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First note, that he grows not to the bigness of a Trout; for the
biggest of
them do not usually exceed eighteen inches. He lives in such rivers
as
the Trout does; and is usually taken with the same baits as the
Trout is,
and after the same manner; for he will bite both at the minnow,
or
worm, or fly, though he bites not often at the minnow, and is very
gamesome at the fly; and much simpler, and therefore bolder than
a
Trout; for he will rise twenty times at a fly, if you miss him,
and yet rise
again. He has been taken with a fly made of the red feathers of
a
paroquet, a strange outlandish bird; and he will rise at a fly not
unlike a
gnat, or a small moth, or, indeed, at most flies that are not too
big. He is
a fish that lurks close all Winter, but is very pleasant and jolly
after
mid-April, and in May, and in the hot months. He is of a very fine
shape, his flesh is white, his teeth, those little ones that he
has, are in
his throat, yet he has so tender a mouth, that he is oftener lost
after an
angler has hooked him than any other fish. Though there be many
of
these fishes in the delicate river Dove, and in Trent, and some
other
smaller rivers, as that which runs by Salisbury, yet he is not so
general a
fish as the Trout, nor to me so good to eat or to angle for. And
so I shall
take my leave of him: and now come to some observations of the
Salmon, and how to catch him.
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