is caught is choicely good; for I have tried it, and it is somewhat the better for not being common.

But with

Let the shank be about six inches long, and leaded from the middle as low as the bent of the hook, to which a piece of very strong gimp must be fastened by a staple, and two links of chain; the shank must be barbed like a dart, and the lead a quarter of an inch square: the barb of the shank must stand like the fluke of an anchor, which is placed in a contrary direction to that of the stock. Let the gimp be about a foot long; and to the end thereof fix a swivel. To bait it, thrust the barb of the shank into the mouth of the bait-fish, and bring it out at his side near the tail: when the barb is thus brought through, it cannot return, and the fish will lie perfectly straight, a circumstance that renders the trouble of tying the tail unnecessary.

There is yet another sort of trolling-hook, which is, indeed, no other than what most writers on this subject have mentioned; whereas the others, here described, are late improvements: and this is a hook, either single or double, with a long shank, leaded about three inches up the wire with a piece of lead about a quarter of an inch square at the greater or lower end: fix to the shank an armed-wire about eight inches long. To bait this hook, thrust your wire into the mouth of the fish, quite through his belly, and out at his tail; placing the wire so that the point of the hook may be even with the belly of the bait fish; and then tie the tail of the fish with strong thread to the wire: some fasten it with a needle and thread, which is a neat way.

Both with the Troll and at the Snap, cut away one of the fins of the bait-fish close at the gills, and another behind the vent on the contrary side; which will make it play the better.

The bait being thus fixed, is to be thrown in, and kept in constant motion in the water, sometimes suffered to sink, then gradually raised; now drawn with the stream, and then against it; so as to counterfeit the notion of a small fish in swimming. If a Pike is near, he mistakes the bait for a living fish, seizes it with prodigious greedines, goes off with it to his hole, and in about ten minutes pouches it. When he has thus swallowed the bait, you will see the line move, which is the signal for striking him; do this with two lusty jerks, and then play him.

The other way of taking Pike, viz. with the Snap, is as follows:

Let the rod be twelve feet long, very strong and taper, with a strong loop at the top to fasten your line to. Your line must be about a foot shorter than the rod, and much stronger than the trolling-line.

And here it is necessary to be remembered, that there are two ways of snapping for Pike, viz. with the Live and with the Dead-snap.

For the Live-snap, there is no kind of hook so proper as the double spring hook. To bait it, nothing more is necessary than to hang the bait-fish fast by the back fiu to the middle hook, where he will live a long time. See the paragraph above.

Of hooks for the Dead-snap, there are many kinds; but the one, which after repeated trials has been found to excel all others hitherto known, we subjoin the description and use of it as follows, viz. Whip two hooks, of about threeeighths of an inch in the bent, to a piece of gimp, in the manner directed for that trolling-hook. Then take a piece of lead, of the same size and figure as directed for the trolling-hook above-mentioned; and drill a hole through it from end to end. To bait it, take a long needle, or wire; enter it in at the side, about half an inch above the tail, and with it pass the gimp between the skin and the ribs of the fish, bringing it out at his mouth: then put the lead over the gimp, draw it down into the fish's throat, and press his mouth close, and then, having a swivel to your line, hang on the gimp.

my direction you must take this caution, that your Pike must not be a small one, that is, it must be more than half a yard, and should be bigger.

First, open your Pike at the gills, and if need be, cut also a little slit towards the belly. Out of these, take his guts; and keep his liver, which you are to shred very small, with thyme, sweet marjoram, and a little winter-savoury; to these put some pickled oysters, and some anchovies, two or three, both these last whole, for the anchovies will melt, and the oysters should not; to these you must add also a pound of sweet butter, which you are to mix with the herbs that are shred, and

In throwing the bait, observe the rules given for trolling; but remember, that the more you keep it in motion the nearer it resembles a living fish.

When you have a bite, strike immediately, the contrary way to that which the head of the Pike lies, or to which he goes with the bait: if you cannot find which way his head lies, strike upright with two smart jerks, retiring back wards as fast as you can, till you have brought him to a landing-place, and then do as before is directed.

There are various other methods, both of trolling and fishing at the snap, which, if the reader is desirous to know, he may find described in the Complete Troller, by Ro. Nobbes, 12mo. 1682, and the Angler's Sure Guide, before-mentioned.

As the Pike spawns in March, and before that month rivers are seldom in order for fishing, it will hardly be worth while to begin trolling till April: after that the weeds will be apt to be troublesome. But the prime month in the year for trolling is October; when the Pike are fattened by their summer's feed, the weeds are rotted, and by the falling of the waters the harbours of the fish are easily found.

Choose to troll in clear, and not muddy water, and in windy weather, if the wind be not easterly.

Some use in trolling and snapping two or more swivels to their line, by means whereof the twisting of the liue is prevented, the bait plays more freely, and, though dead, is made to appear as if alive; which in rivers is doubtless an excellent way: but those who can like to fish in ponds or still waters, will find very little occasion for more than one.

The Pike is also to be caught with a minnow: for which method take the following directions:

Get a single hook, slender, and long in the shank; let it resemble the shape of a shepherd's crook; put lead upon it, as thick near the bent as will go into a minnow's mouth; place the point of the hook directly up the face of the fish. Let the rod be as long as you can handsomely manage, with a line of the same length. Cast up and down, and manage it as when you troll with any other bait. If, when the Pike hath taken your bait, he run to the end of the line before he hath gorged it, do not strike, but hold still only, and he will return back and swallow it. But if you use that bait with a troll, I rather prefer it before any bait that I know. Venables.

In landing a Pike, great caution is necessary; for his bite is esteemed venomous. The best and safest hold you can take of him, is by the head; in doing which, place your thumb and finger in his eyes.

let them all be well salted. If the Pike be more than a yard long, then you may put into these herbs more than a pound, or if he be less, then less butter will suffice: These, being thus mixt, with a blade or two of mace, must be put into the Pike's belly; and then his belly so sewed up as to keep all the butter in his belly if it be possible; if not then as much as you possibly can. But take not off the scales. Then you are to thrust the spit through his mouth, out at his tail. And then take four or five or six split sticks, or very thin laths, and a convenient quantity of tape or filleting; these laths are to be tied round about the Pike's body from his head to his tail, and the tape tied somewhat thick, to prevent his breaking or falling off from the spit. Let him be roasted very leisurely; and often basted with claret wine, and anchovies, and butter mixt together; and also with what moisture falls from him into the pan. When you have roasted him sufficiently you are to hold under him, when you unwind or cut the tape that ties him, such a dish as you purpose to eat him out of; and let him fall into it with the sauce that is roasted in his belly; and by this means the Pike will be kept unbroken and complete. Then, to the sauce which was within, and also that sauce in the pan, you are to add a fit quantity of the best butter, and to squeeze the juice of three or four oranges. Lastly, you may either put it into the Pike, with the oysters, two cloves of garlick, and take it whole out, when the Pike is cut off the spit; or, to give the sauce a hogoo, let the dish into which you let the Pike fall, be rubbed with it: the using or not using of this garlick is left to your discretion. M. B.

This dish of meat is too good for any but anglers, or very honest men; and I trust you will prove both, and therefore I have trusted you with this secret.

Let me next tell you, that Gesner tells us, there are no

Pikes in Spain, and that the largest are in the lake Thrasymene in Italy; and the next, if not equal to them, are the Pikes of England; and that in England, Lincolnshire boasteth to have the biggest. Just so doth Sussex boast of four sorts of fish, namely, an Arundel Mullet, a Chichester Lobster,

This he has said before, in Chap.

IV.

a Shelsey Cockle, and an Amerly Trout.

But I will take up no more of your time with this relation, but proceed to give you some Observations of the Carp, and how to angle for him; and to dress him, but not till he is caught.

CHAP. IX.

Observations on the CARP; with Directions how to fish for him.

Piscator. THE Carp is the queen of rivers; a stately, a good, and a very subtil fish; that was not at first bred, nor hath been long in England, but is now naturalized. It is said, they were brought hither by one Mr. Mascal, a gentleman that then lived at Plumsted in Sussex, a county' that abounds more with this fish than any in this nation.

You may remember that I told you Gesner says there are no Pikes in Spain; and doubtless there was a time, about a hundred or a few more years ago, when there were no Carps in England, as may seem to be affirmed by Sir Richard Baker, in whose Chronicle you may these verses:

find

(1) For proof of this fact, we have the testimony of the Author of the Book of Fishing with Hooke, and Line, 4to. Lond. 1590, already mentioned in the Life of Walton; who, though the initials only of his name are given in the title, appears to have been Leouard Mascal, the translator of a book of Planting and Graffing, 4to. 1589, 1599, and the Author of a book On Cattel, 4to. 1596. Fuller in his Worthies, Sussex, 113, seems to have confounded these two persons: the latter of whom, in the tract first above-mentioned, speaks of the former by report only besides which, they lived at the distance of seventy years from each other, and the Author of the book Of Fishing is conjectured to be a Hampshire man.

Hops and turkies, carps and beer,

Came into England all in a year. I

And doubtless, as of sea-fish the Herring dies soonest out of the water, and of fresh-water fish the Trout, so, except the Eel, the Carp endures most hardness, and lives longest out of his own proper element. And, therefore, the report of the Carp's being brought out of a foreign country into this nation, is the more probable.

Carps and Loaches are observed to breed several months in one year, which Pikes and most other fish do not. And this is partly proved by tame and wild rabbits; as also by some ducks, which will lay eggs nine of the twelve months; and yet there be other dutks that lay not longer than about one month. And it is the rather to be 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 than in running waters, if they breed there at all; 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; Aristotle and Pliny say, six times a year, if there be no Pikes nor Perch to devour their spawn, when it is cast upon grass or flags, or weeds, where it lies ten or twelve days before it be enlivened.

(1) See, in the Life of Walton hereto prefixed, a passage extracted from the book of Dame Juliana Barnes; whereby it appears that in her time there were Carps, though but few, in England. It seems, therefore, that Mr. Mascal of Plumsted did not first bring hither Carps: but, as the curious in gardening do by exotic plants, he naturalized this species of fish, and that about the æra mentioned in the above distich, "Hops and turkies," &c. which elsewhere is read thus:

Hops, reformation, turkies, carps, and beer,
Came into England all in one year.