The Fourth Day 93 



must be sure not to cumber yourself with too long 

 a line, as most do. And before you begin to angle, 

 cast to have the wind on your back ; and the sun, 

 if it shines, to be before you ; and to fish down the 

 stream ; and carry the point or top of your rod 

 downward, by which means the shadow of yourself, 

 and rod too, will be the least offensive to the fish ; 

 for the sight of any shade amazes the fish, and spoils 

 your sport, of which you must take great care. 



In the middle of March, till which time a man 

 should not in honesty catch a Trout ; or in April, if 

 the weather be dark, or a little windy or cloudy ; 

 the best fishing is with the palmer-worm, of which 

 I last spoke to you ; but of these there be clivers 

 kinds, or at least of divers colours : these and the 

 May-fly are the ground of all fly-angling : which 

 are to be thus made : 



First, you must arm your hook with the line, in 

 the inside of it : then take your scissors, and cut so 

 much of a brown mallard's feather as, in your own 

 reason, will make the wings of it, you having, withal, 

 regard to the bigness or littleness of your hook ; 

 then lay the outmost part of your feather next to 

 your hook ; then the point of your feather next the 

 shank of your hook, and, having so done, whip it 

 three or four times about the hook with the same 

 silk with which your hook was armed ; and having 

 made the silk fast, take the hackle of a cock or 

 capon's neck, or a plover's top, which is usually 

 better: take off the one side of the feather, and 

 then take the hackle, silk or crewel, gold or silver 

 thread ; make these fast at the bent of the hook, 

 that is to say, below your arming ; then you must 

 take the hackle, the silver or gold thread, and work 

 it up to the wings, shifting or still removing your 

 finger as you turn the silk about the hook, and 

 still looking, at every stop or turn, that your gold 



