading lines. I prefer thin strips of sheet-lead beaten to the thinness of writing-paper. You can wind these thin, narrow bits of lead neatly round one or two of the last links of your foot-line, just above the knots or joinings, and it will be far less clumsy and less likely to entangle than when weighted with several shots. You can put on or take off the slips of lead more promptly and easily than shot, and you can carry them more conveniently. Always use a winch in bottom-fishing. It will prevent unequal strain upon your rod, enable you to play a fish properly, and you can shorten or lengthen your line with it according to your judgment with facility. It will enable you, besides, to angle with the shortest and finest footline possible.

Hooks for bottom-fishing with worms should be long in the shank and perfectly round in the bend, with the barb and point not inclining inwards.