2O4 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



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 amongst 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 



