70 BEST'S ART OF ANGLING. 



are much better than those bred in ponds. They 

 spawn in May, and will bite all day long> if the 

 weather is not in either of the extremes, on the 

 top of the water. Their haunts are chiefly in 

 sandy or gravelly deep waters ; delighting to be 

 in the shade. In April their baits are cads and 

 worms. In summer, white snails or files. In 

 Autumn, a paste made of fine white bread, 

 moulded in your hands with water, and a little 

 cotton added to it, to keep it from washing off 

 the hook. In winter, gentles are the best bait for 

 him j you should fish with a line made of single 

 hairs, a quill float, and the lead about a foot from 

 the hook ; and when you angle for roach always 

 cast in a ground bait, made of bran, clay, and 

 breadj incorporated, together*; and when you 

 angle with tender baits,, always strike at the least 

 nibble that is apparent. Sprouded malt, the 

 young Iroodof wasps, lees dipt in blood, and the 

 iried llovd of sheep, are nostrums in this kind of 

 angling. 



Bread being now, at so extravagant a price, to 

 use it as a ground-bait, when our poor stand so 

 much in need of it, would be presumptuous and 

 wicked. Therefore let the considerate angler con- 

 tent himself with moulding bran and clayey soil 

 well together, and throw it in, in small balls, 

 about the size of a nonpareil. 



The largest roach in this kingdom are taken in 

 the Thames, where many have been caught of two 

 pounds and a half weight; but roach of any size 

 are hard to be taken without a boat. 



The people who live in the fishing towns along 

 the banks of the Thames, have a method or 



* Coarse bran and flour make an excellent ground-bait, but 

 they must not be too much moulded. 



