So The Complete Angler 



The Trout is usually caught with a worm, or 

 a minnow, which some call a penk, or with a fly, 

 viz. either a natural or an artificial fly : concerning 

 which three, I will give you some observations and 

 directions. 



And, first, for worms. Of these there be very 

 many sorts : some breed only in the earth, as the 

 earth-worm ; others of, or amongst plants, as the 

 dug-worm ; and others breed either out of excre- 

 ments, or in the bodies of living creatures, as in the 

 horns of sheep or deer ; or some of dead flesh, as 

 the maggot or gentle, and others. 



Now these be most of them particularly good for 

 particular fishes. But for the Trout, the dew-worm, 

 which some also call the lob-worm, and the brand- 

 ling, are the chief; and especially the first for a 

 great Trout, and the latter for a less. There be 

 also of lob-worms, some called squirrel-tails, a worm 

 that has a red head, a streak down the back, and a 

 broad tail, which are noted to be the best, because 

 they are the toughest and most lively, and live 

 longest in the water ; for you are to know that a 

 dead worm is but a dead bait, and like to catch 

 nothing, compared to a lively, quick, stirring worm. 

 And for a brandling, he is usually found in an old 

 dunghill, or some very rotten place near to it, but 

 most usually in cow-dung, or hog's-dung, rather 

 than horse-dung, which is somewhat too hot and dry 

 for that worm. But the best of them are to be 

 found in the bark of the tanners, which they cast up 

 in heaps after they have used it about their leather. 



There are also divers other kinds of worms, which, 

 for colour and shape, alter even as the ground out of 

 which they are got; as the marsh-worm, the tag- 

 tail, the flag-worm, the dock-worm, the oak-worm, 

 the gilt-tail, the twachel or lob-worm, which of all 

 others is the most excellent bait for a salmon, and 



