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the red-worm in April, the cadis in May, or the grasshopper in June, July, and August. You must angle for him with a strong rod and line, a quill float, and strong gut at bottom; the book in the medium of size; being a leather-mouthed fish he seldom breaks his hold, if your tackle is strong and you play him properly. But whenever you intend to fish for him particularly, and in good earnest, over night lay in a ground-bait of garbage; as chickens guts, blood mixed with cowdung, or any coarse paste; also ale grains and blood incorporated with clay, and at the same time that you throw any of these ground baits in, plumb the ground to two depths, (for it is best to angle for carps with two rods,) one about mid-water, the other four or five inches from the ground. The next morning lay your lines in very cautiously and success will attend you. Gentles are very good baits for the carp, also a paste made of honey and bread, and one made with bread and water alone, tinctured with red lead, but nothing in my opinion beats a green pea, parboiled, having killed more with that than any other bait.

A carp weighing fifteen pounds seven ounces, was some time back taken out of the water in Lord Exeter's grounds at Burghley.

In the Swiss and Italian lakes, it is far from rare, to catch trout that are double that size. The hooks for this fish No. 3 or 4.

In fine sun-shiny days, carps will often prime about noon, and swim about the edges of a pond, to catch such flies as fall upon the surface of the water let the angler then take a strong rod, and pliable at the top, a strong line, and a hook large enough for a lob-worm; then finding a place free

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from weeds, about the compass of the crown of a hat, let him drop his bait without a float, and with only one large shot upon the line, which he must lodge upon the leaf of some adjoining weed, so that the bait may not be above eight inches in the water; then retiring, but so as to keep his eye upon the shot, let him wait till he sees it taken away, with about a foot of the line, and then strike when he has hooked his fish, let him keep him tight, and not suffer him to entangle himself among the weeds: but either draw him out by main force, or pull him into a clear place, and there kill him.

N. B. The foregoing method is an excellent one, and great numbers of carp may be taken by it in ponds which are well stocked.

The Bream.

The time of the bream's spawning is in June; his chief residence is in poids; he is a bony fish, and very slow of growth. From Saint James's tide to Bartholomew tide is the best time to angle for him, and the best time of the day in that season is, from sun rise, to eight o'clock, in a gentle stream, the water being rather thick, and curled with a good breeze. He delights in the deepest and widest parts of the water, and if the bottom is clear and sandy it is the better. His baits are gentles, red-worms, gilt tails, and grasshoppers : when he takes your bait he makes for the opposite shore, therefore give him play, for though he is a strong-made fish, he will not struggle much, but two or three times fall on one side, and you may land him very easily. Angle for him with a strong line, with gut at bottom, the hook

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No. 4.

No. 4. and throw in the place you intend to angle for him, a ground-bait made of malt, grains, bran, blood, and clay, the night before; and you may fish with two or three lines, plumbed to different depths, and follow the method which is laid down for the carp.

The French esteem this fish highly, and have this proverb concerning him; that he who has breams in his pond, is able to bid his friend welcome. The best part of a bream is his belly and head.

The Pike.

The pike is a very long-lived fish, according to Lord Bacon and Gesner; who say he out-lives all others. He is called the tyrant of the waters, and will almost seize upon any thing, nay unnaturally devour his own kind. He spawns in February or March; the best pike are those that are found in rivers, those in ponds are not near so good: the larger he is, the coarser the food, and so vice versa. He feeds on small fishes, and frogs, and on a weed called pickerel, from which some assert he derives his being; he is a solitary, melancholy, and bold fish, always being by himself, and never swimming in shoals, or in company with other fishes. There are two ways of angling for the pike, by the ledger bait and the walking bait. First, the ledger bait is that fixed in one certain place, and which the angler may leave, and angle for other fish; of this kind the best is some living bait, as a dace, gudgeon, roach, or live frog. To apply it, if a fish, stick the hook through his upper lip, or back fin, then fastening it to a strong line, ten or twelve yards long; tie the other end to some stake in the ground, or stump of a tree, near the pike's haunt;

haunt; letting the line pass over the fork of a stick, placed for the purpose, and suspending the hook, by a yard of the line in the water; but so, as when the pike bites, the fork may give way, and let him have line enough to go to his hold, and pouch the bait. If you bait with a frog, put the arming wire in at his mouth, and out at his gill; then tie the frog's leg above the upper joint to the armed wire. Secondly, The walking bait is that which the fisher attends to himself, and is called trowling, from the French of troller, to move or walk about. Before I proceed any further in this mode of angling for the pike, I shall give the angler a description of the kind of rod, line, and hooks, necessary to be used. Your rod

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must be a strong one, and ringed for the line to pass through, and about three yards and a half long; your line about thirty yards long, wound upon a winch, to be placed on the butt end of your rod, and with which, you may always keep your line to any length; and at the end of your line next the hook, let there be a swivel. hooks that are most general, are the two following ones; they are formed and baited in this manner. The first is no more than two single hooks (though you may buy them made of one piece of wire) tied back to back, with a strong piece of gimp between the shanks; in whipping the gimp and hooks together, make a small loop, and take into it two links of chain, about an eighth of an inch diameter; and in the lower link (by means of a staple of wire) fasten by the greater end a bit of lead, of a conical figure, and angular at the point. The second hook may be either single, or double, with a long shank, and leaded two inches up the wire, with a piece of lead about a quarter of an inch square; at the greater

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or lower end fix to the shank an armed wire about four inches long, and at the top of the wire, about half a yard of gimp, with a loop at the top of that: to bait this hook, you must have a brass needle, about seven inches long; put the loop of the gimp on the eye, or small curve of the needle, then thrust it into the mouth of the fish, and bring it out at his tail, drawing the gimp and wire along with it, till the lead is fixed in the belly of the baitfish, and the hook, or hooks, are come to his mouth; then turn the points of the hooks towards his eyes, if a double hook, but if a single one, directly in a line with his belly, and tie his tail to the arming-wire, very neatly, with white thread; I always, whether the hook be double or single, put a small piece of a worm on the point, or points of it; which prevents their picking the pike when he tastes it, for if it does he will instantly. leave it. To bait the former, put the lead into the mouth of the bait fish, and sew it up, the fish will live some time; and though the weight of the lead will keep his head downwards, he will swim with nearly the same ease as if at liberty. Either of the former hooks being baited and fastened to the swivel, cast it into the water, and keep it in constant motion; sometimes letting it sink, and at others raising it gradually, chiefly throwing it into the parts of the pond, meer, or river, where his haunts are most usual; as near banks, under stumps of trees, by the side of bullrushes, waterdocks, weeds, or bushes, but in any of these places you need never make above a trial or two for him, for if he is there he will instantly sieze the bait. When you draw your bait near the bank, play it longer there, first deep, then raise it higher and higher by degrees, till you bring it so near the top,

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