your hand you will fool him make a strong ' 
snatch; then strike, and you will rarely fail, 
if you play him well ; hut if you manage him 
not dexterously he will break your line. The 
best time for fishing is about nine in the morn- 
! ing, and the most proper season is the latter 
| part/>f May, June, July, and the beginning 
\ of August. 
2. The bleak is an eager fish, caught with 
all sorts' of worms bred on trees or plants; 
as also with flies, paste, sheep’s blood, &c. 
( Bleak may be angled for with half a score of 
I hooks at once, if they can be all fastened on : 
he will also in the evening take a natural or 
artificial fly. If the day is warm and clear, 
; there is no fiy so good for him as the small 
fly at the top of the water, which he will take 
at any time of the day, especially in tire even- 
ing. "But if the.day is cold and cloudy, gen- 
ties and caddis are the best ; about two feet 
under water. But the best method is with a 
drabble, thus: tie 8 or 10 small hooks across a 
line, two inches above one another; the big- 
gest hook the lowermost, (whereby you may 
sometimes take a better lish) and bait them 
with gentles, flies, or some small red worms, 
by which means you may take half a dozen 
or more at a time ; but when you have them 
they are not worth the catching, except as a 
bait for a pike, trout, & c. 
3. For the bream observe the following 
directions, which will also apply to carp, 
tench, or perch fishing. Procure about a 
quart of large red wrfrms : put them into fresh 
moss well washed and dried every three or 
four days, feeding them with fat mould and 
chopped fennel, and they will be thoroughly 
scoured in about three weeks. 
Let your lines be silk, and silkworm-gut 
| at bottom ; let the floats be either swan 
quills or goose-quills. Let your plumb be a 
piece of lead in the shape of a spear, with a 
small ring at the point of it ; fasten the lead to 
the line, and the line-hook to the lead ; about 
ten or twelve inches space between lead and 
hook will be enough ; and tak£ care the lead 
be heavy enough to sink the float. ^Having 
baited your hook well w ith a strong worm, the 
worm will draw the hook up and down in the 
bottom, which will provoke the bream tq bite 
the more eagerly. It will be best to fit up 
three or four rods and lines in this manner, 
and set them as will be directed, and this will 
afford you much the better sport. Find the 
exact depth of the water if possible, that your 
float may swim on its surface directly over 
the lead"; then provide the following ground- 
bait. Take about a peck of sweet gross- 
ground-malt, and having boiled it a very lit- 
tle, strain it hard through a bag, and carry it 
to the water-side where you have sounded ; 
and into the place where you suppose the fish 
resort, there throw in the malt by handfuls 
squeezed hard together, or rather mixed 
with a little clay, that the stream may not se- 
parate it before it comes to the bottom ; and 
be sure to throw it in at least a yard above 
the place where you intend the hook shall 
lie, otherwise the stream will carry it down 
too far. Do this about nine o’clock at night, 
keeping some of the malt in the bag, and 
go to the place about three the next 
morning, but approach very warily, lest 
■you should be seen by any of the fish ; for 
it is said that they have their sentinels 
watching on the top of the water, while 
FISHING. 
the rest are feeding below. Having baited 
your hook so that the worm may crawl to 
and fro, the better to allure the fish to bite, 
cast it in at the place where you find the fish 
to stay most, which is generally in the broad- 
est and deepest part ot the river, so that it 
may rest about the midst of your ground-bait. 
Cast in your second line so that it may rest 
a yard above that, and a third about a yard 
below it. Let your rods lie on the bank 
with some stones to keep them down -at the 
great ends; and then withdraw yourself, yet 
not so far but that you can have your eye 
upon all the floats :" and yylien you see one 
bitten and carried away, do not be too hasty 
to run in, but give time to the lish to tire 
himself, and then touch him gently. When 
you perceive the float sink, creep to the wa- 
ter-side, and give it as much line as you can. 
If it is a bream or carp, he will run to the 
other side. Strike him gently, and hold your 
rod at a bend a little while, but do not pull, 
for then you will spoil all; but you must tire 
them before they can be landed, for they 
are very shy. If there are any carp in the 
river, it is an even chance that you take one 
or more of them ; but if there are any pike 
or perch, they will be sure to visit the 
ground-bait, though they will not touch it, 
being drawn together by the great resort of 
the small fish, and until you remove them, it 
is in vain to think of taking the bream or 
carp. In this case, bait one of your hooks 
with a small bleak, roach, or gudgeon, about 
two feet deep from your float, with a little 
red worm at the point of your hook, and if a 
pike is there he will be sure to snap at it. 
This sport is good till nine o’clock in the 
morning, and in a gloomy day till night ; but 
do not frequent the place too much, lest the 
fish grow shy. 
4. The carp. A person who angles for 
carp, must arm himself with abundance of pa- 
tience, because of their extraordinary subtilty 
and shyness: they always choose to lie in 
the deepest places either of ponds or rivers, 
where there is but a small running stream. 
Further, observe, that they will seldom bite 
in cold weather ; and you cannot be too 
early or too late at the sport in hot weather ; 
yet if he bites you need not fear his hold, 
for he is one or those leather-mouthed fish 
that have their teeth in the throat. Neither 
must you forget, in angling for him, to have 
a strong rod and line ; and since he is so 
very wary, it will be proper to entice him, 
by "baiting the ground with a coarse paste. 
He seldom refuses the red worm in March, 
the caddis in June, or the grasshopper in 
July, April, and September. A his fish, how- 
ever, does not only delight in worms, but 
also in sweet paste, of which there is great 
variety ; the best is made of honey and sugar 
mixed .up with flour, some veal minced fine, 
and a little cotton or white wool to make it 
adhere to the hook. Some of it ought to be 
thrown into the water a few hours before you 
begin to angle ; neither will small pellets 
thrown into the water two or three days be- 
fore be worse for this purpose, especially if 
chickens’ guts, garbage, or blood mixed 
with bran and cow-dung, are also thrown in. 
If you lish with gentles, anoint them with 
honey'. Honey and crumbs of wheat-bread, 
mixed together, make also a very good paste; 
or pellets of wheat-bread alone will answer 
very well. 
73 0 
In taking a carp either in a pond or river, 
if the angler intends to add profit to his plea- 
sure, he most take a peck of ale-grains, and 
a good quantity of any blood to mix with the 
grains; baiting the ground with it where be 
intends to angle. r l his food will wonderfully 
attract the scale-fish, as carp, tench, roach, 
dace, and bream. Let him angle in a morn- 
ing, plumbing his ground, and angling for 
carp with a strong line: the bait must be 
either paste or a knotted red .worm ; and by 
this means lie will have sport enough. 
5. The pike is caught either by a live 
bait, which is cruel, or by a trowl, which is 
li dead or artificial fish, frog, or mouse, fasten- 
ed to a double hook with some lead lo sink 
it, and gently played by the hand of the 
angler so as to imitate life. There are two 
ways of trowl ing, at snap or at gorge ; at 
snap, the angler strikes the moment the fish 
springs at the bait ; at gorge he suffers him 
to carry it to his hole, giving it out line as 
may be required, and swallow it, and strikes 
him in about ten minutes. 
6. Salmon and trout fishing are nearly 
alike. The trout is caught with a worm, a 
minnow, or a fly ; but the only elegant 
sport of this kind is that with the artificial 
fiy, which will be afterwards described. 
7. The gudgeon is a small fish, of very de- 
licious taste. It spawns three of four times 
in the summer season, and feeds in streams* 
slighting all kinds of flies, but is easily taken 
with a small red worm, fishing near the 
ground; and being a leather-mouthed fish, 
will not easily get off the hook when struck. 
The gudgeon may be either fished with a float, 
the hook being on the ground, or by hand, 
with a running line on the ground without 
cork or float. H e will bite well at wasps, gen- 
tles, andcadworms; and a person may fish 
with two or three hooks at the same time. 
Before you angle for gudgeons, stir up the 
sand or gravel with a long pole, which will 
make them gather to the place, and bite the 
faster. 
8. The tench is a fine fresh-water fish, hav- 
ing very small scales, but large smooth fins, 
with a red circle about the eyes, and a little 
barb hanging at each corner of the mouth. It 
takes more delight among weeds in ponds 
than in clear rivers, and loves to feed in foul 
water. Ilis slime is said to have a healing 
quality for wounded fish, upon which lie is 
called" the fishes’ physician. M hen carp, pike, 
kc. are hurt, it is said they find relief by rub- 
bing themselves against the tench. The sea- 
son for catching this fish is June, July, and 
August, very early and late, or even all 
night, in the still part of the rivers. The 
bait is a large red worm, at which he bites 
eagerly, especially if dipped in tar. He de- 
lights in all sorts of paste made of strong- 
scented oils, or tar, or a paste of brown-bread 
and honey; no/does he refuse the cadworm, 
lobworm, fiagworm, green gentles, cod bait, 
or soft boiled bread-grain. 
9. Smelts are caught at high-tide during 
the summer and autumn months, with a 
hook and line, about Limchouse and Poplar. 
They fish with about ten hooks on the same 
line, at different depths, each baited with a 
sm 1 piece of smelt, and sometimes two or 
three are caught at once. 
5 A 2 
