154 THE PRACTICAL FISHERMAN. 



way, as I have before stated, is little better than a copy of the " Boke 

 of St. Albans "), which work first appeared in 1590. He says : "The 

 pike is a common devourer of most fish when he commeth, for toe take 

 him ye shall doe thus : Take a codling hook, well armyed wyth wyre ; 

 then take a small roche or gogin, or else a frog alive or a fresh hearing, 

 and put through your armed wyre with your hooke on the end, and let 

 your hooke rest in the mouthe of your bayte and out at the tayle thereof ; 

 and then put your line thereto, and draw it up and down the water or 

 pool, and if he see it hee will take it in haste. Let him go with it awhile, 

 and then strike and holde, and soe tyre him in the water." This is 

 probably the earliest mention of trolling in the English language. 



In the next century, Androvaldus (1613), in his "De Piscibuset Cetis," 

 quotes and explains a passage from Gesner, which runs as follows : "Sunt 

 qui gobiones fluviatiles hamis in serant ad niascandos lucios. Apud 

 anglos capauntur ranis et pisciculis quas blecus nominant officis hamo, 

 trabende fumen per ripam, non statim extralunt sed gain f atigati " 

 which may be freely translated as follows : " Some anglers use the river 

 gudgeon as a bait for pike. In England they are taken with frogs and 

 with a small fish called the bleak, which is fixed on the hook, and which 

 the angler, stationed on the bank, draws through the water. The pike 

 is not pulled out at once, but played till exhausted." The explanation 

 that Aldrovaldus gives in quoting this is to the effect that the hook 

 should be double and its shank quoted with lead, gland-shaped. " The 

 object," he adds, "of this is not only to sink the bait, but to aid the 

 angler to make a sound when it is pitched in, as of a frog leaping in the 

 water." 



The next writer, in point of date, who speaks at all impartially on the 

 subject of trolling is Col. Venables, in 1662. His " Experienced Angler " 

 contains the following passage : " The best way is to trowle for a pike, 

 which is very delightful. . . . Let your line be silk at least two 

 yards next the hook, and the rest of strong shoemaker's thread ; your 

 hook double and strongly armed with wire for above a foot ; then with a 

 probe or needle you must draw the wire in at the fish's mouth and out 

 at the tail, so that the hook may lie in the mouth of the fish and both the 

 points on either side. Upon the shank of the hook fasten some lead very 

 smooth, that it go into the fish's mouth and sink her with the head 

 downward, as though she had been playing on the top of the water and 

 were returning to the bottom. Tour hook once baited, you must tie the 

 tail of the fish close and fast to the wire." Then follow directions it is 

 unnecessary to quote. 



Again, previous to Nobbes, quaint old Barker refers to trolling, but 

 does not give directions. In the "Art of Angling," 1651, he says : "One 



