THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 57 



Pisc. By a leather-mouthed fish, I mean such as have their 

 teeth in their throat, as the chub or cheven, and so the barbel, 

 the gudgeon, and carp, and divers others have ; and the hook 

 being stuck into the leather or skin of the mouth of such fish, 

 does very seldom or never lose its hold ; but on the contrary, a 

 pike, a perch, or trout, and so some other fish, — which have not 

 their teeth in their throats, but in their mouths, which you shall 

 observe to be very full of bones, and the skin very thin, and little 

 of it, — I say, of these fish the hook never takes so sure hold, 

 but you often lose your fish, unless he have gorged it. 



Ven. I thank you, good Master, for this observation ; but 

 now what shall be done with my chub or cheven, that I have 

 caught ? 



Pisc. Marry, Sir, it shall be given away to some poor body ; 

 for I'll warrant you I'll give you a trout for your supper : and 

 it is a good beginning of your art to offer your first-fruits to the 

 poor, who will both thank God and you for it, which I see by 

 your silence you seem to consent to. And for your willingness 

 to part with it so charitably, I will also teach you more concern- 

 ing chub-fishing : you are to note that in March and April he is 

 usually taken with worms ; in May, June, or July, he will bite 

 at any fly, or at cherries, or at beetles with their legs and wings 

 cut off, or at any kind of snail, or at the black bee that breeds in 

 clay walls ; and he never refuses a grasshopper on the top of a 

 swift stream, nor at the bottom the young humble-bee that breeds 

 in long grass, and is ordinarily found by the mower of it. In 

 August, and in the cooler months, a yellow-paste, made of the 

 strongest cheese, and pounded in a mortar with a little butter and 

 saffron, so much of it as being beaten small, will turn it to a 

 lemon-color. And some make a paste for the winter months, — 

 at which time the chub is accounted best, for then it is observed, 

 that the forked bones are lost or turned into a kind of gristle, 

 especially if he be baked, — of cheese and turpentine ; he will 

 bite also at a minnow or penk, as a trout will • of which I shall 

 tell you more hereafter, and of divers other baits. But take 

 this for a rule, that in hot weather he is to be fished for towards 

 the mid-water, or near the top ; and in colder weather nearer 

 the bottom. And if you fish for him on the top, with a beetle or 



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