THE COMPLETE ANGLER 151 



your dead bait for a pike, and then cast it into 

 a likely place, and when it has lain a short time 

 at the bottom, draw it towards the top of the water, 

 and so up the stream, and it is more than likely 

 that you have a pike follow with more than common 

 eagerness. 



And some affirm, that any bait anointed with the 

 marrow of the thigh-bone of an hern,* is a great tempta- 

 tion to any fish. 



These have not been tried by me, but told me by a 

 friend of note, that pretended to do me a courtesy ; 

 but if this direction to catch a pike thus do you no good, 

 yet I am certain this direction how to roast him when he 

 is caught, is choicely good, for I have tried it, and it is 

 somewhat the better for not being common ; but with 

 my direction you must take this caution, that your pike 

 must not be a small one, that is, it must be more than 

 half a yard, and should be bigger. 



First, open your pike at the gills, and if need be, cut 

 also a little slit towards the belly ; out of these take his 

 guts and keep his liver, which you are to shred very 

 small with thyme, sweet-marjoram, and a little winter- 

 savory : to these put some pickled oysters, and some 

 anchovies, two or three, both these last whole ; for the 

 anchovies will melt, and the oysters should not : to these 

 you must add also a pound of sweet butter, which you are 

 to mix with the herbs that are shred, and let them all be 

 well salted : if the pike be more than a yard long, then 

 you may put into these herbs more than a pound, or if 

 he be less, then less butter will suffice : these being thus 

 mixed with a blade or two of mace, must be put into the 



* No doubt Walton means the well-known bird, the heron, a 

 great destroyer of fish, and hence, apparently, the notion that its 

 marrow had some odoriferous attraction. Anointing any fish 

 dead-bait for pike or for perch, or any other fish, is more super- 

 fluous, if possible, than gilding the purest Australian gold nugget. 

 E. 



