About four of the clock in the afternoon repair to your baited place;
and as soon as you come to the water-side, cast in one-half of the rest
of your ground-bait, and stand off; then whilst the fish are gathering
together, for there they will most certainly come for their supper, you
may take a pipe of tobacco: and then, in with your three rods, as in the
morning. You will find excellent sport that evening, till eight of the
clock: then cast in the residue of your ground-bait, and next morning,
by four of the clock, visit them again for four hours, which is the best
sport of all; and after that, let them rest till you and your friends
have a mind to more sport.
From St. James's-tide until Bartholomew-tide is the best; when they have
had all the summer's food, they are the fattest.
Observe, lastly, that after three or four days' fishing together, your
game will be very shy and wary, and you shall hardly get above a bite or
two at a baiting: then your only way is to desist from your sport, about
two or three days: and in the meantime, on the place you late baited,
and again intend to bait, you shall take a turf of green but short
grass, as big or bigger than a round trencher; to the top of this turf,
on the green side, you shall, with a needle and green thread, fasten one
by one, as many little red worms as will near cover all the turf: then
take a round board or trencher, make a hole in the middle thereof, and
through the turf placed on the board or trencher, with a string or cord
as long as is fitting, tied to a pole, let it down to the bottom of the
water, for the fish to feed upon without disturbance about two or three
days; and after that you have drawn it away, you may fall to, and enjoy
your former recreation.
B. A.
The fourth day-continued
On the Tench
Chapter XI
Piscator
The Tench, the physician of fishes, is observed to love ponds better
than rivers, and to love pits better than either: yet Camden observes,
there is a river in Dorsetshire that abounds with Tenches, but doubtless
they retire to the most deep and quiet places in it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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