184 DIRECTIONS HOW TO FISH 



And, as one has wittily observed, if there be 

 twenty or forty in a hole, they may be, at one 

 standing, all catched one after another; they 

 being, as he says, like the wicked of the world, 

 not afraid, though their fellows and companions 

 perish in their sight. And you may observe, 

 that they are not like the solitary pike, but love 

 to accompany one another, and march together 

 in troops. 



And the baits for this bold fish are not many : 

 I mean, he will bite as well at some, or at any of 

 these three, as at any or all others whatsoever — 

 a worm, a minnow, or a little frog (of which you 

 may find many in hay time). And of worms, the 

 dunghill worm, called a brandling, I take to be 

 best, being well scoured in moss and fennel ; or 

 he will bite at a worm that lies under cow dung, 

 with a bluish head. And if you rove for a perch 

 with a minnow, then it is best to be alive, you 

 sticking your hook through his back fin ; or a 

 minnow with the hook in his upper lip, and let- 

 ting him swim up and down, about mid-water, or 

 a little lower, and you still keeping him to about 

 that depth by a cork, which ought not to be a 

 very little one. And the like way you are to fish 

 for the perch with a small frog, your hook being 



