THE CARP OR TENCH. 
157 
longer, before you undertake your trial of skill with the an- 
gle-rod; and doubtless, if it be thrown into the water a day 
or two before, at several times, in small pellets, you are the 
likeliest, when you fish for carp, to attain your desired sport. 
li And if you fish for carp with gentles, then put upon 
your book a small piece of scarlet, the sixth of an inch square, 
it being soaked in, or anointed with oil of petre, called by 
some, oil of the rock; and if your gentles be put, two or 
three days before, into a box anointed with honey, and so put 
upon your hook as to preserve them to be living, you are as 
like to kill this crafty fish this way as any other ; but still as 
you are fishing, chew a little white or brown bread in your 
mouth, and cast it into the pond about the place where your 
float swims. Other baits there be ; but these, with diligence 
and patient watchfulness, will do it better than any that I 
ever practised or heard of.” 
Blaine has the following : “ When the angling commences, 
if possible, keep entirely out sight of the fish ; make no 
noise ; let the bait slide silently into the water ; and try 
their fancy for taking it at various depths, beginning with the 
lowest. If rain falls lightly, the angler would do well to 
pursue his practise during the whole day. Sometimes, also, 
success will attend him through the whole of a gloomy day 
without rain, but in general cases, during the hot months, it 
ia not possible to fish too early or too late for carp. In a 
starlight or moonlight night of July, they have been taken 
after the ‘ witching time ’ even. 
“ When the angler perceives abite, lie must strike accord- 
ing to the nature of his bait. If, for instance, in fishing with 
a lob-worm, he were to strike the moment he felt the float 
move, he would pull the worm out of the month of the carp, 
who sucks in after the manner of a barbel. On the contrary, 
if paste be employed, it is prudent to striko it on the slight- 
est warning, otherwise the wary animal will suck away all 
