HOW TO FISH FOR, AND TO DRESS 



VEN. But before you go further, I pray good Master, what 

 mean you by a leather-mouthed fish ? 



Pise. By a leather-mouthed fish, I mean such as have their 

 teeth in their throat, as the Chub or Cheven, and so the Barbel, 

 the Gudgeon, and Carp, and divers others have ; and the hook 

 being stuck into the leather or skin of the mouth of such fish, 

 does very seldom or never lose its hold : but on the contrary, 

 a Pike, a Perch, or Trout, and so some other fish, which have 

 not their teeth in their throats, but in their mouths, which you 

 shall observe to be very full of bones, and the skin very thin, 

 and little of it : I say, of these fish the hook never takes so 

 sure hold, but you often lose your fish, unless he have gorged it. 



VEN. I thank you, good Master, for this observation ; but 

 now what shall be done with my Chub or Cheven, that I have 

 caught ? 



Pise. Marry Sir, it shall be given away to some poor body, 

 for I '11 warrant you I '11 give you a Trout for your supper : 

 and it is a good beginning of your art to offer your first-fruits 

 to the poor, who will both thank God and you for it, which I 

 see by your silence you seem to consent to. And for your 

 willingness to part with it so charitably, I will also teach you 

 more concerning Chub-fishing : you are to note that in March 

 and April he is usually taken with worms ; in May, June, and 

 July he will bite at any fly, or at cherries, or at beetles with 

 their legs and wings cut off, or at any kind of snail, or at the 

 black bee that breeds in clay walls; and he never refuses a 

 grashopper on the top of a swift stream, nor at the bottom the 

 young humble-bee that breeds in long grass, and is ordinarily 

 found by the mower of it. In August, and in the cooler months, 

 a yellow paste, made of the strongest cheese, and pounded in 

 a mortar with a little butter and saffron, so much of it as being 

 beaten small will turn it to a lemon-colour. And some make 

 a paste for the Winter-months, at which time the Chub is 

 accounted best, for then it is observed, that the forked bones 

 are lost or turned into a kind of gristle, especially if he be baked, 

 of cheese and turpentine ; he will bite also at a Minnow or 

 Penk, as a Trout will ; of which I shall tell you mere hereafter, 

 and of divers other baits. But take this for a rule, that in hot 

 weather he is to be fished for towards the mid-water, or near 

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