CROSS FISHING, &c. 75 



places the country people get a strong small rope or clothes 

 line, and tie one or more snap baited hooks to it, and take 

 hold, one at each end of the rope, and walk opposite each 

 other, on the banks of small rivers and ponds, letting the 

 baited hooks drag in the water, until they feel a bite ; the 

 one strikes and immediately drags the Jack on shore, the 

 other person slacks the line he holds, while his companion 

 is so doing. 



Various other ways are practised for taking Jack and 

 Pike, by night lines, trimmers, &c. but such methods are 

 justly reprobated by the true angler who exercises his 

 skill and art for amusement more than profit ; therefore, 

 I shall say but very little on this part of the subject, but 

 will in lieu thereof, teach you how to take large Eels, by 

 chain lines, &c. ; the trimmers mostly used in lakes, meers, 

 broads, pools, and large ponds, are taken up from a boat ; 

 if the place is not too broad you may get them with the 

 drag hooks, or with a large stone fastened to plenty of 

 strong cord being thrown over the trimmer line; these 

 trimmers are made of strong thin hempen cord, with a hook 

 tied to brass wire (but gimp is better) and wound on a 

 large piece of flat cork, about five or six inches in 

 diameter, with a groove to admit the line; the hook is 

 baited with a Gudgeon, Roach, or some small fish ; you 

 then draw as much line out as admits the bait to hang 

 about a foot from the bottom. There is a small slit in 

 the cork, that you pass the line in, to prevent it unwind- 



