The Compleat ^Angler 



ing, nor one of these fish to be found, though they were diligently 

 searched for; and yet the next spring, when the ice was thawed, 

 and the weather warm, and fresh water got into the pond, he affirms 

 they all appeared again. This Gesner affirms, and I quote my 

 author because it seems almost as incredible as the resurrection to 

 an atheist: but it may win something, in point of believing it, to 

 him that considers the breeding or renovation of the silk-worm, 

 and of many insects. And that is considerable, which Sir Francis 

 Bacon observes in his History of Life and Death (fol. 20), that there 

 be some herbs that die and spring every year, and some endure 

 longer. 



But though some do not, yet the French esteem this fish highly, 

 and to that end have this proverb, " He that hath breams in his pond 

 is able to bid his friend welcome." And it is noted that the best 

 part of a bream is his belly and head. 



Some say that breams and roaches will mix their eggs and melt 

 together, and so there is in many places a bastard breed of breams, 

 that never come to be either large or good, but very numerous. 



The baits good to catch this Bream are many. i. Paste made of 

 brown bread and honey, gentles, or the brood of wasps that be young 

 (and then not unlike gentles), and should be hardened in an oven, 

 or dried on a tile before the fire, to make them tough ; or there is 

 at the root of docks or flags, or rushes in watery places, a worm not 

 unlike a maggot, at which tench will bite freely. Or he will bite at 

 a grasshopper with his legs nipped off, in June or July, or at several 

 flies under water, which may be found on flags that grow near to the 

 water-side. I doubt not but that there be many other baits that are 

 good ; but I will turn them all into this excellent one, either for a 

 carp or bream, in any river or mere : it was given to me by a most 

 honest and excellent angler ; and hoping you will prove both, I will 

 impart it to you. 



i. Let your bait be as big a red worm as you can find, without a 

 knot ; get a pint or quart of them in an evening in garden walks, or 

 chalky common, after a shower of rain, and put them with clean 

 moss well washed and picked, and the water squeezed out of the 

 moss as dry as you can, into an earthen pot or pipkin set dry, and 



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