348 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART II. 



disengage himself from so great a hook as that we bait with 

 a minnow, and so deep bearded as those hooks commonly 

 are, when I have seen by the fore-nam'd accidents, or the 

 slipping of a knot in the upper part of the line, by sudden 

 and hard striking, that though the line has immediately 

 been recovered, almost before it could be all drawn into 

 the water, the fish clear'd and gone in a moment. And yet, 

 to justify what he says, I have sometimes known a Trout, 

 having carried away a whole line, found dead three or 

 four days after, with the hook fast sticking in him; but 

 then it is to be supposed he had gorged it, which a Trout 

 will do, if you be not too quick with him when he comes at 

 a minnow, as sure and much sooner than a Pike : and I 

 myself have also, once or twice in my life, taken the same 

 fish, with my own rly sticking in his chaps, that he had 

 taken from me the day before, by the slipping of a hook in 

 the arming. But I am very confident a Trout will not be 

 troubled two hours with any hook that has so much as one 

 handful of line left behind with it, or that is not struck 

 through a bone, if it be in any part of his mouth only: nay, 

 I do certainly know that a Trout, so soon as ever he feels 

 himself pricked, if he carries away the hook, goes imme- 

 diately to the bottom, and will there root, like a hog upon 

 the gravel, till he either rub out or break the hook in the 

 middle. And so much for this sort of angling in the mid- 

 dle for a Trout. 



The second way of angling in the middle is with a worm, 

 grub, cadis, or any other ground-bait, for a Grayling; 

 and that is with a cork, and a foot from the bottom, a 

 Grayling taking it much better there than at the bottom, 

 as has been said before; and this always in a clear water, 

 and with the finest tackle. 



To which we may also, and with very good reason, add 

 the third way of angling by hand with a ground-bait; as a 

 third way of fishing in the middle, which is common to 



