HOW TO FISH FOR TROUT. l8l 



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

 you are to fish with in 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 docs 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 any- 

 thing 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 



