5o THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



in a fit place, may very easily see, and move your rod as softly 

 as a snail moves, to that chub you intend to catch ; let your bait 

 fall gently upon the water three or four inches before him, and 

 he will infallibly take the bait, and you will be as sure to catch 

 him ; for he is one of the leather-mouthed fishes, of which a hook 

 does scarce ever lose its hold ; and therefore give him play enough 

 before you ofTer to take him out of the water. Go your way 

 presently, take my rod, and do as I bid you, and I will sit down 

 and mend mv tackling till vou return back. 



Ven. Trulv, mv lovinij Master, vou have offered me as fair 

 as I couid wish. I'll go and observe your directions. 



Look you, Master, what I have done ! that which joys my 

 henrt, cauglit just such another chub as yours was. 



Pisc. Marry, and I am glad of it : I am like to have a to- 

 wardly scholar of you. I nuw see, that with advice and prac- 

 tice, you will make an angler in a short time. Have but a love 

 to it, and I'll warrant you. 



Ven. But, Master, what if I could not have found a grasshop- 

 per ? 



Pisc. Then I may tell you, that a black snail, with his belly 

 slit, to show his white ; or a piece of soft cheese, will usually do 

 as well : nay, sometimes a worm, or any kind of fly, as the ant- 

 fly, the flesh-fly, or wall-fly, or the dor or beetle, which you may 

 find under cow-dung, or a bob, which you will find in the same 

 place, and in time will be a beetle ; it is a short white worm, 

 like to and bigger than a gentle ; or a cod-worm, or a case-worm, 

 any of these will do very well to fish in such a manner. And 

 after this manner you may catch a trout in a hot evening : when 

 as you walk by a brook, and shall see or hear liim leap at flies, 

 then if you get a grasshopper, put it on your hook, with your 

 line about two yards long, standing behind a bush or tree where 

 his hole is, and make your bait stir up and down on the top of 

 the water : you may, if you stand close, be sure of a bite, but 

 not sure to catch him, for he is not a leather-mouthed fish : and 

 after this manner you may fish for him with almost any kind of 

 live fly, but especially with a grasshopper. 



Ven. I>ut before you go further, I pray, good Master, what 

 mean you by a leather-mouthed fish ? 



