292 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



The first, with a line about half the length of the rod, a good 

 weighty plumb, and three hairs next the hook, which we call a 

 running line, and with one large brandling, or a dew- worm of a 

 moderate size, or two small ones of the first, or any other sort 

 proper for a Trout, of which my father Walton has already given 

 you the names, and saved me a labour, or, indeed, almost any 

 worm whatever ; for if a Trout be in the humour to bite, it must 

 be such a worm as I never yet saw, that he will refuse ; and if 

 you fish with two, you are then to bait your hook thus : You 

 are, first, to run the point of your hook in at the very head of 

 your first worm, and so down through his body till it be past 

 the knot, and then let it out, and strip the worm above the 

 arming, that you may not bruise it with your fingers, till you 

 have put on the other, by running the point of the hook in 

 below the knot, and upwards through his body towards his head, 

 till it be but just covered with the head; which being done, 

 you are then to slip the first worm down over the arming again, 

 till the knots of both worms meet together. 



The second way of angling by hand, and with a running line, 

 is with a line something longer than the former, and with tackle 

 made after this same manner. At the utmost extremity of your 

 line, where the hook is always placed in all other ways of 

 angling, you are to have a large pistol or carbine bullet, into 

 which the end of your line is to be fastened with a peg or pin, 

 even and close with the bullet ; and, about half a foot above 

 that, a branch of line, of two or three handfuls long, or more 

 for a swift stream, with a hook at the end thereof, baited with 

 some of the forenamed worms, and, another, half a foot above 

 that, another armed and baited after the same manner, but with 

 another sort of worm, without any lead at all above : by which 

 means you will always certainly find the true bottom in all 

 depths ; which with the plumbs upon your line above you can 

 never do, but that your bait must always drag whilst you are 

 sounding, (which in this way of angling must be continually,) 

 by which means you are like to have more trouble, and perad- 

 venture worse success. And both these ways of angling at the 

 bottom are most proper for a dark and muddy water, by reason 

 that, in such a condition of the stream, a man may stand as near 

 as he will, and neither his own shadow, nor the roundness of 

 his tackle will hinder his sport. 



The third way of angling by the hand with a ground-bait, 

 and by much the best of all other, is, with a line full as long, or 

 a yard and a half longer, than your rod ; with no more than one 

 hair next the hook, and for two or three lengths above it; and 

 no more than one small pellet of shot for your plumb ; your 

 hook, little ; your worms, of the smaller brandlings, very well 

 scoured ; and only one upon your hook at a time, which is thus 





