310 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



find any advantage by them ; and can scarce believe there is 

 anything to be done that way ; though I must tell you, I have 

 seen some men who I thought went to work no more arti- 

 ficially than I, and have yet, with the same kind of worms 

 I had, in my own sight taken five, and sometimes ten to one. 

 But we'll let that business alone, if you please ; and because 

 we have time enough, and that 1 would deliver you from the 

 trouble of any more lectures, I will, if you please, proceed to 

 the last way of angling for a trout or grayling, which is in the 

 middle ; after which I shall have no more to trouble you with. 

 VIAT. 'Tis no trouble, sir, but the greatest satisfaction that 

 can be : and I attend you. 



[In tins chapter Cotton proves himself every bit as good a bottom- 

 fisher as his so-called master and father, Walton. ED.] ] 



CHAPTER XII. 



Pise. Angling in the middle, then, for a trout or grayling, 

 is of two sorts ; with a penk or minnow for a trout ; or with 

 a worm, grub, or cadis, for a grayling. 



For the first. It is with a minnow, half a foot or a foot 

 within the superficies of the water. And as to the rest that 

 concerns this sort of angling, I shall wholly refer you to Mr. 

 Walton's directions, \rho is undoubtedly the best angler with 

 a minnow in England ; only, in plain truth, I do not approve 

 of those baits he keeps in salt, unless where the living ones 

 are not possibly to be had (though I know he frequently kills 

 with them, and peradventure, more than with any other ; 

 nay, I have seen him refuse a living one for one of them) ; 

 and much less of his artificial one; for though we do it with 

 a counterfeit fly, methinks it should hardly be expected that 

 a man should deceive a fish with a counterfeit fish.* Which 



* Counterfeit fish, or artificial fish-baits, are now so well made, that in 

 spinning I frequently use them in preference to the natural fish-bait ; and in 

 slightly discoloured water I always prefer them. They spin better, and will 

 take a great many fish before they are injured, which is a great convenience, 

 obviating the necessity of constantly, after a run or a kill, putting on a fresh 

 bait, which you must do if you spin with the natural fish-bait. The best 

 artificial fish-baits are made by Mr. Flinn, of Worcester. ED. 



