OBSERVATIONS OF ROACH AND DACE 



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 them- 

 selves, and be always ready for use whensoever you incline to 

 fish ; and these gentles may be thus created till after Michael- 

 mas. 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 be nice to foul your fingers, which good Anglers 

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

 malt, and put it 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, I mean a 

 little of it, that the white may appear, and so pull off the husk 

 on the cloven side, as I directed you, and then cutting off a very 

 little of the other end, that so your hook may enter ; and if your 

 hook be small and good, you will find this to be a very choice 

 bait, either for Winter or Summer, you sometimes casting a 

 little of it into the place where your float swims. 



And to take the Roach and Dace, a good bait is the young 

 brood of wasps or bees, if you dip their heads in blood; 

 especially good for Bream, if they be baked or hardened in 

 their husks, in an oven, after the bread is taken out of it ; or 

 hardened on a fire-shovel ; and so also is the thick blood of 

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