78 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



And now I shall show you how to bait your hook with a 

 worm, so as shall prevent you from much trouble, and the. 

 loss of many a hook too, when you fish for a trout with a 

 running-line,* that is to say, when you fish for him by hand 

 at the ground : I will direct you in this as plainly as I can, 

 that you may not mistake. 



Suppose it be a big lob- worm, put your hook into him 

 somewhat above the middle, and out again a little below the 

 middle ; having so done, draw your worm above the arming 

 of your hook : but note that at the entering of your hook it 

 must not be at the head-end of the worm, but at the tail-end 

 of him, that the point of your hook may come out toward 

 the head-end, and having drawn him above the arming of 

 your hook, then put the point of your hook again into the 

 very head of the worm, till it come near to the place where 

 the point of the hook first came out : and then draw back, 

 that part of the worm that was above the shank or arming 

 of your hook ; and so fish with it. And if you mean to fish 

 with two worms, then put the second on before you turn 

 back the hook's-head of the first worm : you cannot lose 

 above two or three worms before you attain to what ] 

 direct you ; and having attained it, you will find it very 

 useful, and thank me for it, for you will run on the ground 

 without tangling. 



Now for the Minnow or Penk : he is not easily found and 

 caught till March, or in April, for then he appears first in 

 the river ; nature having taught him to shelter and hide 

 himself, in the winter, in ditches that be near to the river ; 

 and there both to hide, and keep himself warm, in the mud, or 

 in the weeds, which rot not so soon as in a running river, in 

 which place if he were in winter, the distempered floods that 

 are usually in that season would suffer him to take no rest, 

 but carry him headlong to mills and weirs, to his confusion. 



* The running-line, so called because it runs along the ground, is made of 

 strong silk, which you may buy at the fishing-tackle shops (but I prefer hair, 

 as being less apt to tangle), and is thus fitted up. About ten inches from the 

 end, fasten a small cleft shot : then make a hole through a pistol or musket 

 bullet, according to the swiftness of the stream you fish in ; and put the line 

 through it, and draw the bullet down to the shot : to the end of your line 

 fasten an Indian grass, or silkworm-gut, with a large hook. Or you may, in- 

 stead of a bullet, fix four large shot, at the distance of eight inches from the 

 hook. The running-line is used for trout, grayling, and salmon-smelts,- and is 

 proper only for streams and rapid waters. See Cotton on Bottom-fishing, 

 part ii. chap. xi. H. 



