216 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



Pisc. Well, and I'll not fail you, God willing, at the time and 

 place appointed. 



Yen. I tliank you, good Master, and 1 will not fail you : and, 

 good Master, tell nie what baits more you remember ; for it will 

 not now be long ere we shall be at Tottenham- High-Cross, and 

 when we come thither I will make you some requital of your 

 pains, by repeating as choice a copy of verses as any we have 

 heard since we met together ; and that is a proud word, for we 

 have heard very good ones. 



Pisc. Well, Scholar, and I shall be then right glad to hear 

 them : and I will, as we walk, tell you whatsoever comes in my 

 mind, that I think may be worth your hearing. You may make 

 another choice bait thus : Take a handful or two of the best and 

 biggest wheat you can get, boil it in a little milk, like as frumety 

 is boiled ; boil it so till it be soft, and then fry it very leisurely 

 with honey and a little beaten saffron dissolved in milk ; and you 

 will find this a choice bait, and good, I think, for any fish, espe- 

 cially for roach, dace, chub, or grayling : I know not but that it 

 may be as good for a river-carp, and especially if the ground be 

 a little baited with it. 



And you may also note, that the spaw^n of most fish is a very 

 tempting bait, being a little hardened on a warm tile, and cut 

 into fit pieces. Nay, mulberries and those black-berries which 

 grow upon briers, be good baits for chubs or carps ; with these 

 many have been taken in ponds, and in some rivers where such 

 trees have grown near the water, and the fruit customarily 

 dropped into it : and there be a hundred other baits more than 

 can be well named, which, by constant baiting the water, will 

 become a tempting bait for any fish in it. 



Fisher's Text-Book) observes : " I by no means approve of Kirby's hooks 

 for flies ; they are, perhaps, the best for bait-fishinj;, and more sure to hook 

 a fish ; but their form prevents flies dressed on them from swimming so 

 strait as they would do on hooks that lie flat, nor is the shank end taper- 

 ed, so as to allow of the fly being neatly finished at the head." He prefers, 

 a3 most English fly-fishers do, the O'Shaughnessy hook, or rather Sell's, of 

 Limerick, the latter being a slight improvement on the former. The best 

 Kirbys are those made by Hemming and Sons (the needle-makers) of Red- 

 ditch. They are imitated in an inferior quality by English and German 

 manufacturers, but so badly as to be worse than nothing. — dm. Ed. 



