204 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART L 



some corner over a pot or barrel, half full of dry clay ; and as 

 the gentles grow big, they will fall into the barrel, and scour 

 themselves, and be always ready for use whensoever you incline 

 to fish ; and these gentles may be thus created till after Mich- 

 aelmas. But if you desire to keep gentles to fish with all the 

 year, then get a dead cat or a kite, and let it be fly-blown ; and 

 when the gentles begin to be alive and to stir, then bury it 

 and them in soft, moist earth, but as free from frost as you 

 can, and these you may dig up at any time when you intend 

 to use them : these will last till March, and about that time 

 turn to be flies. 



But if you be nice to foul your fingers, which good Anglers 

 seldom are, then take this bait : get a handful of well-made malt, 

 and put it into a dish of water, and then wash and rub it be- 

 twixt your hands till you make it clean, and as free from husks 

 as you can ; then put that water from it, and put a small quan- 

 tity of fresh water to it, and set it in something that is fit for 

 that purpose over the fire, where it is not to boil apace, but 

 leisurely and very softly, until it become somewhat soft, which 

 you may try by feeling it betwixt your finger and thumb ; and 

 when it is soft, then put your water from it : and then take a 

 sharp knife, and, turning the sprout-end of the corn upward, 

 with the point of your knife take the back part of the husk off 

 from it, and yet leaving a kind of inward husk on the corn, or 

 else it is marred ; and then cut off that sprouted end, I mean a 

 little of it, that the white may appear, and so pull off the husk 

 on the cloven side, as I directed you ; and then cutting off a 

 very little of the other end, that so your hook may enter ; and, 

 if your hook be small and good, you will find this to be a very 

 choice bait, either for winter or summer, you sometimes casting 

 a little of it into the place where your float swims. 



And to take the Roach and Dace, a good bait is the young 

 prood of wasps or bees, if you dip their heads in blood ; espe- 

 cially good for Bream, if they be baked or hardened in their husks 

 in an oven, after the bread is taken out of it ; or hardened on a 



