BRITISH SPORT PAST AND PRESENT 



he and Cotton subsequently collaborated in producing the fifth 

 edition of the Compleat Angler. Venables is the most reliable 

 authority on seventeenth-century salmon fishing. He killed 

 salmon in Irish rivers and fished in various counties of England. 

 Hear him on the subject : — 



' The Salmon taketh the artificial flic very well : but you 

 must use a Trowl (as for the pike) or he, being a strong Fish 

 will hazard your Line except you give him length : his Flies 

 must be much larger than you use for other Fish, the Wings 

 very long (two or four) behind one another, with very long 

 tails : his chiefest Ground bait a great garden or lob worm ; 

 he spawneth about Michaelmas. When you strike him he 

 usually falleth to plunge and leap but doth not ordinarily 

 endeavour to run to the end of the Line as the Trout will ; 

 young Salmons under a quarter of a yard long have tender 

 mouths so as they are apt to break their hold, to obviate which 

 inconvenience I have known some that use to fasten two hooks 

 together in like manner as some double Pike hooks lately used 

 in Trowling are made, not with the points opposite to one 

 another but about a quarter of a circle from each other, and on 

 them they make their Flie, that if one hook break hold the 

 other may not fail.' 



Though he found salmon took the fly very well, the General 

 did not disdain other lures ; it is something of a shock indeed 

 to find him recommend ground-baiting for ' Salmon, Trout, 

 Umber, (Grayling), etc.,' as though the King of sporting fish 

 were a gudgeon ! He prescribes a paste made of fine clay, 

 barley, malt ground, mixed with water, milk, or preferably, 

 blood, the whole flavoured with one of the ' strong scented 

 oyls, or Gum of Ivy.' Odorous or malodorous compounds for 

 anointing worms and pastes were much in favour among 

 anglers of old time, and he who discovered anything particu- 

 larly killing kept it a profound secret. Here is another hint 

 from the General's note-book : ' The eyes of those fishes you 

 catch, if you pull them out and use them on the Hook, are an 

 excellent Bait for most sort of fish.' 



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