162 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



then the little fish will skip out of the water at his appear- 

 ance, but the live-set bait is sure to be taken. 



Thus continue your sport from four in the morning till 

 eight, and if it be a gloomy windy day, they will bite all day 

 long. But this is too long to stand to your rods at one place, 

 and it will spoil your evening sport that day, which is this : 



About four of the clock in the afternoon, repair to your 

 baited place ; and as soon as you come to the water-side, cast 

 in one half of the rest of your ground-bait, and stand off : 

 then whilst the fish are gathering together, for there they will 

 most certainly come for their supper, you may take a pipe of 

 tobacco ; and then in with your three rods, as in the morning : 

 you will find excellent sport that evening, till eight of the 

 clock ; then cast in the residue of your ground-bait, and next 

 morning by four of the clock visit them again for four hours, 

 which is the best sport of all ; and after that, let them rest 

 till you and your friends have a mind to more sport. 



From St. James's-tide until Bartholomew-tide is the best ; 

 when they have had all the summer's food, they are the fattest. 



Observe lastly, that after three or four days' fishing together 

 your game will be very shy and wary, and you shall hardly 

 get above a bite or two at a baiting ; then your only way is 

 to desist from your sport about two or three days ; and in 

 the meantime, on the place you late baited, and again intend 

 to bait, you shall take a tuft of green but short grass, as big 

 or bigger than a round trencher ; to the top of this turf, on 

 the green side, you shall with a needle and green thread, 

 fasten one by one as many little red worms as will near 

 cover all the turf ; then take a round board or trencher, 

 make a hole in the middle thereof, and through the turf, 

 placed on the board or trencher, with a string or cord 

 as long as is fitting, tied to a pole, let it down to the bottom 

 of the water, for the fish to feed upon without disturbance 

 about two or three days ; and after that you have drawn it 

 away, you may fall to and enjoy your former recrea- 

 tion."' B.A. 



* The haunts of the bream, a fish which the angler seldom meets with, are 

 the deepest and broadest parts of gentle, soft streams, with sandy, clayey 

 bottoms : and the broadest and most quiet places of ponds, and where there 

 are weeds. They spawn about the beginning of July ; a little before which 

 time they are best in season, though some think them best in September. The 

 baits for the bream are red worms, small lob or marsh worms, gentles, and 

 grasshoppers. In general they are to be fished for as carp. H. 



