_Viat_. Good Master, as we go now towards _London_, be still so
courteous as to give me more instructions, for I have several boxes in
my memory in which I will keep them all very safe, there shall not one
of them be lost.
_Pisc_. Well Scholer, that I will, and I will hide nothing from you
that I can remember, and may help you forward towards a perfection in
this Art; and because we have so much time, and I have said so little
of _Roch_ and _Dace_, I will give you some directions concerning some
several kinds of baits with which they be usually taken; they will bite
almost at any flies, but especially at Ant-flies; concerning which,
take this direction, for it is very good.
Take the blackish _Ant-fly_ out of the Mole-hill, or Ant-hil, in which
place you shall find them in the Months of _June_; or if that be too
early in the yeer, then doubtless you may find them in _July, August_
and most of _September_; gather them alive with both their wings, and
then put them into a glass, that will hold a quart or a pottle; but
first, put into the glass, a handful or more of the moist earth out of
which you gather them, and as much of the roots of the grass of the
said Hillock; and then put in the flies gently, that they lose their
wings, and as many as are put into the glass without bruising, will
live there a month or more, and be alwaies in a readiness for you to
fish with; but if you would have them keep longer, then get any great
earthen pot or barrel of three or four gallons (which is better) then
wash your barrel with water and honey; and having put into it a
quantitie of earth and grass roots, then put in your flies and cover
it, and they will live a quarter of a year; these in any stream and
clear water are a deadly bait for _Roch_ or _Dace_, or for a _Chub_,
and your rule is to fish not less then a handful from the bottom.
I shall next tell you a winter bait for a _Roch_, a _Dace_, or _Chub_,
and it is choicely good. About _All-hollantide_ (and so till Frost
comes) when you see men ploughing up heath-ground, or sandy ground, or
greenswards, then follow the plough, and you shall find a white worm,
as big as two Magots, and it hath a red head, (you may observe in what
ground most are, for there the Crows will be very watchful, and follow
the Plough very close) it is all soft, and full of whitish guts; a worm
that is in Norfolk, and some other Countries called a _Grub_, and is
bred of the spawn or eggs of a Beetle, which she leaves in holes that
she digs in the ground under Cow or Horse-dung, and there rests all
Winter, and in _March_ or _April_ comes to be first a red, and then a
black Beetle: gather a thousand or two of these, and put them with a
peck or two of their own earth into some tub or firkin, and cover and
keep them so warm, that the frost or cold air, or winds kill them not,
and you may keep them all winter and kill fish with them at any time,
and if you put some of them into a little earth and honey a day before
you use them, you will find them an excellent baite for _Breame_ or
_Carp_.
And after this manner you may also keep _Gentles_ all winter, which is
a good bait then, and much the better for being lively and tuffe, or
you may breed and keep Gentle thus: Take a piece of beasts liver and
with a cross stick, hang it in some corner over a pot or barrel half
full of dry clay, and as the Gentles grow big, they wil fall into the
barrel and scowre themselves, and be alwayes ready for use whensoever
you incline to fish; and these Gentles may be thus made til after
_Michaelmas_: But if you desire to keep Gentles to fish with all the
yeer, then get a dead _Cat_ or a _Kite_, and let it be fly-blowne, and
when the Gentles begin to be alive and to stir, then bury it and them
in moist earth, but as free from frost as you can, and these you may
dig up at any time when you intend to use them; these wil last till
_March_, and about that time turn to be flies.
But if you be nice to fowl your fingers (which good Anglers seldome
are) then take this bait: Get a handful of well made Mault, and put it
into a dish of water, and then wash and rub it betwixt your hands til
you make it cleane, and as free from husks as you can; then put that
water from it, and put a small quantitie of fresh water to it, and set
it in something that is fit for that purpose, over the fire, where it
is not to boil apace, but leisurely, and very softly, until it become
somewhat soft, which you may try by feeling it betwixt your finger and
thumb; and when it is soft, then put your water from it, and then take
a sharp knife, and turning the sprout end of the corn upward, with the
point of your knife take the back part of the husk off from it, and yet
leaving a kind of husk on the corn, or else it is marr'd; and then cut
off that sprouted end (I mean a little of it) that the white may
appear, and so pull off the husk on the cloven side (as I directed you)
and then cutting off a very little of the other end, that so your hook
may enter, and if your hook be small and good, you will find this to be
a very choice bait either for Winter or Summer, you sometimes casting a
little of it into the place where your flote swims.
And to take the _Roch_ and _Dace_, a good bait is the young brood of
Wasps or Bees, baked or hardened in their husks in an Oven, after the
bread is taken out of it, or on a fire-shovel; and so also is the thick
blood of _Sheep_, being half dryed on a trencher that you may cut it
into such pieces as may best fit the size of your hook, and a little
salt keeps it from growing black, and makes it not the worse but
better; this is taken to be a choice bait, if rightly ordered.
There be several Oiles of a strong smel that I have been told of, and
to be excellent to tempt fish to bite, of which I could say much, but I
remember I once carried a small bottle from Sir _George Hastings_ to
Sir _Henry Wotton_ (they were both chimical men) as a great present;
but upon enquiry, I found it did not answer the expectation of Sir
_Henry_, which with the help of other circumstances, makes me have
little belief in such things as many men talk of; not but that I think
fishes both smell and hear (as I have exprest in my former discourse)
but there is a mysterious knack, which (though it be much easier then
the Philosophers-Stone, yet) is not atainable by common capacities, or
else lies locked up in the braine or brest of some chimical men, that,
like the _Rosi-crutions_, yet will not reveal it. But I stepped by
chance into this discourse of Oiles, and fishes smelling; and though
there might be more said, both of it, and of baits for _Roch_ and
_Dace_, and other flote fish, yet I will forbear it at this time, and
tell you in the next place how you are to prepare your tackling:
concerning which I will for sport sake give you an old Rhime out of an
old Fish-book, which will be a part of what you are to provide.
_My rod, and my line, my flote and my lead,
My hook, & my plummet, my whetstone & knife,
My Basket, my baits, both living and dead,
My net, and my meat for that is the chief;
Then I must have thred & hairs great & smal,
With mine Angling purse, and so you have all_.
But you must have all these tackling, and twice so many more, with
which, if you mean to be a fisher, you must store your selfe: and to
that purpose I will go with you either to _Charles Brandons_ (neer to
the _Swan_ in _Golding-lane_); or to Mr. _Fletchers_ in the Court which
did once belong to Dr. _Nowel_ the Dean of _Pauls_, that I told you was
a good man, and a good Fisher; it is hard by the west end of Saint
_Pauls_ Church; they be both honest men, and will fit an Angler with
what tackling hee wants.
_Viat_. Then, good Master, let it be at _Charles Brandons_, for he is
neerest to my dwelling, and I pray lets meet there the ninth of _May_
next about two of the Clock, and I'l want nothing that a Fisher should
be furnished with.
_Pisc_. Well, and Ile not fail you, God willing, at the time and place
appointed.
_Viat_. I thank you, good Master, and I will not fail you: and good
Master, tell me what baits more you remember, for it wil not now be
long ere we shal be at _Totenham High-Cross_, and when we come thither,
I wil make you some requital of your pains, by repeating as choice a
copy of Verses, as any we have heard since we met together; and that is
a proud word; for wee have heard very good ones.
_Pisc_. Wel, Scholer, and I shal be right glad to hear them; and I wil
tel you whatsoever comes in my mind, that I think may be worth your
hearing: you may make another choice bait thus, Take a handful or two
of the best and biggest _Wheat_ you can get, boil it in a little milk
like as Frumitie is boiled, boil it so till it be soft, and then fry it
very leisurely with honey, and a little beaten _Saffron_ dissolved in
milk, and you wil find this a choice bait, and good I think for any
fish, especially for _Roch, Dace, Chub_ or _Greyling_; I know not but
that it may be as good for a River _Carp_, and especially if the ground
be a little baited with it.
You are also to know, that there be divers kinds of _Cadis_, or
_Case-worms_ that are to bee found in this Nation in several distinct
Counties, & in several little Brooks that relate to bigger Rivers, as
namely one _Cadis_ called a _Piper_, whose husk or case is a piece of
reed about an inch long or longer, and as big about as the compass of a
two pence; these worms being kept three or four days in a woollen bag
with sand at the bottom of it, and the bag wet once a day will in three
or four dayes turne to be yellow; and these be a choice bait for the
_Chub_ or _Chavender_, or indeed for any great fish, for it is a large
bait.
There is also a lesser _Cadis-worm_, called a _Cock-spur_, being in
fashion like the spur of a _Cock_, sharp at one end, and the case or
house in which this dwels is made of smal _husks_ and _gravel_, and
_slime_, most curiously made of these, even so as to be wondred at, but
not made by man (no more then the nest of a bird is): this is a choice
bait for any flote fish, it is much less then the _Piper Cadis_, and to
be so ordered; and these may be so preserved ten, fifteen, or twentie
dayes.
There is also another _Cadis_ called by some a _Straw-worm_, and by
some a _Russe-coate_, whose house or case is made of little pieces of
bents and Rushes, and straws, and water weeds, and I know not what
which are so knit together with condens'd slime, that they stick up
about her husk or case, not unlike the _bristles_ of a _Hedg-hog_;
these three _Cadis_ are commonly taken in the beginning of Summer, and
are good indeed to take any kind of fish with flote or otherwise, I
might tell you of many more, which, as these doe early, so those have
their time of turning to be flies later in Summer; but I might lose my
selfe, and tire you by such a discourse, I shall therefore but remember
you, that to know these, and their several kinds, and to what flies
every particular _Cadis_ turns, and then how to use them, first as they
bee _Cadis_, and then as they be flies, is an Art, and an Art that
every one that professes Angling is not capable of.
But let mee tell you, I have been much pleased to walk quietly by a
Brook with a little stick in my hand, with which I might easily take
these, and consider the curiosity of their composure; and if you shall
ever like to do so, then note, that your stick must be cleft, or have a
nick at one end of it, by which meanes you may with ease take many of
them out of the water, before you have any occasion to use them. These,
my honest Scholer, are some observations told to you as they now come
suddenly into my memory, of which you may make some use: but for the
practical part, it is that that makes an Angler; it is diligence, and
observation, and practice that must do it.