Piscator. Marry, and I am glad of it: I am like to have a towardly
scholar of you. I now see, that with advice and practice, you will make
an Angler in a short time. Have but a love to it; and I'll warrant you.
Venator. But, master! what if I could not have found a grasshopper?
Piscator. Then I may tell you, That a black snail, with his belly slit,
to show his white, or a piece of soft cheese, will usually do as well.
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
cow-dung; or a bob which you will find in the same place, and in time
will be a beetle; it is a short white worm, like to and bigger than a
gentle; or a cod-worm; or a case-worm; any of these will do very well 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 shall see or hear him leap at flies, then, if
you get a grasshopper, 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 bite, 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 fly, but especially with a grasshopper.
Venator. But before you go further, I pray, good master, what mean you
by a leather-mouthed fish?
Piscator. 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 Gudgeon, and
Carp, and divers others have. And the hook being stuck into the leather,
or skin, of the mouth of such fish, does very seldom or never lose its
hold: but on the contrary, a Pike, a Perch, or Trout, and so some other
fish, which have not their teeth in their throats, but in their mouths,
which you shall observe to be very full of bones, and the skin very
thin, and little of it. I say, of these fish the hook never takes so
sure hold but you often lose your fish, unless he have gorged it.
Venator. I thank you, good master, for this observation. But now what
shall be done with my Chub or Cheven that I have caught?
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