CHAPTER XI 



[Ubfrfc Das] 



VIAT. So, Sir, now we are here, and set, let me have 

 my instructions for angling for trout and grayling at 

 the bottom ; which though not so easy, so cleanly, nor 

 (as 'tis said) so genteel a way of fishing as with a fly, 

 is yet, if I mistake not, a good holding way, and takes 

 fish when nothing else will. 



Pise. You are in the right, it does so : and a worm 

 is so sure a bait at all times, that, excepting in a flood, 

 I would I had laid a thousand pounds that I killed fish, 

 more or less with it, winter or summer, every day through- 

 out the year ; those days always excepted, that upon a 

 more serious account always ought so to be. But not 

 longer to delay you, I will begin, and tell you, that angling 

 at the bottom is also commonly of two sorts ; and yet 

 there is a third way of angling with a ground-bait, and 

 to very great effect too, as shall be said hereafter ; namely, 

 by hand, or with a cork or float. 



That we call angling by hand is of three sorts. 



The first, with a line about half the length of the 

 rod, a good weighty plumb, and three hairs next the 

 hook, which we call a running-line, and with one large 

 brandling, or a dew-worm of a moderate size, or two small 

 ones of the first, or any other sort, proper for a trout, of 

 which my father Walton has already given you the 

 names, and saved me a labour ; or, indeed, almost any 

 worm whatever ; for if a trout be in the humour to bite, 

 it must be such a worm as I never yet saw, that he will 

 refuse ; and if you fish with two, you are then to bait 



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