together into a pot or pan or pipkin and boil them half an hour and having so done let it cool and being cold put your hair into it and there let it lye it wil turn your hair to be a kind of water or glass colour or greenish and the longer you let it lye the deeper coloured it will bee you might be taught to make many other colours but it is to little purpose for doubtlesse the water or glass coloured haire is the most choice and most useful for an Angler But if you desire to colour haire green then doe it thus Take a quart of smal Ale halfe a pound of Allome then put these into a pan or pipkin and your haire into it with them then put it upon a fire and let it boile softly for half an hour and then take out your hair and let it dry and having so done then take a pottle of water and put into it two handful of Mary-golds and cover it with a tile or what you think fit and set it again on the fire where it is to boil softly for half an hour about which time the scum will turn yellow then put into it half a pound of Copporis beaten smal and with it the hair that you intend to colour then let the hair be boiled softly till half the liquor be wasted then let it cool three or four hours with your hair in it and you are to observe that the moreCopporis you put into it the greener it will be but doubtless the pale green is best but if you desire yellow hair which is only good when the weeds rot then put in the more Mary-golds and abate most of the Copporis or leave it out and take a little Verdigreece in stead of it This for colouring your hair And as for painting your rod which must be in Oyl you must first make a size with glue and water boiled together until the glue be dissolved and the size of a lie colour then strike your size upon the wood with a bristle brush or pensil whilst it is hot that being quite dry take white lead and a little red lead and a little cole black so much as all together will make an ash colour grind these all together with Linseed oyle let it be thick and lay it thin upon the wood with a brush or pensil this do for the ground of any colour to lie upon wood For a Green Take Pink and Verdigreece and grind them together in Linseed oyl as thick as you can well grind it then lay it smoothly on with your brush and drive it thin once doing for the most part will serve if you lay it wel and besure your first colour be throughly dry before you lay on a second Well Scholer you now see Totenham and I am weary and therefore glad that we are so near it but if I were to walk many more dayes with you I could stil be telling you more and more of the mysterious Art of Angling but I wil hope for another opportunitie and then I wil acquaint you with many more both necessary and true observations concerning fish and fishing but now no more le ts turn into yonder Arbour for it is a cleane and cool place Viat 'T is a faire motion and I will requite a part of your courtesies with a bottle of Sack and Milk and Oranges and Sugar which all put together make a drink too good for any body but us Anglers and so Master here is a full glass to you of that liquor and when you have pledged me I wil repeat the Verses which I promised you it is a Copy printed amongst Sir Henry Wottons Verses and doubtless made either by him or by a lover of Angling Come Master now drink a glass to me and then I will pledge you and fall to my repetition it is a discription of such Country recreations as I have enjoyed since I had the happiness to fall into your company Quivering fears heart tearing cares Anxious sighes untimely tears Fly fly to Courts Fly to fond worldlings sports Where strain'd Sardonick smiles are glosing stil And grief is forc'd to laugh against her will Where mirths but Mummery And sorrows only real be Fly from our Country pastimes fly Sad troops of humane misery Come serone looks Clear as the Christal Brooks Or the pure azur'd heaven that smiles to see The Rich attendance on our poverty Peace and a secure mind Which all men seek we only find Abused Mortals did you know Where joy hearts ease and comforts grow You 'd scorn proud Towers And seek them in those Bowers Where winds sometimes our woods perhaps may shake But blustering care could never tempest make No murmurs ere come nigh us Saving of Fountains that glide by us Here 's no fantastick Mask nor Dance But of our kids that frisk and prance Nor wars are seen Unless upon the green Two harmless Lambs are butting one the other Which done both bleating run each to his mother And wounds are never found Save what the Plough share gives the ground Here are no false extrapping baits To hasten too too hasty fates Unless it be the fond credulitie Of silly fish which worldling like still look Upon the bait but never on the hook Nor envy ' nless among The birds for price of their sweet Song Go let the diving Negro seek For gems hid in some forlorn creek We all Pearls scorn Save what the dewy morne Congeals upon each little spire of grasse Which careless Shepherds beat down as they passe And Gold ne're here appears Save what the yellow Ceres bears Blest silent Groves oh may you be For ever mirths best nursery May pure contents for ever pitch their tents Upon these downs these Meads these rocks these mountains And peace stil slumber by these purling fountains Which we may every year find when we come a fishing here Pisc. Trust me Scholer I thank you heartily for these Verses they be choicely good and doubtless made by a lover of Angling Come now drink a glass to me and I wil requi 〈…〉 e you with a very good Copy of Verses it is a farewel to the vanities of the world and some say written by Dr. D but let them bee writ by whom they will he tha writ them had a brave soul and must needs be possest with happy thoughts at the time of their composure Farwel ye guilded follies pleasing troubles Farwel ye honour'd rags ye glorious bubbles Fame's but a hollow eccho gold pure clay Honour the darling but of our short day Beauty th' eyes idol but a damask'd skin State but a golden prison to live in And torture free-born minds imbroidir'd trains Meerly but Pageants for proud swelling vains And blood ally'd to greatness is alone Inherited not purchas'd nor our own Fame honor beauty state trai 〈…〉 blood birth Are but the fading blossoms of the 〈…〉 I would be great but that the Sun doth still Level his rayes against the
And so Hostis here 's your mony we Anglers are all beholding to you it wil not be long ere I le see you again And now brother Piscator I wish you and my brother your Scholer a fair day and good fortune Come Coridon this is our way CHAP. XII 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 not their wings and so 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 in cleane and as free from husks as you can then put that water from it and put a smal 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 vvhite 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 hardned 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 halfe 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 linc 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 thxed 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 le ts meet there the ninth of May next about two of the Clock and I 'l want nothing that a Fisher should be furnish'd with Pisc. Well and I le 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 hand ful 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 Caseworms that are to bee found in this Nation in several distinct Counties in several little Brooks that relate to biggerRivers 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 Ruffe-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 slote 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 CHAP. XIII Pisc. Well Scholer I have held you too long about these Cadis and my spirits are almost spent and so I doubt is your patience but being we are now within sight of Totenham where I first met you and where wee are to part I will give you a little direction how to colour the hair of which you make your lines for that is very needful to be known of an Angler and also how to paint your rod especially your top for a right grown top is a choice Commoditie and should be preserved from the water soking into it which makes it in wet weather to be heavy and fish ill favouredly and also to rot quickly Take a pint of strong Ale half a pound of soot and a like quantity of the juice of Walnut-tree leaves and an equal quantitie of Allome put these
my own Art and I doubt not but at yonder tree I shall catch a Chub and then we 'll turn to an honest cleanly Ale house that I know right well rest our selves and dress it for our dinner via Oh Sir a Chub is the worst fish that swims I hoped for a Trout for my dinner Pis. Trust me Sir there is not a likely place for a Trout hereabout and we staid so long to take our leave of your Huntsmen this morning that the Sun is got so high and shines so clear that I will not undertake the catching of a Trout till evening and though a Chub be by you and many others reckoned the worst of all fish yet you shall see I 'll make it good fish by dressing it Viat Why how will you dress him Pisc. I 'l tell you when I have caught him look you here Sir do you see but you must stand very close there lye upon the top of the water twenty Chubs I 'll catch only one and that shall be the biggest of them all and that I will do so I 'll hold you twenty to one viat I marry Sir now you talk like an Artist and I 'll say you are one when I shall see you perform what you say you can do but I yet doubt it Pisc. And that you shall see me do presently look the biggest of these Chubs has had some bruise upon his tail and that looks like a white spot that very Chub I mean to catch sit you but down in the shade and stay but a little while and I 'l warrant you I 'l bring him to you viat I 'l sit down and hope well because you seem to be so confident Pisc. Look you Sir there he is that very Chub that I shewed you with the white spot on his tail and I 'l be as certain to make him a good dish of meat as I was to catch him I 'l now lead you to an honest Ale-house where we shall find a cleanly room Lavender in the windowes and twenty Ballads stuck about the wall there my Hostis which I may tel you is both cleanly and conveniently handsome has drest many a one for me and shall now dress it after my fashion and I warrant it good meat viat Come Sir with all my heart for I begin to be hungry and long to be at it and indeed to rest my self too for though I have walk'd but four miles this morning yet I begin to be weary yesterdayes hunting hangs stil upon me Pisc. Wel Sir and you shal quickly be at rest for yonder is the house I mean to bring you to Come Hostis how do you wil you first give us a cup of your best Ale and then dress this Chub as you drest my last when I and my friend were here about eight or ten daies ago but you must do me one courtesie it must be done instantly Host. I wil do it Mr. Piscator and with all the speed I can Pisc. Now Sir has not my Hostis made haste and does not the fish look lovely viat Both upon my word Sir and therefore le ts say Grace and fall to eating of it Pisc. Well Sir how do you like it viat Trust me 't is as good meat as ever I tasted now let me thank you for it drink to you and beg a courtesie of you but it must not be deny'd me Pisc. What is it I pray Sir you are so modest that me thinks I may promise to grant it before it is asked viat Why Sir it is that from henceforth you will allow me to call you Master and that really I may be your Scholer for you are such a companion and have so quickly caught and so excellently cook'd this fish as makes me ambitious to be your scholer Pisc. Give me your hand from this time forward I wil be your Master and teach you as much of this Art as I am able and will as you desire me tel you somewhat of the nature of some of the fish which we are to Angle for and I am sure I shal tel you more then every Angler yet knows And first I will tel you how you shall catch such a Chub as this was then how to cook him as this was I could not have begun to teach you to catch any fish more easily then this fish is caught but then it must be this particular way and this you must do Go to the same hole where in most hot days you will finde floting neer the top of the water at least a dozen or twenty Chubs get a Grashopper or two as you goe and get secretly behinde the tree put it then upon your hook and let your hook hang a quarter of a yard short of the top of the water and'tis very likely that the shadow of your rod which you must rest on the tree will cause the Chubs to sink down to the bottom with fear for they be a very fearful fish and the shadow of a bird flying over them will make them do so but they will presently rise up to the top again and there lie soaring till some shadow affrights them again when they lie upon the top of the water look out the best Chub which you setting your self in a fit place may very easily doe 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 hee is one of the leather-mouth'd fishes of which a hook does scarce ever lose his hold and therefore give him play enough before you offer to take him out of the water Go your way presently take my rod and doe as I bid you and I will sit down and mend my tackling till you return back viat Truly my loving Master you have offered mee as fair as I could wish I le goe and observe your directions Look you Master what I have done that which joyes my heart caught just such another Chub as yours was Pisc. Marry and I am glad of it I am like to have a towardly Scholer of you I now see that with advice and practice you wil make an Angler in a short time Viat But Master What if I could not have found a Grashopper Pis. Then I may tel you that a black Snail with his belly slit to shew his white or a piece of soft cheese wil usually do as wel nay sometimes a worm or any kind of fly as the Ant-fly the Flesh-fly or Wall-fly or the Dor or Beetle which you may find under a Cow-turd or a Bob which you wil find in the same place and in time wil be a Beetle it is a short white worm like to and bigger then a Gentle or a Cod-worm or Case-worm any of these wil do very wel to fish in such a manner And after this manner you may catch a Trout
in a hot evening when as you walk by a Brook and shal see or hear him leap at Flies then if you get a Grashopper put it on your hook with your line about two yards long standing behind a bush or tree where his hole is and make your bait stir up and down on the top of the water you may if you stand close be sure of a bit but not sure to catch him for he is not a leather mouthed fish and after this manner you may fish for him with almost any kind of live Flie but especially with a Grashopper Viat But before you go further I pray good Master what mean you by a leather mouthed fish Pisc. By a leather mouthed fish I mean such as have their teeth in their throat as the Chub or Cheven and so the Barbel the Gudgion and Carp and divers others have and the hook being stuck into the leather or skin of such fish does very seldome or never lose its hold But on the contrary a Pike a Pearch or Trout and so some other fish which have not their teeth in their throats but in their mouthes which you shal observe to be very full of bones and the skin very thin and little of it I say of these fish the hook nevertakes so sure hold but you often lose the fish unless he have gorg'd it Viat I thank you good Master for this observation but now what shal be done with my Chub or Cheven that I have caught Pisc. Marry Sir it shall be given away to some poor body for I le warrant you I le give you a Trout for your supper and it is a good beginning of your Art to offer your first fruits to the poor who will both thank God and you for it And now le ts walk towards the water again and as I go I le tel you when you catch your next Chub how to dresse it as this was viat Come good Master I long to be going and learn your direction Pisc. You must dress it or see it drest thus When you have scaled him wash him very cleane cut off his tail and fins and wash him not after you gut him but chine or cut him through the middle as a salt fish is cut then give him four or five scotches with your knife broil him upon wood-cole or char-cole but as he is broiling baste him often with butter that shal be choicely good and put good store of salt into your butter or salt him gently as you broil or baste him and bruise or cut very smal into your butter a little Time or some other sweet herb that is in the Garden where you eat him thus used it takes away the watrish taste which the Chub or Chevin has and makes him a choice dish of meat as you your self know for thus was that dress'd which you did eat of to your dinner Or you may for variety dress a Chub another way and you wil find him very good and his tongue and head almost as good as a Carps but then you must be sure that no grasse or weeds be left in his mouth or throat Thus you must dress him Slit him through the middle then cut him into four pieces then put him into a pewter dish and cover him with another put into him as much White Wine as wil cover him or Spring water and Vinegar and store of Salt with some branches of Time and other sweet herbs let him then be boiled gently over a Chafing-dish with wood coles and when he is almost boiled enough put half of the liquor from him not the top of it put then into him a convenient quantity of the best butter you can get with a little Nutmeg grated into it and sippets of white bread thus ordered you wil find the Chevin and the sauce too a choice dish of meat And I have been the more careful to give you a perfect direction how to dress him because he is a fish undervalued by many and I would gladly restore him to some of his credit which he has lost by ill Cookery Viat But Master have you no other way to catch a Cheven or Chub Pisc. Yes that I have but I must take time to tel it you hereafter or indeed you must learn it by observation and practice though this way that I have taught you was the easiest to catch a Chub at this time and at this place And now weare come again to the River I wil as the Souldier sayes prepare for skirmish that is draw out my Tackling and try to catch a Trout for supper Viat Trust me Master I see now it is a harder matter to catch a Trout then a Chub for I have put on patience and followed you this two hours and not seen a fish stir neither at your Minnow nor your Worm Pisc. Wel Scholer you must indure worse luck sometime or you will never make a good Angler But what say you now there is a Trout now and a good one too if I can but hold him and two or three turns more will tire him Now you see he lies still and the sleight is to land him Reach me that Landing net So Sir now he is mine own what say you is not this worth all my labour Viat On my word Master this is a gallant Trout what shall we do with him Pisc. Marry ee'n eat him to supper We 'l go to my Hostis from whence we came she told me as I was going out of door that my brothet Peter a good Angler and a cheerful companion had sent word he would lodg there to night and bring a friend with him My Hostis has two beds and I know you and I may have the best we 'l rejoice with my brother Peter and his friend tel tales or sing Ballads or make a Catch or find some harmless sport to content us Viat A match good Master le ts go to that house for the linnen looks white and smels of Lavender and I long to lye in a pair of sheets that smels so le ts be going good Master for I am hungry again with fishing Pisc. Nay stay a little good Scholer I caught my last Trout with a worm now I wil put on a Minow and try a quarter of an hour about yonder trees for another and so walk towards our lodging Look you Scholer thereabout we shall have a bit presently or not at all Have with you Sir on my word I have him Oh it is a great loggerheaded Chub Come hang him upon that Willow twig and let 's be going But turn out of the way a little good Scholer towards yonder high hedg We 'l sit whilst this showr falls so gently upon the teeming earth and gives a sweeter smel to the lovely slowers that adorn the verdant Meadows Look under that broad Beech tree I sate down when I was last this way a fishing and the birds in the adjoining Grove seemed to have a friendly contention with an
after hee is come to his full growth he declines in his bodie but keeps his bigness or thrives in his head till his death And you are to know that he wil about especially before the time of his Spawning get almost miraculously through Weires and Floud-Gates against the stream even through such high and swift places as is almost incredible Next that the Trout usually Spawns about October or November but in some Rivers a little sooner or later which is the more observable because most other fish Spawne in the Spring or Summer when the Sun hath warmed both the earth and water and made it fit for generation And next you are to note that till the Sun gets to such a height as to warm the earth and the water the Trout is sick and lean and lowsie and unwholsome for you shall in winter find him to have a big head and then to be lank and thin lean at which time many of them have sticking on them Sugs or Trout lice which is a kind of a worm in shape like a Clove or a Pin with a big head and sticks close to him and sucks his moisture those I think the Trout breeds himselfe and never thrives til he free himself from them which is till warm weather comes and then as he growes stronger he gets from the dead still water into the sharp streames and the gravel and there rubs off these worms or lice and then as he grows stronger so he gets him into swifter and swifter streams and there lies at the watch for any flie or Minow that comes neer to him and he especially loves the May flie which is bred of the Cod-worm or Caddis and these make the Trout bold and lustie and he is usually fatter and better meat at the end of that month then at any time of the year Now you are to know that it is observed that usually the best Trouts are either red or yellow though some be white and yet good but that is not usual and it is a note observable that the female Trout hath usually a less head and a deeper body then the male Trout and a little head to any fish either Trout Salmon or other fish is a sign that that fish is in season But yet you are to note that as you see some Willows or Palm trees bud and blossome sooner then others do so some Trouts be in some Rivers sooner in season and as the Holly or Oak are longer before they cast their Leaves so are some Trouts in some Rivers longer before they go out of season CHAP. IV. AND having told you these Observations concerning Trouts I shall next tell you how to catch them which is usually with a Worm or a Minnow which some call a Penke or with a Flie either a natural or an artificial Flie Concerning which three I wil give you some Observations and Directions For Worms there be very many sorts some bred onely in the earth as the earth worm others amongst or of plants as the dug worm and others in the bodies of living creatures or some of dead flesh as the Magot or Gentle and others Now these be most of them particularly good for particular fishes but for the Trout the dew-worm which some also cal the Lob-worm and the Brandling are the chief and especially the first for a great Trout and the later for a lesse There be also of lob-worms some called squireltnils a worm which has a red head a streak down the back and a broad tail which are noted to be the best because they are the toughest and and most lively and live longest in the water for you are to know that a dead worm is but a dead bait and like to catch nothing compared to a lively quick stirring worm And for a Brandling hee is usually found in an old dunghil or some very rotten place neer to it but most usually in cow dung or hogs dung rather then horse dung which is somewhat too hot and dry for that worm There are also divers other kindes of worms which for colour and shape alter even as the ground out of which they are got as the marshworm the tag-tail the flag-worm the dock-worm the oake-worm the gilt-tail and too many to name even as many sorts as some think there be of severall kinds of birds in the air of which I shall say no more but tell you that what worms soever you fish with are the better for being long kept before they be used and in case you have not been so provident then the way to cleanse and scoure them quickly is to put them all night in water if they be Lob-worms and then put them into your bag with fennel but you must not put your Brandling above an hour in water and then put them into fennel for sudden use but if you have time and purpose to keep them long then they be best preserved in an earthen pot with good store of mosse which is to be fresh every week or eight dayes or at least taken from them and clean wash'd and wrung betwixt your hands till it be dry and then put it to them again And for Moss you are to note that there be divers kindes of it which I could name to you but wil onely tel you that that which is likest a Bucks horn is the best except it be white Moss which grows on some heaths and is hard to be found For the Minnow or Penke he is easily found and caught in April for then hee appears in the Rivers but Nature hath taught him to shelter and hide himself in the Winter in ditches that be neer to the River and there both to hide and keep himself warm in the weeds which rot not so soon as in a running River in which place if hee were in Winter the distempered Floods that are usually in that season would suffer him to have no rest but carry him headlong to Mils and Weires to his confusion And of these Minnows first you are to know that the biggest size is not the best and next that the middle size and the whitest are the best and then you are to know that I cannot well teach in words but must shew you how to put it on your hook that it may turn the better And you are also to know that it is impossible it should turn too quick And you are yet to know that in case you want a Minnow then a small Loch or a Sticklebag or any other small Fish will serve as wel And you are yet to know that you may salt and by that means keep them fit for use three or four dayes or longer and that of salt bay salt is the best Now for Flies which is the third bait wherewith Trouts are usually taken You are to know that there are as many sorts of Flies as there be of Fruits I will name you but some of them as the dun flie the stone flie the red flie the moor
encourage him to grow more and more in love with the Art of flie-making Viat But my loving Master if any wind will not serve then I wish I were in Lapland to buy a good wind of one of the honest witches that sell so many winds and so cheap Pisc. Marry Scholer but I would not be there nor indeed from under this tree for look how it begins to rain and by the clouds if I mistake not we shall presently have a smoaking showre and therefore sit close this Sycamore tree will shelter us and I will tell you as they shall come into my mind more observations of fliefishing for a Trout But first for the Winde you are to take notice that of the windes the South winde is said to be best One observes That When the winde is south It blows you bait into a fishes mouth Next to that the west winde is believed to be the best and having told you that the East winde is the worst I need not tell you which winde is best in the third degree And yet as Solomon observes that Hee that considers the winde shall never sow so hee that busies his head too much about them if the weather be not made extreme cold by as East winde shall be a little superstitious for as it is observed by some That there is no good horse of a bad colour so I have observed that if it be a clowdy day and not extreme cold let the winde fit in what corner it will and do its worst And yet that this for a Rule that I would willingly fish on the Lee shore and you are to take notice that the Fish lies or swimms neere the bottom in Winter then in Summer and also neerer the bottom in any cold day But I promised to tell you more of the Flie-fishing for a Trout which I may haave time enough to do for you see it rains May-butter First for a May-flie you may make his body with greenish coloued crewel or willow colour darkning it in most places with waxed silk or rib'd with a black hare or some of them rib'd with silver thred and such wings for the colour as you see the flie to have at that season nay at that very day on the water Or you may make the Oak-flie with an Orange tawny and black ground and the brown of a Mallards feather for the wings and you are to know that these two are most excellent flies that is the May flie and the Oak flie And let me again tell you that you keep as far from the water as you can possibly whether you fish with a flie or worm and fish down the stream and when you fish with a flie if it be possible let no part of your line touch the water but your flie only and be stil moving your fly upon the water or casting it into the water you your self being also alwaies moving down the stream Ms. Barker commends severall sorts of the palmer flies not only those rib'd with silver and gold but others that have their bodies all made of black or some with red and a red hackel you may also make the hawthorn-flie whichis all black and not big but very smal the smaller the better or the oak-fly the body of which is Orange colour and black crewel with a brown wing or a fly made with a peacocks feather is excellent in a bright day you must be sure you want not in your Magazin bag the Peacocks feather and grounds of such wool and crewel as will make the Grass-hopper and note that usually the smallest flies are best and note also that the light flie does usually make most sport in a dark day and the darkest and least flie in a bright or cleare day and lastly note that you are to repaire upon any occasion to your Magazin bag and upon any occasion vary and make them according to your fancy And now I shall tell you that the fishing with a naturall flie is excellent and affords much pleasure they may be found thus the May-fly usually in and about that month neer to the River side especially against rain the Oak-fly on the Butt or body of an Oak or Ash from the beginning of May to the end of August it is a brownish fly and easie to be so found and stands usually with his head downward that is to say towards the root of the tree the final black fly or hawthorn fly is to be had on any Hawthorn bush after the leaves be come forth with these and a short Line as I shewed to Angle for a Chub you may dap or dop and also with a Grashopper behind a tree or in any deep hole still making it to move on the top of the water as if it were alive and still keeping yourself out of sight you shall certainly have sport if there be Trouts yea in a hot day but especially in the evening of a hot day And now Scholer my direction for fly-fishing is ended with this showre for it has done raining and now look about you and see how pleasantly that Meadow looks 〈…〉 ay and the earth smels as sweetly too Come let me tell you what holy Mr. Herbert saies of such days and Flowers as these and then we will thank God that we enoy them and walk to the Reverand sit down quietly and try to catch the other brace of Trouts Sweet day so cool so calm so bright The bridal of the earth and skie Sweet dews shal weep thy fall to night for thou must die Sweet Rose whose hew angry and brave Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye Thy root is ever in its grave and thou must die Sweet Spring ful of sweet days roses A box where sweets ccompacted lie My Musick shewes you have your closes and all must die Only a sweet and vertuous soul Like seasoned timber never gives But when the whole world turns to cole then chiefly lives Viat I thank you good Master for your good direction for fly-fishing and for the sweet enjoyment of the pleasant day which is so far spent without offence to God or man and I thank you for the sweet close of your discourse with Mr. Herberts Verses which I have heard loved Angling and I do the rather believe it because he had a spirit sutable to Anglers and to those Primitive Christians that you love and have so much commended Pisc. Well my loving Scholer and I am pleased to know that you are so well pleased with my direction and discourse and I hope you will be pleased too if you find a Trout at one of our Angles which we left in the water to fish for it self you shall chuse which shall be yours and it is an even lay one catches And let me tell you this kind of fishing and laying Night-hooks are like putting money to use for they both work for the Owners when they do nothing but sleep or eat or rejoice as you know we have done this last
some call a Penke or with a Fly And you are to observe that he is very very seldom observed to bite at a Minnow yet sometime he will and not oft at a fly but more usually at a Worm and then most usually at a Lob or Garden worm which should be wel scowred that is to say seven or eight dayes in Moss before you fish with them and if you double your time of eight into sixteen or more into twenty or more days it is still the better for the worms will stil be clearer tougher and more lively and continue so longer upon your hook And now I shall tell you that which may be called a secret I have been a fishing with old Oliver Henly now with God a noted Fisher both for Trout and Salmon and have observed that he would usually take three or four worms out of his bag and put them into a little box in his pocket where he would usually let them continue half an hour or more before he would bait his hook with them I have ask'd him his reason and he has replied He did but pick the best out to be in a readiness against he baited his hook the next time But he has been observed both by others and my self to catch more fish then I or any other body that has ever gone a fishing with him could do especially S 〈…〉 s and I have been told lately by one of his most intimate and secret friends that the box in which he put those worms was anointed with a drop or two or three of the Oil of Ivy-berries made by expression or infusion and that by the wormes remaining in that box an hour or a like time they had incorporated a kind of smel that was irresistibly attractive enough to force any fish within the smel of them to bite This I heard not long since from a friend but have not tryed it yet I grant it probable and refer my Reader to Sir Francis Bacons Natural History where he proves fishes may hear and I am certain Gesner sayes the Otter can smell in the water and know not but that fish may do so too 't is left for a lover of Angling or any that desires to improve that Art to try this conclusion I shall also impart another experiment but not tryed by my selfe which I wil deliver in the same words as it was by a friend given me in writing Take the stinking oil drawn out of Poly pody of the Oak by a retort mixt with Turpentine and Hivehoney and annoint your hait therewith and it will doubtlesse draw the fish to it But in these things I have no great faith yet grant it probable and have had from some chimical men namely from Sir George Hastings and others an affirmation of them to be very advantageous but no more of these especially not in this place I might here before I take my leave of the Salmon tell you that there is more then one sort of them as namely a Tecon and another called in some places a Samlet or by some a Skegger but these and others which I forbear to name may be fish of another kind and differ as we know a Herring and a Pilcher do but must by me be left to the disquisitions of men of more leisure and of greater abilities then I profess my self to have And lastly I am to borrow so much of your promised patience as to tell you that the Trout or Salmon being in season have at their first taking out of the water which continues during life their bodies adorned the one with such red spots and the other with black or blackish spots which gives them such an addition of natural beautie as I that yet am no enemy to it think was never given to any woman by the Artificial Paint or Patches in which they so much pride themselves in this age And so I shall leave them and proceed to some Observations of the Pike CHAP. VII Pisc. IT is not to be doubted but that the Luce or Pikrell or Pike breeds by Spawning and yet Gesner sayes that some of them breed where none ever was out of a weed called Pikrell-weed and other glutinous matter which with the help of the Suns heat proves in some particular ponds apted by nature for it to become Pikes Sir Francis Bacon observes the Pike to be the longest lived of any fresh water fish and yet that his life is not usually above fortie years and yet Gesner mentions a Pike taken in Swedeland in the year 1449 with a Ring about his neck declaring he was put into the Pond by Frederick the second more then two hundred years before he was last taken as the Inscription of that Ring being Greek was interpreted by the then Bishop of worms But of this no more but that it is observed that the old or very great Pikes have in them more of state then goodness the smaller or middle siz'd Pikes being by the most and choicest palates observed to be the best meat but contrary the Eele is observed to be the better for age and bigness All Pikes that live long prove chargeable to their keepers because their life is maintained by the death of so many other fish even those of his owne kind which has made him by some Writers to bee called the Tyrant of the Rivers or the Fresh water-wolf by reason of his bold greedy devouring disposition which is so keen as Gesner relates a man going to a Pond where it seems a Pike had devoured all the fish to water his Mule had a Pike bit his Mule by the lips to which the Pike hung so fast that the Mule drew him out of the water and by that accident the owner of the Mule got the Pike I tell you who relates it and shall with it tel you what a wise man has observed It is a hard thing to perswade the belly because it hath no ears But if this relation of Gesners bee dis-believed it is too evident to bee doubted that a Pike will devoure a fish of his own kind that shall be bigger then this belly or throat will receive and swallow a part of him and let the other part remaine in his mouth till the swallowed part be digested and then swallow that other part that was in his mouth and so put it over by degrees And it is observed that the Pike will eat venemous things as some kind of Frogs are and yet live without being harmed by them for as some say he has in him a natural Balsome or Antidote against all Poison and others that he never eats a venemous Frog till he hath first killed her and then as Ducks are observed to do to Frogs in Spawning time at which time some Frogs are observed to be venemous so throughly washt her by tumbling her up and down in the water that he may devour her without danger And Gesner affirms that a Polonian Gentleman did faithfully assure him he had
seen two young Geese at one time in the belly of a Pike and hee observes that in Spain there is no Pikes and that the biggest are in the Lake Thracimane in Italy and the next if not equal to them are the Pikes of England The Pike is also observed to be a melancholly and a bold fish Melancholly because he alwaies swims or rests himselfe alone and never swims in sholes or with company as Roach and Dace and most other fish do And bold because he fears not a shadow or to see or be seen of any body as the Trout and Chub and all other fish do And it is observed by Gesner that the bones and hearts gals of Pikes are very medicinable for several Diseases as to stop bloud to abate Fevers to cure Agues to oppose or expel the infection of the Plague and to be many wayes medicinable and useful for the good of mankind but that the biting of a Pike is venemous and hard to be cured And it is observed that the Pike is a fish that breeds but once a year and that other fish as namely Loaches do breed oftner as we are certaine Pigeons do almost every month and yet the Hawk a bird of prey as the Pike is of fish breeds but once in twelve months and you are to note that his time of breeding or Spawning is usually about the end of February or somewhat later in March as the weather proves colder or warmer and to note that his manner of breeding is thus a He and a She Pike will usually go together out of a River into some ditch or creek and that there the Spawner casts her eggs and the Melter hovers over her all that time that she is casting her Spawn but touches her not I might say more of this but it might be thought curiosity or worse and shall therefore forbear it and take up so much of your attention as to tell you that the best of Pikes are noted to be in Rivers then those in great Ponds or Meres and the worst in smal Ponds His feeding is usually fish or frogs and sometime a weed of his owne called Pikrel-weed of which I told you some think some Pikes are bred for they have observed that where no Pikes have been put into a Pond yet that there they have been found and that there has been plenty of that weed in that Pond and that that weed both breeds and feeds them but whether those Pikes so bred will ever breed by generation as the others do I shall leave to the disquisitions of men of more curiosity and leisure then I profess my self to have and shall proceed to tell you that you may fish for a Pike either with a ledger or a walking bait and you are to note that I call that a ledger which is fix'd or made to rest in one certaine place when you shall be absent and that I call that a walking bait which you take with you and have ever in motion Concerning which two I shall give you this direction That your ledger bait is best to be a living bait whether it be a fish or a Frog and that you may make them live the longer you may or indeed you must take this course First for your live bait of fi 〈…〉 h a Roch or Dace is I think best and most tempting and a Pearch the longest liv'd on a hook you must take your knife which cannot be too sharp and betwixt the head and the fin on his back cut or make an insition or such a scar as you may put the arming wyer of your hook into it with as little bruising or hurting the fish as Art and diligence will enable you to do and so carrying your arming wyer along his back unto or neer the tail of your fish betwixt the skin and the body of it draw out that wyer or arming of your hook at another scar neer to his tail then tye him about it with thred but no harder then of necessitie you must to prevent hurting the fish and the better to avoid hurting the fish some have a kind of probe to open the way for the more easie entrance and passage of your wyer or arming but as for these time and a little experience will teach you better than I can by words for of this I will for the present say no more but come next to give you some directions how to bait your hook with a Frog Viat But good Master did not you say even now that some Frogs were venomous and is it not dangerous to touch them Pisc. Yes but I wil give you some Rules or Cautions concerning them And first you are to note there is two kinds of Frogs that is to say if I may so express my self a flesh and a fish-frog by flesh Frogs I mean frogs that breed and live on the land and of these there be several sorts and colours some being peckled some greenish some blackish or brown the green Frog which is a smal one is by Topsell taken to be venomous and so is the Padock or Frog-Padock which usually keeps or breeds on the land and is very large and bony and big especially the She frog of that kind yet these will sometime come into the water but it is not often and the land frogs are some of them observed by him to breed by laying eggs and others to breed of the slime and dust of the earth and that in winter they turn to slime again and that the next Summer that very slime returns to be a living creature this is the opinion of Pliny and * Cardanas undertakes to give reason for the raining of Frogs but if it were in my power it should rain none but water Frogs for those I think are not venemous especially the right water Frog which about February or March breeds in ditches by slime and blackish eggs in that slime about which time of breeding the He and She frog are observed to use divers simber salts and to croke and make a noise which the land frog or Padock frog never does Now of these water Frogs you are to chuse the yellowest that you can get for that the Pike ever likes best And thus use your Frog that he may continue long alive Put your hook into his mouth which you may easily do from about the middle of April till August and then the Frogs mouth grows up and he continues so for at least six months without eating but is sustained none but he whose name is Wonderful knows how I say put your hook I mean the arming wire through his mouth and out at his gills and then with a fine needle and Silk sow the upper part of his leg with only one stitch to the armed wire of your hook or tie the frogs leg above the upper joint to the armed wire and in so doing use him as though you loved him that is harme him as little as you may possibly that he may
a Carp will out of it and so the report of his being brought out of a forrain Nation into this is the more probable Carps and Loches are observed to breed several months in one year which most other fish do not and it is the rather believed because you shall scarce or never take a Male Carp without a Melt or a Female without a Roe or Spawn and for the most part very much and especially all the Summer season and it is observed that they breed more naturally in Ponds then in running waters and that those that live in Rivers are taken by men of the best palates to be much the better meat And it is observed that in some Ponds Carps will not breed especially in cold Ponds but where they will breed they breed innumerably if there be no Pikes nor Pearch to devour their Spawn when it is cast upon grass or flags or weeds where it lies ten or twelve dayes before it be enlivened The Carp if he have water room and good feed will grow to a very great bigness and length I have heard to above a yard long though I never saw one above thirty three inches which was a very great and goodly fish Now as the increase of Carps is wonderful for their number so there is not a reason found out I think by any why the should breed in some Ponds and not in others of the same nature for soil and all other circumstances and as their breeding so are their decayes also very mysterious I have both read it and been told by a Gentleman of tryed honestie that he has knowne sixtie or more large Carps put into several Ponds neer to a house where by reason of the stakes in the Ponds and the Owners constant being neer to them it was impossible they should be stole away from him and that when he has after three or four years emptied the Pond and expected an increase from them by breeding young ones for that they might do so he had as the rule is put in three Melters for one Spawner he has I say after three or four years found neither a young nor old Carp remaining And the like I have known of one that has almost watched his Pond and at a like distance of time at the fishing of a Pond found of seventy or eighty large Carps not above five or six and that he had forborn longer to fish the said Pond but that he saw in a hot day in Summer a large Carp swim neer to the top of the water with a Frog upon his head and that he upon that occasion caused his Pond to be let dry and I say of seventie or eighty Carps only found five or six in the said Pond and those very sick and lean and with every one a Frog sticking so fast on the head of the said Carps that the Frog would not bee got off without extreme force or killing and the Gentleman that did affirm this to me told me he saw it and did declare his belief to be and I also believe the same that he thought the other Carps that were so strangely lost were so killed by Frogs and then devoured But I am faln into this discourse by accident of which I might say more but it has proved longer then I intended and possibly may not to you be considerable I shall therefore give you three or four more short observations of the Carp and then fall upon some directions how you shall fish for him The age of Carps is by S. Francis Bacon in his History of Life and Death observed to be but ten years yet others think they live longer but most conclude that contrary to the Pike or Luce all Carps are the better for age and bigness the tongues of Carps are noted to be choice and costly meat especially to them that buy them but Gesner sayes Carps have no tongues like other fish but a piece of flesh-like-fish in their mouth like to a tongue and may be so called but it is certain it is choicely good and that the Carp is to be reckoned amongst those leather mouthed fish which I told you have their teeth in their throat and for that reason he is very seldome lost by breaking his hold if your hook bee once stuck into his chaps I told you that Sir Francis Bacon thinks that the Carp lives but ten years but Janus Dubravius a Germane as I think has writ a book in Latine of Fish and Fish Ponds in which he sayes that Carps begin to Spawn at the age of three yeers and continue to do so till thirty he sayes also that in the time of their breeding which is in Summer when the Sun hath warmed both the earth and water and so apted them also for generation that then three or four Male Carps will follow a Female and that then she putting on a seeming coyness they force her through weeds and flags where she lets fall her eggs or Spawn which sticks fast to the weeds and then they let fall their Melt upon it and so it becomes in a short time to be a living fish and as I told you it is thought the Carp does this several months in the yeer and most believe that most fish breed after this manner except the Eeles and it is thought that all Carps are not bred by generation but that some breed otherwayes as some Pikes do And my first direction is that if you will fish for a Carp you must put on a very large measure of patience especially to fish for a River Carp I have knowne a very good Fisher angle diligently four or six hours in a day for three or four dayes together for a River Carp and not have a bite and you are to note that in some Ponds it is as hard to catch a Carp as in a River that is to say where they have store of feed the water is of a clayish colour but you are to remember that I have told you there is no rule without an exception and therefore being possest with that hope and patience which I wish to all Fishers especially to the CarpAngler I shall tell you with what bait to fish for him but that must be either early or ate and let me tell you that in hot weather for he will seldome bite in cold you cannot bee too early or too late at it The Carp bites either at wormes or at Paste and of worms I think the blewish Marsh or Meadow worm is best but possibly another worm not too big may do as well and so may a Gentle and as for Pastes there are almost as many sorts as there are Medicines for the Tooth-ach but doubtless sweet Pastes are best I mean Pastes mixt with honey or with Sugar which that you may the better beguile this crafty fish should be thrown into the Pond or place in which you fish for him some hours before you undertake your tryal of skil by the Angle-Rod and