GENTLES OR MAGGOTS, TO BREED, &C. 31 



called ruff-coats or straw-worms. The next is a 

 green sort, found in pits, ponds, or ditches, in 

 March, coining in before the yellow ones, which 

 are not to be fished with till April, and in July 

 they go out of season : the last sort is to be used 

 in the month of August. When you take them 

 to fish with, carry them in woollen bags, for the 

 air kills them. 



These are excellent baits for all kinds of fish; 

 particularly a large chub. 



GEXTLES OR MAGGOTS, TO BREED JXD PRESERVE. 



Take a piece of beast's liver, scotch it with a 

 knife, and with a cross stick, hung it in some cor- 

 ner, over a pot or barrel half full of dry, crumbled 

 clay, and bran or sand : as the gentles grow big, 

 they will fall into the barrel and scour them- 

 selves, and be always ready for use whenever you 

 are inclined to fish ; and* these gentles may be 

 thus created till after Michaelmas. But if you 

 elesire to keep gentles all the year, then get a dead 

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

 gentles begin to be alive and stir, then bury it 

 and them in moist or soft earth, but as free from 

 frost as you can, and these you may dig up at any 

 time when you want to use them ;. these will last 

 to March, and about that time turn into flies. 



Gentles are not only the most universal but 

 also the most alluring bait, and an angler should 

 never go out a fishing without taking some with 

 him. Trouts have been taken with them when 

 they have refused all kinds of worms and artifi- 

 cial" flies : to every kind offish they are an accep- 

 table bait, pikes and salmons excepted; but I do 

 not doubt they would be so to them, were it 



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