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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.
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