ROACH AND DACE. 3 1/ 



And after this manner you may also keep gentles all 

 winter ; which are a good bait then, and much the better 

 for being lively and tough. Or you may breed and keep 

 gentles thus : take a piece of beast's liver, and with a cross 

 stick hang it in some corner, over a pot or barrel half full 

 of dry clay ; and as the gentles grow big, they will fall into 

 the barrel and scour themselves, and be always ready for 

 use whensoever you incline to fish ; and these gentles may 

 be thus created till after Michaelmas. But if you desire to 

 keep gentles to fish with all the year, then get a dead cat, 

 or a kite, and let it be fly-blown ; and when the gentles 

 begin to be alive and to stir, then bury it and them in soft 

 moist earth, but as free from frost as you can ; and these 

 you may dig up at any time when you intend to use them : 

 these will last till March, and about that time turn to be flies. 



But if you will be nice to foul your fingers, which good 

 anglers seldom are, then take this bait : get a handful of 

 well-made malt, and put into a dish of water ; and then 

 wash and rub it betwixt your hands till you make it clean, 

 and as free from husks as you can ; then put that water 

 from it, and put a small quantity of fresh water to it, and 

 set it in something that is fit for that purpose, over the fire, 

 where it is not to boil apace, but leisurely and very softly, 

 until it become somewhat soft, which you may try by feel- 

 ing it betwixt your finger and thumb ; and when it is soft, 

 then put your water from it, and then take a sharp knife, 

 and turning the sprout end of the corn upward, with the 

 point of your knife take the back part of the husk off from 

 it, and yet leaving a kind of inward husk on the corn, or 

 else it is marr'd ; and then cut off that sprouted end, I 

 mean a little of it, that the white may appear, and so pull 



