will scarcely condescend to look at them: now is the time for insect baits, natural and artificial. Of the former the cockchafer or May-bug, the humble bee, and a small species of chafer with a green head and copper-coloured body, which infests roses and apple trees about May or June, and is known in Norfolk as the "chovy." Of the latter, the imitations of these insects and a large red palmer (the hook should be tipped with a gentle, or bit of wash-leather to look like one) are the most deadly; after these try greaves, gentles, and plain paste (good-sized pieces, say as big as a small nut); and after this the cheese comes in at the conclusion of his bill of fare. Always remember to keep out of his sight, and to give him a good-sized bait, for he is a greedy fish, though extremely timid. Some fishermen use a paste made of bread dipped in the water in which greaves have been soaked; and if a strong smell is of any use, it ought to do wonders; but we believe plain paste to be quite as good. The humble bee, cockchafer, and cockroach may often be used in spring and summer by fishing in mid-stream or under boughs with a long line and a float at a depth of about 18 inches in strong runs of water. We now come to the most artful of all the finny tribe,

This fish is very common in ponds, few pieces of ornamental water being without it, and is also to be found in many of our 1ivers. In ponds the small ones may be easily caught with a red worm or small piece of plain paste, made as recommended for chub fishing, without the addition of cheese, as also may be a kindred species, the Crucian Carp. But the fine old fellows whom you see lazily swimming round the pond on a hot summer's day are not to be so easily circumvented. They will swim up to your bait, look at it, even smell at it, and-pass on. Most people have some infallible dodge for catching them, which sometimes succeeds and as frequently fails. We have seen more caught with plain paste, and next to that with a red worm (these generally smaller fish), than with any other baits. Most careful baiting is requisite: don't let a bit of the hook be seen; and yet we once caught a fourpounder with the head of a red worm that had been nibbled to pieces by some

small roach. Some very large ones have been caught with a lob-worm on coarse tackle in fishing for barbel in the Thames, although as a rule they will not look at one. The great secret of catching carp is to ground-bait a place well for a day or two before you fish, begin operations as soon as you can see your float, and use the finest tackle consistent with strength: hair will not do for fish that may run to seven or eight pounds' weight, or even double that; and fish so that your bait may just touch the bottom. In a pond where the bottom is hard use neither float nor shot, and as soon as you see your line moving through the water, strike gently. The best of the fancy baits is a piece of half-boiled potato, about the size of the top of your little finger, which, being a tender bait, should be used on a triangular hook, the place being previously baited for some days with potatoes roughly mashed. The best and cleanest ground-bait in a general way, for this fish and the roach, is a simple paste of bread and bran, made up into small balls. If used in a stream, a pebble must be put in the middle of each ball, to sink it in the proper place. There are numberless other baits, which have certainly all succeeded at times; indeed, we have heard of a carp, though perhaps the least carnivorous of any fish, being taken with a minnow.

There is a plan very much recommended by some authors for taking them on hot days in summer. You will hear them sucking at the surface of the water, among weeds, with a sort of “chop, chop, chop" sound. Take a green caterpillar from an oak tree, a blow-fly, or a gentle, and drop it on a weed, gradually rolling it off into the water just by the fish's nose. He will generally take it. We have caught many small ones in this way; but where the fish are large it would be a simple act of folly to attempt it, as the carp would be down in the weeds the instant he felt the hook, and good bye to the best of tackle. In fishing for carp running tackle is indispensable. Use a fine gut line of about three yards, a small-very small-float, and about 8 or 9 hook. Of all the Cyprinidæ or Carp Tribe (the most numerous of our fresh-water genera)

THE ROACH

is the most common. There is another species very closely allied to it, and said by many practical fishermen to be identical-although as naturalists deny this, we will not presume to attempt to offer an opinion on the subject-called the RUDD or ROND, which is very similar in its habits and appearance. Several other species or varieties are found in some parts of the kingdom; but as none but a practised naturalist can distinguish them from the common species, as they are rarely met with, and as their habits are almost the same, we will not trouble our readers with a detailed history of them. Few of the veriest tyros in angling have not caught or seen the roach. Old Izaak Walton says "he is called the water-sheep from his simplicity," and the poet describes them as the "unwary roach," but this is a great mistake. True, small roach or rudd, and even large ones, are easily caught in well-stocked ponds with almost any bait; but even here fine tackle and well-scoured clean baits will tell their tale over the less careful angler's day's work. The really scientific way of catching them is in rivers, where they run large, and, though tolerably familiar, as far as not heeding the presence of the angler if he keep decently quiet, require the most tempting bait and finest tackle to produce anything like a heavy bag. The roach, which spawns early in May, is not worth fishing for till about July, at which time they are to be found in moderately shallow

water (say up to 4 feet), and may be caught with the caddis or cockspur-worm, small red worms, gentles, natural flies below and at the surface of the water, and any small grub or caterpillar. But about the end of September or middle of October, after the first autumn floods, when the weeds amongst which they have lived during the summer have rotted and been swept away by the current,

they begin to retire to the deep parts of the river. Then these pretty fish are in their finest condition and afford the best sport. Choose deep still holes and eddies not too much frequented by perch or jack, on whom the effects of a live bait should, if possible, be tried a few times before commencing reach

fishing; plumb your depth accurately, take your finest gut line, with a single horsehair next the hook (if you can manage to be tender enough of hand to kill fish without breaking such slender tackle); select a spot where your float will swim as far as you can reach each way without any change in the depth of the water or the character of the bottom, which should be even, firm (you

can feel this with your plumb), and free from weeds. Use a porcupine quill or "patent" float, and as much shot as will, when the hook is baited, bring the upper cap of your float on a level with the water's edge. If you cannot find a perfectly level bottom in say 8 or 9 feet of water (though some noted "roach-holes" are much deeper or shallower than this), and are forced to select a sloping one, choose one which grows gradually shallower, in order that at the end of your swim your bait may drag the ground rather than float above the heads of the fish. Now, having found the exact depth, which is indicated by the top of your float being just under water when the line is held upright and the plummet rests on the bottom, lay down your rod, and let the line remain in the water to soften and stretch. Use the same ground-bait as we recommend for carp fishing, and throw a number of balls of this in at the top of your swim, or, if in still water, just round your float. In the latter case, much less ground-bait will be needed, which should be made of a loose consistency, with more bran and less bread. Bait your hook (a very small one) with two or three gentles, and commence operations. In the later months paste (made as recommended for carp) is, as a rule, better than gentles, taking heavier fish. A short-shanked hook, made for the purpose, and to be obtained of any London tackle-maker, should be used with this bait, and the paste should just cover the hook. Many anglers use this bait on a triangular hook, and, if they can be obtained sufficiently small, such hooks are of immense advantage. In a strong stream strike on the slightest motion of the float, but in still water wait till you see that the float is held in a different position to that which it previously occupied. Strike very gently-remember you have delicate tackle. Manage a hooked fish carefully; but you may remember that all the carp tribe are what old Walton calls "leather-mouthed," and if your tackle is all right they won't break away like a trout, perch, pike, or grayling, whose mouths are all skin and bone. Use a short rod, about 10 feet long, if fishing from a boat; if from the bank, one about 18 or 20 feet should be used. These last are made of white cane, and sold specially for the purpose of roach fishing.

The baits above mentioned are the best for roach, but they are also to be taken with greaves, "blood-worms" (the larvae of the gnat, which may be found in rain-water butts, stagnant puddles, &c.), and sometimes, especially when the water is a trifle coloured, with the tail end of a small lob-worm. This last, when they will take it at all, is one of the most destructive baits that can be used for large roach. Wheat or malt boiled in milk till it is soft is alsɔ, at times, found very killing (but not in all rivers) both for roach and

THE BREAM.

This somewhat ungainly, flat-sided fish, of which there are four or five species in this country, partakes somewhat of the characteristics of the carp and the roach. He is found in deep sluggish rivers, and occasionally in ponds and lakes. The "broads” of Norfolk swarm with them, and two or three hundredweight are sometimes taken in a day by a single rod.

The bream is not so easy to catch as many people pretend, being decidedly a capricious fish in his feeding. When once you get amongst a shoal, and they are well on the feed, wholesale murder may be done. They will take the same baits as recommended for carp and roach, but the good old and most thoroughly killing method is that recommended so far back as the days of

Walton. Boil about a peck of malt, or get half a bushel of grains from the nearest brewery (these last should be perfectly sweet; if sour they are utterly useless), choose a place where you have seen bream swimming in shoals in the middle of hot summer days, and from 6 to 9 feet deep, with an even bottom about 3 or 4 yards from the bank. Go to the place about 8 p.m., and throw in two-thirds of your ground-bait. At this time you should plumb the depth, using a No. 7 or 8 hook and stoutish gut line, with a medium-sized cork float and running tackle. Put on enough shot to sink your float, and then draw it

up the line until the shot entirely rests on the ground and the top of the float stands well above water. This saves plumbing the depth in the morning, when It would disturb the fish. As soon as daylight appears, go down to the place. put in the rest of your ground-bait quietly, bait your hook with a small lob or large red worm, and throw it out as far as you can, drawing it in till you are pretty sure that the bait rests somewhere in the middle of your groundbait. The bream will begin to bite very slowly, the float, perhaps, lying flat on the surface, then moving a little way and quivering with the slow nibbling of the fish below. If this ceases altogether after a little time, your bait has probably been sucked off altogether; but never mind, bait afresh, and in with it. Keep very still, and stand back as far as you can from the water without losing sight of your float. The nibbling will soon end in the fish's rushing straight out for the middle of the river; then, as soon as the line is straight out from the top of your rod, strike smartly. Give line for the first rush, as he is a powerful fish, but as soon as you have turned him he will get "blown;" bring him to the surface as quickly as you can, when he generally turns on his side and gives all up for a bad job, and the landing-net makes him your

own.

It is as well to use two or three rods when fishing in this way, and as the ground-bait by attracting small fish also attracts jack and perch, if there are any in the neighbourhood, a live bait may be used with advantage, as, while the fish of prey are prowling about, the other fish will seldom feed. Indeed, it is as well to begin by using a live bait on a night line, or setting a trimmer