78 ANGLING 



That from May to parch October 

 Scarce a minnow can keep sober, 

 Be your fish in open thrust, 

 And your own red-paste the crust. 

 Breake thy rod, etc. etc. 



Hookes and lines of larger sizes, 

 Souch as the tyrant that troules devises. 

 Fishers nere believe his fable, 

 "What he calls a line is a cable ; 

 That's a knave of endless rancour. 

 Who for a hooke doth cast an anchor. 

 Breake thy rod, etc. etc. 



But of all men he is the cheater, 

 Who with small fish takes up the greater : 

 He makes carpes without all dudgeon, 

 Makes a Jonas of a gudgeon ; 

 Cruell man that stayes on gravel!. 

 Fish that great with fish doth travel. 

 Breake thy rod, etc. etc." 



A troUing-rod, as we have already mentioned, should 

 be pretty long and stiff, with, a line a shade stronger 

 than that used for the artificial fly. The best minnows 

 for the purpose are those of a moderate size, their bellies 

 and sides being of a pearly whiteness. If the angler 

 has conveniences, they are all the better for being kept 

 a few days in clear, sweet, soft water : this process 

 renders them firmer and brighter. 



There are numerous modes of baiting with the 

 minnow, but they all resemble each other so nearly 

 that a minute description of each is quite unnecessary. 

 Some troUers employ six or seven hooks, and others 

 only two or three. This is, in a great measure, a matter 

 of taste and fancy. As a general rule, however, it may 

 safely be determined, that in those rivers of Great 

 Britain and Ireland which run deep with a swift 

 current, have a muddy, weedy bottom, and whose sides 

 are covered with brushwood, that kind of troUiug-taokle 

 is the best which is the strongest, and mounts the 

 greatest number of hooks. It is only by jerking and 

 holding the fish tight by the head that it is possible to 

 catch it for if you allow him to run in such situations, 



