146 The Complete Angler 



or hook, or hold, will break: and after you have 

 overcome them, they will make noble sport, and are 

 very shy to be landed. The Carp is far stronger 

 and more mettlesome than the Bream. 



Much more is to be observed in this kind of 

 fish and fishing, but it is far fitter for experience 

 and discourse than paper. Only, thus much is 

 necessary for you to know, and to be mindful and 

 careful of, that if the Pike or Perch do breed in that 

 river, they will be sure to bite first, and must first 

 be taken. And for the most part they are very 

 large ; and will repair to your ground-bait, not that 

 they will eat of it, but will feed and sport themselves 

 among the young fry that gather about and hover 

 over the bait. 



The way to discern the Pike and to take him, if 

 you mistrust your Bream hook, for I have taken a 

 Pike a yard long several times at my Bream hooks, 

 and sometimes he hath had the luck to share my 

 line, may be thus : 



Take a small Bleak, or Roach, or Gudgeon, and 

 bait it ; and set it, alive, among your rods, two feet 

 deep from the cork, with a little red worm on the 

 point of the hook : then take a few crumbs of white 

 bread, or some of the ground-bait, and sprinkle it 

 gently amongst your rods. If Mr. Pike be there, 

 then the little fish will skip out of the water at his 

 appearance, but the live-set bait is sure to be taken. 



Thus continue your sport from four in the morn- 

 ing till eight, and if it be a gloomy windy day, they 

 will bite all day long : but this is too long to stand 

 to your rods, at one place ; and it will spoil your 

 evening sport that day, which is this. 



About four of the clock in the afternoon repair to 

 your baited place ; and as soon as you come to the 

 water-side, cast in one-half of the rest of your 

 ground-bait, and stand off; then whilst the fish are 



