_Pisc_. Well Scholer, that I will, and I will hide nothing from you
that I can remember, and may help you forward towards a perfection in
this Art; and because we have so much time, and I have said so little
of _Roch_ and _Dace_, I will give you some directions concerning some
several kinds of baits with which they be usually taken; they will bite
almost at any flies, but especially at Ant-flies; concerning which,
take this direction, for it is very good.
Take the blackish _Ant-fly_ out of the Mole-hill, or Ant-hil, in which
place you shall find them in the Months of _June_; or if that be too
early in the yeer, then doubtless you may find them in _July, August_
and most of _September_; gather them alive with both their wings, and
then put them into a glass, that will hold a quart or a pottle; but
first, put into the glass, a handful or more of the moist earth out of
which you gather them, and as much of the roots of the grass of the
said Hillock; and then put in the flies gently, that they lose their
wings, and as many as are put into the glass without bruising, will
live there a month or more, and be alwaies in a readiness for you to
fish with; but if you would have them keep longer, then get any great
earthen pot or barrel of three or four gallons (which is better) then
wash your barrel with water and honey; and having put into it a
quantitie of earth and grass roots, then put in your flies and cover
it, and they will live a quarter of a year; these in any stream and
clear water are a deadly bait for _Roch_ or _Dace_, or for a _Chub_,
and your rule is to fish not less then a handful from the bottom.
I shall next tell you a winter bait for a _Roch_, a _Dace_, or _Chub_,
and it is choicely good. About _All-hollantide_ (and so till Frost
comes) when you see men ploughing up heath-ground, or sandy ground, or
greenswards, then follow the plough, and you shall find a white worm,
as big as two Magots, and it hath a red head, (you may observe in what
ground most are, for there the Crows will be very watchful, and follow
the Plough very close) it is all soft, and full of whitish guts; a worm
that is in Norfolk, and some other Countries called a _Grub_, and is
bred of the spawn or eggs of a Beetle, which she leaves in holes that
she digs in the ground under Cow or Horse-dung, and there rests all
Winter, and in _March_ or _April_ comes to be first a red, and then a
black Beetle: gather a thousand or two of these, and put them with a
peck or two of their own earth into some tub or firkin, and cover and
keep them so warm, that the frost or cold air, or winds kill them not,
and you may keep them all winter and kill fish with them at any time,
and if you put some of them into a little earth and honey a day before
you use them, you will find them an excellent baite for _Breame_ or
_Carp_.
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