HOW TO FISH FOR THE TROUT 



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 

 opportunity 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 Dug-worm ; and others breed either out 

 of excrements, 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 are the toughest and 

 most lively, and live longest in the water : for you are to know, 

 that a dead worm is but a dead bait, and like to catch nothing, 

 compared to a lively, quick stirring worm : and for a Brandling, 

 he is usually found in an old dunghill, or some very rotten place 

 near to it : but most usually in cow-dung, or hog's dung, rather 

 than horse-dung, which is somewhat too hot and dry for that 

 worm. But the best of them are to be found in the bark of 

 the tanners, which they cast up in heaps after they have used 

 it about their leather. 



There are also divers other kinds of worms, which for colour 

 and shape alter even as the ground out of which they are got, 

 as the Marsh-worm, the Tag-tail, the Flag-worm, the Dock- 

 worm, the Oak-worm, the Gilt-tail, the Twachel or Lob-worm, 

 which of all others is the most excellent bait for a Salmon, and 

 too many to name, even as many sorts as some think there be 

 of several herbs or shrubs, or of several kinds of birds in the 

 air ; of which I shall say no more, but tell you, that what worms 



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