70 best's art of angling. 



are much belter than those bred in ponds. 'I'liey 

 spawn in Maij, and will bite all ciay Ions;, if the 

 weather is not in either of the extremes, on the 

 top of the water. Their haunts are chiefly in 

 sandy or gravelly deep waters: delighting to be 

 in the shade. In i\pril their baits are cads and 

 Tccri/is. In Slimmer, vrhite s?iai/s or /lies. In 

 Ai?tumn, a paste made of iine white bread, 

 moulded in your hands with water, and a little 

 cotton added to it, to keep it from wasliina; off 

 tne hook. In winter gT^^i^/es are the best bait for 

 him; yon should fish with a line made oi' sinole 

 hairs, a (pjili float, and the lead about a foot from 

 the hook; and when yon angle for roach always 

 cast in a ground bait, made of bran, clay, and 

 bread, incorporated together;^' and when you 

 angle with tender baits, always strike at the least 

 nibble that is apparent. Sprouted malt, the 

 young brood of wasps, /jeesiVipt in blood, and the 

 dried blood of sheep, are nostrums in this kind of 

 angling. 



Bread being now, at so extravagant a price, 

 to use it as a ground-buit, when our poor stand 

 so much in need of it, wo;. Id be presumptions 

 and wicked. Therefore let the considerate ang- 

 ler content himself with moulding bran and clayey 

 soil well together, and throw it in, in small balls, 

 about the size of a nonpareil. 



The lareest roach in thiskino'dom are taken in 

 the 1 hames, where many have been caught of 

 two pounds and a half weight; but roach of 

 any size are hard to be taken without a boat. 



The people who live in the fishing towns along 

 e banks of the Thames, have a method of 



the 



* Coaife hran and flour make an excellent ground bait, but 

 Uicy must not bi* too much moulded. 



