Gentles.—The usual term, used in angling, for maggots. Putrid meat, especially liver, will produce them. They may be obtained from butchers or fell-mongers. Good for most fish.
Lob Worm.—Sometimes called the dew worm, or the wachel. It is the ordinary large garden worm. Dig for them if they are needed at once. If wet straw is strewed upon the ground for a couple of days they will come to the surface. In the evenings they come out, and a quiet search with a lantern in gardens, or church-yards, or on lawns will discover them. They are useful for trout, eels, large perch, barbel, chub, and salmon.
Brandling.—Search for these in chaff pits, old heaps of compost, rotten tan, sweepings, manure of all kinds and tanners’ bark. Good for trout, grayling, carp, bream, and indeed for almost every fish.
Miscellaneous Baits.—Cockchafer, black or evening beetle, grasshoppers, moths, May-flies, caddis worms, bees, caterpillars, wasp-grubs, baked for half an hour, paste made of bread or cheese.
Ground Bait.—In addition to the bait upon the hook the angler usually strews what is known as ground bait, and so attracts the fish to where he is angling. It is chiefly by the judicious use of ground baits, and by fishing at a proper depth, that one angler is more successful than another, although fishing with the same baits and within a few yards of each other. If a place can be ground baited frequently fish begin to come there regularly for food. Care must be taken not to glut the fish, and the bait upon the hook ought to be more attractive than the bait flung into the stream. The ground bait most in use includes bran mixed with clay, and made into balls of about the size of a pigeon’s egg. If the current is strong a stone in the ball may be needed. Another ground bait is made by cutting the crust from a loaf. Then cut the loaf into slices each about two inches thick. Put these slices into a deep vessel of water, and when the bread has been well soaked squeeze it until it is nearly dry. Add bran and knead the whole until the mixture is as stiff as clay. This is well adapted for still waters. Another ground bait is made of barley-meal one part, mashed potatoes three parts, stiff clay two parts, worked thoroughly well together, but better even than this is one composed of stiff clay with as much bran as it will hold without destroying its stickiness. At the water side separate pieces about the size of the egg of a goose, into which stick a few worms and gentles. As these drop from the dissolving clay they are seized on by the fish, who continue to wait in the expectation of more, and are thus ready to take the angler’s bait, especially if it is more tempting than the ground bait. Boiled malt, barley, wheat, and such things, mixed with coarse sand to sink them also answer the purpose.
Trout-fishing.—In the Easter holidays boys are apt to find it difficult to decide just what to do. Football is nearly over, cricket is hardly in. It is still somewhat early for bird-nesting, except for rooks, and perhaps blackbirds and thrushes.
Just at this juncture the obliging trout come into season, and best of all, are ravenously hungry. Now is the time for the beginner to try his hand with the deceitful fly. Do not be discouraged, even if you have made a dismal failure of it last August. In the summer holidays it requires a practised hand to take trout with fly; but in April on a moorland stream a boy may go out and actually have some success on his first attempt. It will be wiser, certainly, to practise a little first, in your own garden, with all the tackle except the fly.
By “tackle” I don’t mean necessarily a glittering rod, fresh from the shop, with a brilliant winch and gaudy fittings. It is well to get all these things if you can afford them, though they should be toned down before using; but want of money need not prevent a boy from trying his hand at trout-fishing. A long willow wand, or even a hazel stick will throw a fly if properly managed; and running tackle is not an absolute necessity, though in every respect advantageous.
The only things that must be bought are the hooks, and these are very cheap, as most boys know.