294 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



of line, or if it be all out as long as your rod, it is not the worse, 

 with never above one hair, for two or three lengths next the 

 hook, and with the smallest cork, or float, and the least weight 

 of plumb you can that will but sink, and that the swiftness of 

 your stream will allow ; which also you may help, and avoid 

 the violence of the current, by angling in the returns of a 

 stream, or the eddies betwixt two streams, which also are the 

 most likely places wherein to kill a fish in a stream, either at 

 the top or bottom. 



Of grubs for a Grayling, the ash -grub, which is plump, milk- 

 white, bent round from head to tail, and exceeding tender, with 

 a red head, or the dock- worm, or grub of a pale yellow, longer, 

 lanker, and tougher than the other, with rows of feet all down 

 his belly, and a red head also, are the best ; * I say, for a 

 Grayling, because although a Trout will take both these, the 

 ash-grub especially, yet he does not do it so freely as the other, 

 and I have usually taken ten Graylings for one Trout with that 

 bait ; though, if a Trout come, I have observed that he is 

 commonly a very good one. 



These baits we usually keep in bran, in which an ash-grub 

 commonly grows tougher, and will better endure baiting ; though 

 he is yet so tender, that it will be necessary to warp in a piece 

 of a stiff hair with your arming, leaving it standing out about a 

 straw-breadth at the head of your hook, so as to keep the grub 

 either from slipping totally off, when baited, or at least down to 

 the point of the hook, by which means your arming will be left 

 wholly naked and bare, which is neither so sightly, nor so 

 likely to be taken ; though, to help that (which will, however, 

 very oft fall out) I always arm the hook I design for this bait 

 with the whitest horse hair I can choose ; which, itself, will 

 resemble and shine like that bait, and, consequently, will do 

 more good, or less harm, than an arming of any other colour. 

 These grubs are to be baited thus : The hook is to be put in 

 under the head, or chaps, of the bait, and guided down the 

 middle of the belly, without suffering it to peep out by the way, 

 (for then the ash-grub especially will issue out water and milk 

 till nothing but the skin shall remain, and the bend of the hook 

 will appear black through it,) till the point of your hook come 

 so low, that the head of your bait may rest, and stick upon the 

 hair that stands out to hold it, by which means it can neither 

 slip of itself, neither will the force of the stream nor quick 

 pulling out, upon any mistake, strip it off. 



Now, the cadis, or cod-bait (which is a sure killing bait, and, 

 for the most part, by much surer than either of the other,) may 



* These are both beetle grubs, and any beetle grub will do for this pur- 

 pose, particularly the grub of the cock-chafer, which is too common. J. R. 



