THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 87 



the ground, where you shall see worms are used to rise in the 

 night, will make them to appear above ground presently. And 

 you may take notice, some say that camphor, put into your bag 

 with your moss and worms, gives them a strong and so tempting 

 a smell, that the fish fare the worse and you the better for it. 



And now I shall shew you how to bait your hook with a worm, 

 so as shall prevent you from much trouble, and the loss of many 

 a hook too, when you fish for a trout with a running-line, that is 

 to say, when you fish for him by hand at the ground : I will 

 direct you in this as plainly as I can, that you may not mistake. 



Suppose it be a big lob- worm,* put your hook into him somewhat 

 above the middle, and out again a little above the middle ; having 

 so done, draw your worm above the arming of your hook : but 

 note, that at the entering of your hook it must not be at the head- 

 end of the worm, but at the tail-end of him, that the point of your 

 hook may come out toward the head-end, and having drawn him 

 above the arming of your hook, then put the point of your hook 

 again into the very head of the worm, till it come near to the 

 place where the point of the hook first came out ; and then draw 

 back that part of the worm that was above the shank or arming 

 of your hook, and so fish with it. And if you mean to fish with 

 two worms, then put the second on before you turn back the hook's 

 head of the- first worm; you cannot lose above two or three 

 worms before you attain to what I direct you ; and having attained 

 it, you will find it very useful, and thank me for it : for you will 

 run on the ground without tangling. 



Now for the minnow or penk :f he is not easily found and 

 caught till March, or in April, for then he appears first in the 

 river, nature having taught him to shelter and hide himself in the 



* The reader must refer to some angling manual (Bovvlker or Salter for 

 instance), for further instruction about worms and gentles. Our hands have 

 long been washed from the dirty things, satisfied not to fish when the fly 

 cannot be used. — Am. Ed. 



t The minnow used by us is the Hydrargira Diaphana. The shiner 

 of our lakes and small streams {Leuciscus Altidus) is capital for such 

 fishing from its silvery brightness. The reader will find a far better 

 method of rigging his minnow in any modern angling book, but needs the 

 explanation of a plate. Walton seems to have known nothing of the swivel, 

 so necessary to us in spinning the bait.^-^^m. Ed. 



