"The Compleat ^Angler 



DAY 



ISC. Good-morrow, good hostess ; 1 see my 

 brother Peter is still in bed : come, give my 

 scholar and me a morning drink, and a bit of 

 meat to breakfast ; and be sure to get a good 

 dish of meat or two against supper, for we shall 

 come home as hungry as hawks. Come, scholar, 

 let's be going. 



VEN. Well now, good master, as we walk towards the river give 

 me direction, according to your promise, how I shall fish for a trout. 

 Pise. My honest scholar, I will take this very convenient oppor- 

 tunity to do it. 



The trout is usually caught with a worm or a minnow (which 

 some call a penk) or with a fly, viz., either a natural or an artificial 

 fly : concerning which three I will give you some observations and 

 directions. 



And, first, for worms : of these there be very many sorts : some 

 breed only in the earth, as the earth-worm ; others of or amongst 

 plants, as the dung-worm ; and others breed either out of excre- 

 ments, or in the bodies of living creatures, as in the horns of sheep 

 or deer ; or some of dead flesh, as the maggot or gentle, and others. 

 Now these be most of them particularly good for particular fishes : 

 but for the trout, the dew-worm (which some also call the lob-worm) 

 and the brandling are the chief ; and especially the first for a great 

 trout, and the latter for a less. There be also of lob-worms some 

 called squirrel-tails (a worm that has a red head, a streak down the 

 back, and a broad tail) which are noted to be the best, because they 



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