l68 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PAftf 1. 



times at my Bream-hooks, and sometimes he hath had the luck 

 to share my line, may be thus : 



Take a small Bleak, or Roach, or Gudgeon, and bait it ; and 

 set it alive among your rods two foot deep from the cork, with 

 a little red-worm on the point of the hook ; then take a few 

 crumbs of white bread, or some of the ground-bait, and sprinkle 

 it gently amongst your rods. If Mr. Pike be there, then the 

 little fish will skip out of the water at his appearance, but the 

 live-set bait is sure to be taken. 



Thus continue your sport from four in the morning till eight, 

 and if it be a gloomy, windy day, they will bite all day long. 

 But this is too long to stand to your rods at one place, and it 

 will spoil your evening sport that day, which is this. 



About four of the clock in the afternoon repair to your baited 

 place ; and as soon as you come to the water-side, cast in one 

 half of the rest of your ground-bait, and stand off: then, whilst 

 the fish are gathering together, for there they will most certainly 

 come for their supper, you may take a pipe of tobacco ; and 

 then in with your three rods as in the morning. You will find 

 excellent sport that evening till eight of the clock : then cast in 

 the residue of your ground-bait, and next morning by four of 

 the clock visit them again for four hours, which is the best sport 

 of all ; and after that, let them rest till you and your friends 

 have a mind to more sport. 



From St. James's-tide until Bartholomew-tide is the best ; 

 when they have had all the summer's food, they are the fat- 

 test. 



Observe lastly, that after three or four days' fishing together, 

 your game will be very shy and wary, and you shall hardly get 

 above a bite or two at a baiting ; then your only way is to de- 

 sist from your sport about two or three days : and in the mean 

 time, on the place you late baited, and again intend to bait, 

 you shall take a turf of green but short grass, as big or bigger 

 than a round trencher ; to the top of this turf, on the green 



