THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 457 



CFIAPTER XII. 



0/ANGLiNG-iN-THE-MiDDLE/or Trout or Grayling*. 



PlSCATOR-JtJNIOR. 



ANGLING-in-the-middle, then, for a Trout or 

 Grayling, is of two sorts : with a pink or minnow 

 for a Trout ; or with a worm, grub, or cadis for a 

 Grayling. 



For the first. It is with a minnow ; half a foot, or a 

 foot, within the superficies of the water. And as to the 

 rest that concerns this sort of angling, I shall wholly 

 refer you to Mr. Walton's directions ; who is undoubt- 

 edly the best angler with a minnow in England : only, 

 in plain truth, 1 do not approve of those baits he keeps 

 in saltt, unless where the living ones are not pos- 

 sibly to be had ; though I know he frequently t "jjg; 

 kills with them, and, perad venture, more than 

 with any other nay, I have seen him refuse a living 

 one for one of them. And much less [do I approve] of 

 his artificial one J ; for though we do it with a 

 counterfeit fly, methinks, it should hardly be i/J^; 

 expected, that a man should deceive a fish with 

 a counterfeit fish. Which having said, I shall only 

 add, (and that, out of my own experience,) that I do 

 believe a bull-head, [millers-thumb,] with his gill-fins 

 cut off, at some times of the year especially, to be a 

 much better bait for a Trout than a minnow ; and a 

 loach much better than that; to prove which, I shall 

 only tell you, that I have much oftener taken Trouts 

 with a bull-head, or a loach, in their throats, (for there 

 a Trout has questionless his first digestion,) than a rain- 



* And mark what is said in pa. 454, respecting fishing for Grayling* 

 farther from the bottom than a Trout. 



1> D 2 



