100 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



. Yes, good master, I pray let it be so. 



Pise. Well, scholar, now we are sat down and are at ease, 

 I shall tell you a little more of trout-fishing, before I speak 

 of salmon, which I purpose shall be next, and then of the pike 

 or luce. 



You are to know there is night as well as day-fishing for 

 a trout, and that in the night the best trouts come out of their 

 holes : and "the manner of taking them is, on the top of the 

 water, with a great lob or garden- worm, or rather two, which 

 you are to fish within a place where the waters run somewhat 

 quietly, for in a stream the bait will not be so well discerned. 

 I say, in a quiet or dead place, near to some swift : there 

 draw your bait over the top of the water, to and fro ; and if 

 there be a good trout in the hole, he will take it, especially 

 if the night be dark ; for then he is bold, and lies near the top 

 of the water, watching the motion of any frog, or water- 

 rat, or mouse that swims between him and the sky : these he 

 hunts after if he sees the water but wrinkle or move in one of 

 these dead holes, where these great old trouts usually lie near 

 to their holds; for you are to note, that the great old trout is 

 both subtle and fearful, and lies close all day, and does not 

 usually stir out of his hold, but lies in it as close in the day 

 as the timorous hare does in her form, for the chief feeding 

 of either is seldom in the day, but usually in the night, and 

 then the great trout feeds very boldly. 



And you must fish for him -with a strong line, and not a 

 little hook ; and let him have time to gorge your hook, for he 

 does not usually forsake it, as he oft will in the day-fishing. 

 And if the night be not dark, then fish so with an artificial fly 

 of a light colour, and at the snap : nay, he will sometimes 

 rise at a dead mouse, or a piece of cloth, or anything that 

 seems to swim across the water, or to be in motion. This is a 

 choice way, but I have not often used it, because it is void of 

 the pleasures that such days as these, that we two now enjoy, 

 afford an angler. 



And you are to know, that in Hampshire, which I think 

 exceeds all England for swift, shallow, clear, pleasant brooks, 

 and store of trouts, they used to catch trouts in the night, by 

 the light of a torch or straw, which, when they have dis- 

 covered, they strike with a trout-spear, or other ways. This 

 kind of way they catch very many ; but I would not believe it 

 till I was an eye-witness of it, nor do I like it now I have 

 seen it. 



