CHAP. XVII.] THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 203 



earth over it, and then so many as are put into the glass with- 

 out bruising will live there a month or more, and be always in 

 a readiness for you to fish with : but if you would have them 

 keep longer, then get any great earthen pot, or barrel of three 

 or four gallons, which is better, then wash your barrel with 

 water and honey ; and having put into it a quantity of earth 

 and grass-roots, then put in your flies, and cover it, and they 

 will live a quarter of a year. These, in any stream and clear 

 water, are a deadly bait for Roach or Dace, or for a Chub ; 

 and your rule is, to fish not less than a handful from the bot- 

 tom. 



I shall next tell you a winter-bait for a Roach, a Dace, or 

 Chub ; and it is choicely good. About All-hallontide, and so 

 till frost comes, when you see men ploughing up heath-ground, 

 or sandy ground, or greenswards, then follow the plough, and 

 you shall find a white worm as big as two maggots, and it hath 

 a red head ; you may observe in what ground most are, for 

 there the crows will be very watchful and follow the plough very 

 close ; it is all soft, and full of whitish guts : a worm that is in 

 Norfolk, and some other counties, called a Grub, and is bred 

 of the spawn or eggs of a beetle, which she leaves in holes that 

 she digs in the ground under cow or horse dung, and there 

 rests all winter, and in March or April comes to be, first a red, 

 and then a black beetle : gather a thousand or two of these, 

 and put them, with a peck or two of their own earth, into some 

 tub or firkin, and cover and keep them so warm that the frost 

 or cold air or winds kill them not : these you may keep all 

 winter, and kill fish with them at any time ; and if you put 

 some of them into a little earth and honey a day before you 

 use them, you will find them an excellent bait for Bream, Carp, 

 or indeed for almost any fish. 



And after this manner you may also keep gentles all winter, 

 which are a good bait then, and much the better for being 

 lively and tough. Or you may breed and keep gentles thus : 

 take a piece of beast's liver, and with a cross-stick hang it in 



