The Compleat ^Angler 



have a small hook, a quick eye, and a nimble hand, or the bait is 

 lost, and the fish too (if one may lose that which he never had). 

 With this paste you may, as I said, take both the roach and the dace 

 or dare, for they be much of a kind in matter of feeding, cunning, 

 goodness, and usually in size. And therefore, take this general 

 direction for some other baits which may concern you to take notice 

 of. They will bite almost at any fly, but especially at ant-flies ; con- 

 cerning which, take this direction, for it is very good : 



Take the blackish ant-fly out of the mole-hill or ant-hill, in 

 which place you shall find them in the month of June, or if that be 

 too early in the year, then doubtless you may find them in July, 

 August, and most of September ; gather them alive with both their 

 wings, and then put them into a glass that will hold a quart or a 

 pottle ; but first put into the glass a handful or more of the moist 

 earth out of which you gather them, and as much of the roots of the 

 grass of the said hillock, and then put in the flies gently, that they 

 lose not their wings ; lay a clod of earth over it, and then so many 

 as are put into the glass without bruising will live there a month or 

 more, and be always in a readiness for you to fish with ; but if you 

 would have them keep longer, then get any great earthen pot, or 

 barrel of three or four gallons (which is better) then wash your 

 barrel with water and honey, and having put into it a quantity of 

 earth and grass roots, then put in your flies, and cover it, and they 

 will live a quarter of a year : these in any stream and clear water 

 are a deadly bait for roach or dace, or for a chub ; and your rule is 

 to fish not less than a handful from the bottom. 



I shall next tell you a winter bait for a roach, a dace, or chub, and 

 it is choicely good. About All-hallowtide and so till frost comes, 

 when you see men ploughing up heath ground, or sandy ground, or 

 greenswards, then follow the plough, and you shall find a white 

 worm as big as two maggots, and it hath a red head (you may 

 observe in what ground most are, for there the crows will be very 

 watchful and follow the plough very close) ; it is all soft, and full 

 of whitish guts ; a worm, that is, in Norfolk and some other 

 counties, called a grub ; and is bred of the spawn or eggs of a 

 beetle, which she leaves in holes that she digs in the ground under 



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