68 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part I. 



Well, scholar, you see what pains I have taken to recover the 

 lost credit of the poor despised Chub. And now I will give you 

 some rules how to catch him : and I am glad to enter you into 

 the art of fishing by catching a Chub, for there is no fish better 

 to enter a young Angler, he is so easily caught, but then it must 

 be this particular way : — - 



Go to the same hole in which I caught my Chub, where, in 

 most hot days, you will find a dozen or twenty Chevens floating 

 near the top of the water. Get two or three grasshoppers, as you 

 go over the meadow : and get secretly behind the tree, and stand 

 as free from motion as is possible. Then put a grasshopper on 

 your hook, and let your hook hang a quarter of a yard short of 

 the water, to which end you must rest your rod on some bough 

 of the tree. But it is likely the Chubs wiU sink down towards 

 the bottom of the water, at the first shadow of your rod (for Chub 

 is the fearfuUest of fishes), and will do so if but a bird flies over him 

 and makes the least shadow on the water ; but they will presently 

 rise up to the top again, and there lie soaring till some shadow 

 affrights them again. I say, when they lie upon the top of the 

 water, look out the best Chub, which you, setting yourself in a fit 

 place, may very easily see, and move your rod, as softly as a snail 

 moves, to that Chub you intend to catch ; let your bait fall gently ' 

 upon the water three or four inches before him, and he will 

 infallibly take the bait. And you will be as sure to catch him ; 

 for he is one of the leather-mouthed fishes, of which a hook does 

 scarce ever lose its hold ; and therefoi-e give him play enough 

 before you offer to take him out of the water. Go your way. 

 presently ; take my rod, and do as I bid you ; and I will sit 

 down and mend my tackling till you return back. 



Venator. Truly, -my loving master, you have offered me as 

 fair as I could wish. I'll go and observe your directions. 



Look you, master, what I have done, that which joys my heart, 

 caught just such another Chub as yours was. 



PiSCATOR. Marry, and I am glad of it : I am like to have a 

 towardly scholar of you. I now see, that with advice and practice, 

 you will make an Angler in a short time. Have but a love to it ; 

 and I'll warrant you. 



Venator. But, master ! what if I could not have found a 

 grasshopper ? 



PiSCATOR. Then I may tell you. That a black snail, with his 

 belly slit to show his white, or a piece of soft cheese, will usually 

 do as well. Nay, sometimes a worm, or any kind of fly, as the ant- 



