CHAP. X. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 24;5 



yard long several times at my Bream hooks, and some- 

 times he hath had the luck to share my line ; may be 

 thus : 



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

 [with] 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 morning 

 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 gathering 

 together, for there they will most certainly come for 

 their supper, you may take a pipe of tobacco; and, 

 then, in with your three rods as in the morning : you 

 will find excellent sport, that evening, till eight of the 

 clock, then cast in the residue of your ground-bait. 

 And next morning, by four of the clock, visit them 

 again for four hours, which is the best sport of all. 

 And after that, let them rest till you and your friends 

 have a mind to more sport. 



From St. James's-tide until Bartholomew-tide, is the 

 best; when they have had all the summer's food, they 

 are the fattest. 



Observe, lastly, that after three or four days' fishing, 

 together, your game will be very shy and wary, and 

 you shall hardly get above a bite or two, at a baiting* : 

 then your only way is to desist from your sport, about 

 two or three days. And, in the mean time on the 

 place you late baited, and again intend to bait you 

 shall take a turf of srreen, but short grass, as big or 

 bigger than a round trencher ; to the top of this turf, 

 on the green side, you shall, with a needle and green 



p 2 



