ANCIENT ANGLING AUTHORS 139 



a Pike often takes it at the first sight before it 

 gets to the bottom, and if you snatch it hastily, you 

 may chance to give him such a discouragement, that 

 you may be deprived of your expected sport : after 

 you have given it an easie motion towards you, let 

 it have the liberty of sinking again, then draw it 

 slowly and softly, for if you jerk it too quick and 

 hastily, you will not give him leave to hold upon the 

 Bait ; . . . When you have raised your Bait so high 

 towards the top, it may be within two or three foot, 

 that you can perceive it to glister ; you may then 

 comfort your self with the hopes of a Pike that may 

 rise at it, as he often does, and therefore it is not 

 prudence to bee too hasty in taking out the Bate. 



The following is, I think, the earliest description 

 of trailing : 



In some places they Troll without any Pole or 

 any playing of the Bait, as I have seen them throw 

 a Line out of a Boat, and so let it draw after 

 them as they Row forward ; but that must be a 

 careless and unsafe way, for so they may have Bites 

 and Offers so, yet it must certainly check the Fish 

 so much that he will never Pouch it ; I cannot tell 

 what Art they may have at the Snap, though it is 

 very improbable to have any as they go to work, 

 without either Pole or Stick. 



The twelfth chapter describes " How to strike Pike 

 and how to land him " : 



Now when you have a Bite, and the Fish goes 

 down the Stream with it, we are apt to conceive it 

 is a small Jack ; but on the contrary if he sails slowly 

 up with the Bait, it is a sign of a good one ; for the 

 greater sort bite more calmly and moderately than 

 the less ; for they snatch, and away with it without 



