AND DIRECTIONS TO CATCH HIM 



but it is far fitter for experience and discourse than paper. 

 Only thus much is necessary for you to know, and to be mindful 

 and careful of; that if the Pike or Pearch do breed in that 

 river, they will be sure to bite first, and must first be taken. 

 And for the most part they are very large, and will repair to 

 your ground-bait, not that they will eat of it, but will feed and 

 sport themselves amongst the young fry, that gather about and 

 hover over the bait. 



The way to discern the Pike and to take him, if you mis- 

 trust your Bream-hook, for I have taken a Pike a yard long 

 several times at my Bream-hooks, and sometimes he hath had 

 the luck to share my line, may be thus : 



Take a small Bleak, or Roach, or Gudgeon, and bait it, 

 and set it alive among your rods two foot deep from the cork, 

 with a little red-worm on the point of the hook ; then take a 

 few crums of white-bread, or some of the ground-bait, and 

 sprinkle it gently amongst your rods. If Mr. Pike be there, 

 then the little fish will skip out of the water at his appearance, 

 but the live-set bait is sure to be taken. 



Thus continue your sport from four in the morning till eight, 

 and if it be a gloomy, windy day, they will bite all day long. 

 But this is too long to stand to your rods at one place, and it 

 will spoil your evening-sport that day, which is this. 



About four of the clock in the afternoon repair to your 

 baited place ; and as soon as you come to the water-side, cast 

 in one half of the rest of your ground-bait, and stand off : then 

 whilst the fish are gathering together, for there they will most 

 certainly come for their supper, you may take a pipe of tobacco ; 

 and then in with your three rods as in the morning : You will 

 find excellent sport that evening till eight of the clock ; then 

 cast in the residue of your ground-bait, and next morning by 

 four of the clock, visit them again for four hours, which is the 

 best sport of all ; and after that, let them rest till you and your 

 friends have a mind to more sport. 



From St. James's-tide until Bartholomew-tide is the best; 

 when they have had all the Summer's food, they are the 

 fattest. 



Observe lastly, that after three or four days' fishing together, 

 your game will be very shy and wary; and you shall hardly 



