CHAP, xvii.] THE FIFTH DAY. 185 



or Dace, or for a Chub : and your rule is to fish not less than a 

 handful from the bottom. 



I shall next tell you a winter-bait for a Roach, a Dace, or Chub ; 

 and it is choicely good. About All-hallantide, and so till frost 

 comes, when you see men ploughing up heath-ground, or sandy 

 ground, or greenswards, then follow the plough, and you shall find 

 a white worm as big as two maggots, and it hath a red head : you 

 may observe in what ground most are, for there the crows will be 

 very watchful and follow the plough very close : it is all soft, and 

 full of whitish guts ; a worm that is. in Norfolk and some other 

 counties, 3 called a grub ; and is bred of the spawn or eggs of a 

 beetle, which she leaves in holes that she digs in the ground under 

 cow or horse dung, and there rests all winter, and in March or 

 April comes to be first a red and then a black beetle. Gather a 

 thousand or two of these, and put them, with a peck or two of their 

 own earth, into some tub or firkin, and cover and keep them so 

 warm that the frost or cold air, or winds, kill them not : these you 

 may keep all winter, and kill fish with them at any time ; and if 

 you put some of them into a little earth and honey, a day before 

 you use them, you will find them an excellent bait for Bream, 

 Carp, or indeed for almost any fish. 



And after this manner you may also keep gentles all winter ; 

 which are a good bait then, and much the better for being lively 

 and tough. Or you may breed and keep gentles thus : take a 

 piece of beast's liver, and, with a cross stick, hang it in some 

 corner, over a pot or barrel half full of dry clay; and as the gentles 

 grow big, they will fall into the barrel and scour themselves, and be 

 always ready for use whensoever you incline to fish ; and these 

 gentles may be thus created till after Michaelmas. But if you 

 desire to keep gentles to fish with all the year, then get a dead cat, 

 or a kite, and let it be fly-blown ; and when the gentles begin to be 

 alive and to stir, then bury it and them in soft moist earth, but as 

 free from frost as you can ; and these you may dig up at any time 

 when you intend to use them: these will last till March, and about 

 that time turn to be flies. 



But if you be nice to foul your fingers, which good anglers seldom 

 are, then take this bait : get a handful of well-made malt, and put 

 it into a dish of water ; and then wash and rub it betwixt your 

 hands till you make it clean, and as free from husks as you can ; 

 then put that water from it, and put a small quantity of fresh water 

 to it, and set it in something that is fit for that purpose, over the 



VARIATION.] 3 "countries," in the i^. 2</, 3^, and ^th edit. 



