200 TUB COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 



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 it 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 feeling it betwixt your finger and thumb ; and when it 

 is soft, then pat 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 

 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 off the husk on the cloven side, as I directed you ; 

 and then cut off a very little of the other end, that so your 

 hook may enter; and if your hook be small and good, you 

 will find this to be a very choice bait, either for winter or 

 summer, you sometimes casting a little of it into the place 

 where your float swims. 



And to take the Roach and Dace, a good bait is the 

 young brood of wasps or bees, if you dip their heads in 

 blood ; especially good for Bream, if they be baked, or 

 hardened in their husks in an oven, after the bread is 

 taken out of it ; or hardened on a fire-shovel : and so also 

 is the thick blood of sheep being half dried on a trencher, 

 that so you may cut it into such pieces as may best fit 

 the size of your hook ; and a little salt keeps it from grow- 

 ing black, and makes it not the worse, but better : this is 

 taken to be a choice bait, if rightly ordered. 



There be several oils of a strong smell that I have been 

 told of, and to be excellent to tempt fish to bite, of which 

 I could say much : but I remember I once carried a email 



