116 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN CANAL ANGLING. 



Float and Goose-fishing for Pike. 



Angling for pike with a float is the one most com- 

 mended in the Book of St. Alban's by Dame Juliana 

 Barnes, who directs the angler to " take a codlynge 

 hoke, and take a roche, or a fresh heeryng, and a 

 wyre wyth an hole in the ende, and put it in at the 

 mouth, and out at the taylle, down by the ridge of the 

 fresshe heeryng; and thenne put the lyne of your 

 hoke in after, and drawe the hoke into the cheke of 

 the fresshe heeryng ; then put a plumbe of lede upon 

 your lyne a yarde longe from your hoke, and a flote in 

 mid waye betwene ; and caste it in a pytte where the 

 pyke usyth, and this is the best and moost surest crafte 

 of takynge the pyke. Another manere of takynge 

 him there is ; take a frosshe [frog] and put it on your 

 hoke, at the necke, betwene the skynne and the body, 

 on the backe half, and put on a flote a yerde therefro, 

 and caste it where the pyke hauntyth, and ye shall 

 have hym. Another manere: take the same bayte, 

 and put it in asafetida, and caste it in the water wyth 

 a corde and a corke, and ye shall not fayl of hym. 

 And if ye lyst to have a good sporte, thenne tye the 

 corde to a gose fote, and ye shall have a gode halynge, 

 whether the gose or the pyke shall have the better." 



Barker in his " DELIGHT," tells us, that " the princi- 

 pal sport to take a pike, is to take a goose or gander, or 

 duck ; take one of the pike lines I have showed you 

 before ; tie the line under the left wing, and over the 

 right wing, about the body, as a man weareth his belt; 

 turn the goose off into the pond where pikes are; there 



