150 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i. 



proceed to tell you that you may fish for a Pike, 

 either with a Ledger or a Walking-bait ; and you 

 are to note, that I call that a Ledger-bait, which is 

 fixed or made to rest in one certain place when you 

 shall be absent from it : and I call that a Walking- 

 bait, which you take with you, and have ever in 

 motion. Concerning which two, I shall give you 

 this direction ; that your Ledger-bait is best to be 

 a living bait, though a dead one may catch, whe- 

 ther it be a fish or a frog ; and that you may make 

 them live the longer, you may, or indeed you must, 

 take this course. 



First, for your Live-bait. Of fish, a Roach or Dace 

 is, I think, best and most tempting, and a Pearch is 

 the longest lived on a hook, and having cut off his 

 fin on his back, which may be done without hurting 

 him, you must take your knife, which cannot be too 

 sharp, and betwixt the head and the fin on the back, 

 cut or make an incision, or such a scar, as you may 

 put the arming wire of your hook into it, with as 

 little bruising or hurting the fish as art and dili- 

 gence will enable you to do ; and so carrying your 

 arming-wire along his back, unto, or near the tail 

 of your fish, betwixt the skin and the body of it, 

 draw out that wire or arming of your hook at ano- 

 ther scar near to his tail : then tie him about it 

 with thread, but no harder than of necessity to pre- 

 vent hurting the fish : and the better to avoid hurt- 

 ing the fish, some have a kind of probe to open the 

 way, for the more easy entrance and passage of 



