The Compleat ^Angler 



cow or horse-dung, and there rests all winter, and in March or April 

 comes to be first a red, and then a black beetle. Gather a thousand 

 or two of these, and put them with a peck or two of their own 

 earth into some tub or firkin, and cover and keep them so warm 

 that the frost or cold air or winds kill them not : these you may 

 keep all winter, and kill fish with them at any time ; and if you 

 put some of them into a little earth and honey, a day before you 

 use them, you will find them an excellent bait for bream, carp, or 

 indeed for almost any fish. 



And after this manner you may also keep gentles all winter ; 

 which are a good bait then, and much the better for being lively and 

 tough. Or you may breed and keep gentles thus : take a piece of 

 beast's liver, and with a cross stick hang it in some corner, over a 

 pot or barrel half full of dry clay : and as the gentles grow big they 

 will fall into the barrel and scour themselves, and be always ready 

 for use whensoever you incline to fish ; and these gentles may be 

 thus created till after Michaelmas. But if you desire to keep 

 gentles to fish with all the year, then get a dead cat or a kite, and 

 let it be fly-blown ; and when the gentles begin to be alive and to 

 stir, then bury it and them in soft moist earth, but as free from 

 frost as you can ; and these you may dig up at any time when you 

 intend to use them : these will last till March, and about that time 

 turn to be flies. 



But if you will be nice to foul your fingers (which good anglers 

 seldom are), then take this bait : get a handful of well-made malt, 

 and put into a dish of water ; and then wash and rub it betwixt 

 your hands till you make it clean, and as free from husks as you 

 can ; then put that water from it, and put a small quantity of fresh 

 water to it, and set it in something that is fit for that purpose, over 

 the fire, where it is not to boil apace, but leisurely and very softly, 

 until it become somewhat soft, which you may try by feeling it 

 betwixt your finger and thumb ; and when it is soft, then put your 

 water from it, and then take a sharp knife, and turning the sprout 

 end of the corn upward, with the point of your knife take the back 

 part of the husk off from it, and yet leaving a kind of inward husk 

 on the corn, or else it is marred ; and then cut ofF that sprouted end 



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