282 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



And this eel, of which I have said so much to you, may 

 be caught with divers kinds of baits ; as namely, with 

 powdered beef, with a lob or garden worm, with a minnow, 

 or gut of a hen, chicken, or the guts of any fish, or with 

 almost anything, for he is a greedy fish : f but the eel may 

 be caught especially with a little, a very little lamprey, which 

 some call a pride, and may in the hot months be found 

 many of them in the river Thames, and in many mud-heaps 

 in other rivers, yea, almost as usually as one finds worms in 

 a dunghill. 



Next note, that the eel seldom stirs in the day, but then 

 hides himself; and therefore he is usually caught by night, 

 with one of these baits of which I have spoken ; and may 

 be then caught by laying hooks, which you are to fasten to 

 the bank, or twigs of a tree ; or by throwing a string across 

 the stream with many hooks at it, and those baited with the 

 aforesaid baits, and a clod, or plummet, or stone, thrown 

 into the river with this line, that so you may in the morning 

 find it near to some fixed place ; and then take it up with 

 a drag-hook, or otherwise. But these things are indeed too 

 common to be spoken of; and an hour's fishing with an 

 angler will teach you better, both for these and many other 

 common things in the practical part of angling, than a week's 

 discourse. I shall therefore conclude this direction for 

 taking the eel, by telling you, that in a warm day in summer 

 I have taken many a good eel by snigling, and have been 

 much pleased with that sport. 



And because you, that are but a young angler, know not 

 what snigling is, I will now teach it to you. You remember, 

 I told you, that eels do not usually stir in the day-time ; for 

 then they hide themselves under some covert ; or unde 





