THE COMPLETE ANGLEK. 159 



The baits good to catch, this Bream are many. 1. Paste 

 made of brown bread and honey, gentles, or the brood of 

 wasps that be young, and then not unlike gentles, and should 

 be hardened in an oven, or dried on a tile before the fire, to 

 make them tough ; or there is at the root of docks or flags, 

 or rushes in watery places, a worm not unlike a maggot, at 

 which tench will bite freely. Or he will bite at a grass- 

 hopper with his legs nipped off, in June or July, or at several 

 flies under water, which may be found on flags that grow 

 near to the water-side. I doubt not but that there be 

 many other baits that are good ; but I will turn them all 

 into this most excellent one, either for a carp or bream, in 

 any river or mere : it was given to me by a most honest and 

 excellent angler ; and hoping you will prove both, I will im- 

 part it to you. 



1. Let your bait be as big a red worm as you can find, 

 without a knot ; get a pint or quart of them in an evening 

 in garden walks, or chalky common, after a shower of rain, 

 and put them with clean moss well washed and picked, and 

 the water squeezed out of the moss as dry as you can, into 

 an earthen pot or pipkin set dry, and change the moss fresh 

 every three or four days, for three weeks or a month together ; 

 then your bait will be at the best, for it will be clear and 

 lively. 



2. Having thus prepared your baits, get your tackling 

 ready and fitted for this sport. Take three long angling rods, 

 and as many and more silk, or silk and hair lines, and as 

 many large swan or goose-quill floats. Then take a piece of 

 lead, and fasten them to the low ends of your lines ; then 

 fasten your link-hook also to the lead, and let there be about 

 a foot or ten inches between the lead and the hook ; but 

 be sure the lead be heavy enough to sink the float or quill a 

 little under the water, and not the quill to bear up the lead, 

 for the lead must lie on the ground. Note, that your link 

 next the hook may be smaller than the rest of your line, if 

 you dare adventure, for fear of taking the pike or pearch, 

 who will assuredly visit your hooks, till they be taken out, 

 as I will show you afterward, before either carp or bream 

 will come near to bite. Note also, that when the worm is 

 well baited, it will crawl up and down as far as the lead will 

 give leave, which much enticeth the fish to bite without 

 suspicion. 



3. Having thus prepared your baits, and fitted your tack- 



