ANCIENT ANGLING AUTHORS 223 



and therefore they may be truly deemed, the standard 

 for artificial Fly-Fishing." 



I have always considered that live baiting for pike 

 was a pot-hunting and unsportsmanlike method of 

 fishing. I was therefore pleased to find that Best 

 apparently shared this view : 



I shall now ' communicate to the reader, a method 

 which I have taken more pikes and Jacks with, than 

 any other way. The hook which you must use, is to 

 be the first hook that I have mentioned, with this 

 exception only, that the lead of a conical figure must 

 be taken away, then before you fix the swivel on the 

 bottom of the line, put on a cork-float that will swim 

 a gudgeon, then put on your swivel, and fix your 

 hook and gimp to it : put a swan shot on your gimp, 

 to make your float cock a little, and of such a weight, 

 that when the hook is baited with the gudgeon it 

 may do so properly. Your gudgeons must be kept 

 alive in a tin kettle : take one, and stick the hook 

 either through his upper lip, or back fin, and throw 

 him into the likely haunts before mentioned, 

 swimming at mid-water. When the pike takes it, 

 let him run a little, as at the snap, and then strike 

 him. In this method of pike fishing, you may take 

 three kinds of fish, viz. pikes, pearch and chubs. It 

 is so murdering a way that the generous angler 

 should never use it, except he wants a few fish to 

 present his friends with. 



The second part of the book has a separate title- 

 page, The Compleat F ly- Fisher ; or^ Every Man His 

 Own Fly Maker. . . . 



In the introductory chapter to this second part the 

 author writes : 



Because the same flies differ very much both in 



