

136 TUB COMPLETE ANGLER- PART I. 



or to have a haunt; and then wind your line on any 

 forked stick, all your line, except half a yard of it or 

 rather more; and split that forked stick, with such a 

 nick or notch at one end of it as may keep the line from 

 any more of it ravelling from about the stick than so 

 much of it as you intend. And choose your forked 

 stick to be of that bigness as may keep the fish or frog 

 from pulling the forked stick under the water till the 

 Pike bites; and then the Pike having pulled the line 

 forth of the cleft or nick of that stick in which it was 

 gently fastened, he will have line enough to go to his 

 hold and pouch the bait. And if you would have this 

 ledger-bait to keep at a fixt place undisturbed by wind 

 or other accidents which may drive it to the shore-side, 

 (for you are to note, that it is likeliest to catch a Pike in 

 the midst of the water,) then hang a small plummet of 

 lead, a stone, or. piece of tile, or a turf, in a string, and 

 cast it into the water with the forked stick to hang upon 

 the ground, to be a kind of anchor to keep the forked 

 stick from moving out of your intended place till the 

 Pike come: this I take to be a very good way to use so 

 many ledger-baits as you intend to make trial of. 



Or if you bait your hooks thus with live fish or frogs, 

 and in a windy day, fasten them thus to a bough or bundle 

 of straw, and by the help of that wind can get them to 

 move cross a pond or mere, you are like to stand still 

 on the shore and see sport presently, if there be any store 

 of Pikes. Or these live baits may make sport, being 

 tied about the body or wings of a goose or duck, and 

 she chaced over a .pond. 1 And the like may be done 



Cl) A rod twtlve feet long, and a ring of wire, 

 A winder and barrel, will help thy desire 

 In killing a Pike : bat the forked stick , 

 With a slit and a bladder; and that other fine trick, 

 Which our artists call snap, with a goose or a duck ; 

 Will kill two for one, if you have any luck : 



