༈

will not hurt a tench, although he will seize any other fish of his own size that comes in his way; and when he or any other fishes are sick, they find relief by rubbing themselves against his body. He is a delicious fresh water fish; has small scales, yet very large and smooth fins, a red circle about the eyes, and a little barb hanging at each corner of his mouth. His haunts are chiefly in ponds amongst weeds; he thrives very ill in clear waters, and covets to feed in foul ones; yet his flesh is nourishing and pleasant. They spawn the beginning of July: the proper time to angle for them is early and late in the months of May, June, the latter end of July, and in August. You must use a strong line with gut at bottom. The hook, No. 2 or 3, and a quill float; the depth about two feet. He bites best at red-worms, if you dip them first in tar; at all sorts of pastes made up with strong-scented oils, and at one made with the inside of a roll, and honey. Also at cad-worms, lob-worms, flag-worms, gentles, marsh-worms, and soft boiled bread grain. Besides the river Stour in Dorsetshire, so particularly recommended for plenty of tench and cels; there is Brecknock Mere, in Brecknockshire, being two miles in length, and as much in breadth, full of perches, tenches, and eels.

N. B. One river tench is worth ten pond.

The Flounder.

The flounder may be fished for all day, either in swift streams, or in the still deep, but best in the stream, in the months of April, May, June, and July. Your line must be a single-haired one, with a small float, and the hook, No. 6 or 7. Let your

bait touch the ground, which may be any sort of small worms, wasps, or gentles. He being a fish but seldom taken with the rod and line, to enlarge on the subject would be totally unnecessary.

The Chub.

In

The chub is a fish by no means in very much esteem, his flesh being very coarse, and full of small bones; yet he affords good sport to the angler, especially to a Tyro in that art. They spawn about the beginning of April; and their haunts are chiefly in large rivers, having clayey or sandy bottoms, in holes, shaded with trees; where many of them in general keep together. He bites best from sun-rising till eight, and from three till sun-set. March and April you must angle for the chub with worms, in June and July, with flies, snails, and cherries; but in August and September, use a paste made of Parmesan, or Holland cheese, pounded in a mortar with a little butter, and a small quantity of saffron put to it to make it of a yellow colour. In the winter, when the chub is in his prime, a paste made of Cheshire cheese and turpentine, is very good; but no bait more killing for him, than the pith of an ox or cow's back-bone: you must take the tough outward skin off very carefully, but take particular care that you do not bruise the inward skin; also the brains of the above animals are excellent for him. Let your line be very strong, with a quill float on it, strong gut at bottom; the hook, No. 3 or 4, the depth, in hot weather, mid-water, in coldish near the bottom, and in quite cold weather on the ground. The most pleasant way of taking him is by dibbing, which is thus performed in a hot summer's day go to any hole that you know they

:

haunt,

haunt, and you will find perhaps thirty or forty of them basking themselves on the surface of the water: then take your rod, which must be very strong and long, your line the same, but about a yard in length: and bait the hook with a grasshopper: you must shelter yourself behind some bush or stump of a tree, so as not to be seen; for the chub is very timorous, and the least shadow will make him sink to the bottom, though he will soon rise again. Having therefore fixed your eye upon the largest and best, drop your bait with great caution before him, and he will instantly take it, and be held fast; for he is a leather-mouthed fish, and seldom breaks hold, if played properly.

N. B. In dibbing, where you cannot get a grasshopper, any fly, beetle, or moth, will equally answer the purpose.

When you are roving for perch with a minnow you will often take large chub.

The Barbel.

The barbel, so called on account of the barb, or beard, that is under his nose or chops, is a leathermouthed fish; and though he seldom breaks his hold, when hooked, yet if he proves a large one, he often breaks both rod and line. The male is esfeemed much better than the female, but neither of them are very extraordinary. They swim in great shoals, and are at the worst in April, at which time they spawn, but soon come into season again; the places they chiefly resort are such as are weedy, gravelly rising grounds, in which this fish is said to dig, and rout his nose like a swine. In the summer he frequents the strongest and swiftest currents

of

of water, as under deep bridges, wears, &c. and is apt to settle himself amongst the piles, hollow places, and in moss and weeds.

In the autumn he

retires into the deeps, where he remains all the winter and beginning of the spring. The best baits for him are salmon-spawn, lob-worms, gentles, bits of cheese wrapt up in a wet linen rag to make it tough, or steeped in honey for twenty-four hours, and greaves: observe, that the sweeter and cleaner your baits are kept the more eager he takes them. You cannot bait the ground for him too much, when you angle for him with any kind of garbage: as lob-worms cut in pieces, malt and grains incorporated with blood and clay, &c. The earlier and later you fish for him in the months of June, July, and August, the better. Your rod and line must be very strong: the former ringed, and the latter must have gimp at the bottom, but I think twisted gut is better: a running plummet must be placed on your line, which is a bullet with a hole through it: place a large shot a foot above the hook, to prevent the bullet falling on it. The worm will of course be at the bottom, for no float is to be used, and when the barbel takes the bait, the bullet will lie on the ground and not choak him. By the bending of your rod you will know when he bites, and also with your hand will feel him give a strong snatch;. then strike him, and he will be your own, if you play him well; but if you do not manage him with dexterity, he will break your tackle. You must have on your rod a winch, and a line on it about thirty yards long.

The most famous places near London for barbelangling are Kingston-bridge, and Shepperton-dceps;

* I have found lately that the flat plummet is much better.

but

but Walton-deeps, Chertsey-bridge, Hampton-ferry, and the holes under Cooper's-hill are in nowise inferior. You may likewise meet with them at all the locks between Maidenhead and Oxford.

N. B. Their spawn acts as a violent cathartic and emetic. His liver is likewise unwholesome. The hooks for this fish No. 1' or 2.

The Eel.

Authors of natural history, in regard to the eel, have advanced various conjectures; and in some measure have contradicted each other entirely on this head, namely: Whether they are produced by generation or corruption, as worms are, or by certain glutinous drops of dew, which falling in May and June, on the banks of some ponds or rivers, are by the heat of the sun turned into eels. Abr. Mylius, in a treatise on the origin of animals, describes a method of producing them by art. He says, that if you cut up two turfs, covered with May-dew, and lay one on the other, the grassy side inwards, and thus expose them to the heat of the sun, in a few hours there will spring from them an infinite quantity of eels. Eels are distinguished into four kinds, viz. the silver eel: a greenish eel, called a grey: a blackish eel, with a broad flat head; and lastly an eel, with reddish fins. The eel's haunts are chiefly amongst weeds, under roots and stumps of trees, holes, and clefts in the earth, both in the banks and at bottom, and in the plain mud; where they lie with only their heads out, watching for prey also about flood-gates, wears, bridges, and old mills, and in the still waters that are foul and. muddy; but the smallest eels are to be met with in

all