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 steemped 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-wormscut in pieces,maltandgrains 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 rods 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 * I have found lately that the flat plummet is much better. deeps; deeps; but Walton-deeps,Chertsey-bridge, Hampton-ferry, and the holes under Cooper's-hill are in no wise 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 he 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 all sorts of rivers and soils. They conceal themselves in the winter for six months in the mud, and they seldom rove about in the summer in the daytime, but all night long; at which time you may take a great number of them, by laying in nightlines, fastened here and there to banks, stumps of trees, &c. of a proper length for the depth of the water, leaded so as to lie on the ground, and a proper eel-hook whipped on each, baited with the following baits, which he delights in, viz. gardenworms, or lobs, minnows, hen's-guts, fish garbage, loaches, small gudgeons, or miller's thumbs, also small roaches, the hook being laid in their mouths. There are two ways to take them in the daytime, called sniggling and bobbing. Sniggling is thus performed: take a strong line, and bait your hook with a large lob-worm, and go to such places above-mentioned where eels hide themselves in the day-time; put the bait gently into the hole, by the help of a cleft stick, and if the eel is there he will certainly bite; let him tire himself by tugging, before you offer to pull him out, or else he will break your line. The other method is called bobbing. In order to perform this, you must scour some large lobs, and with a needle run a twisted silk, or worsted, through as many of them, from end to end, as will lightly wrap a dozen times round your hand; make them into links, and fasten them to strong packthread or whip-cord, two yards long, then make a knot in the line about six or eight inches from the worms; afterwards put three quarters of a pound of lead, made in a pyramidal form on the cord; the lead must be made hollow three parts of the way up it, and then a hole must be bored through it, big enough to put the cord through and let the lead slide down to the knot. Then fix all to a manageable pole, and use it in muddy water. When the fishes tug, let them have time to fasten, then draw them gently up, and hoist them quick to shore. A boat called a punt is very useful in this kind of fishing. Some use an eel spear to catch eels with, which is an instrument with three or four forks or jagged teeth, which they strike at random into the mud. The rivers Stower in Dorsetshire; Ankam in Lincolnshire; and Irk in Lancashire; are famed by their respective neighbours for very excellent eels Mr. Pope has celebrated the river Kennet, in Berkshire on the same account, in his Windsor Forest. The Kennet swift, for silver eels renown'd. In Rumsey-mere, in Huntingdonshire, are a great quantity of eels and large pikes, which they call Hagets; but Cambridgeshire boasts of having the most and best eels, if you credit the natives. Eel-pouts, another fish somewhat resembling the eel, but more esteeemed, are also found in some rivers. Their haunts are the same as the eel's, and they are to be taken in peals of thunder and heavy rain, when they leave their holes. The best bait is a small gudgeon. Hooks, the double or single ones. The Roach. The roach is as foolish as the carp is crafty; he is by no means a delicate fish; the river ones are much better than those bred in ponds. They spawn in May, and will bite all day long, if the weather is not in either of the extremes, on the top of the water. Their haunts are chiefly in sandy or gravelly deep waters: delighting to be in the shade. In April their baits are cads and worms. In sum, mer, mer white snails or flies. In Autumn, a paste made of fine white bread, moulded in your hands with water, and a little cotton added to it, to keep it from washing off the hook. In winter gentles are the best bait for him: you should fish with a line made of single hairs, a quill float, and the lead about a foot from the hook; and when you angle for roach, always cast in a ground bait, made of bran, clay, and bread, incorporated together;* and when you angle with tender baits, always strike at the least nibble that is apparent. Sprouted malt, the young brood of wasps, bees dipt in blood, and the dried blood of sheep, are nostrums in this kind of angling. The largest roach in this kingdom are taken in the Thames, where many have been caught of two pounds and a half weight; but roach of any size are hard to be taken without a boat. The people who live in the fishing towns along the banks of the Thames, have a method of dressing large roach and dace,which it is said, renders them a very pleasant and savoury food; it is as follows: without scaling the fish,lay him on a gridiron, over a slow fire, and strew a little flour on him; when he begins to grow brown, make a slit, not more than skin deep, in his back, from head to tail, and lay him on again; when he is broiled enough, the skin,scales and all,will peel off and leave the flesh, which will be by the time very firm, and perfectly clean; open the belly, take out the inside, and use anchovy and butter for sauce. Red-paste is an excellent bait coloured with vermillion or red-lead,as I have before laid down,but it is best to take with you gentles, white-paste, and * Coarse bran and flour make an excellent ground bait, but they must not be too much moulded. their |