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And now I shall tell you that which may be called a secret. I have
been
a-fishing with old Oliver Henly, now with God, a noted fisher both
for
Trout and Salmon; and have observed, that he would usually take
three
or four worms out of his bag, and put them into a little box in
his
pocket, where he would usually let them continue half an hour or
more.
before he would bait his hook with them. I have asked him his reason,
and he has replied, " He did but pick the best out to be in
readiness
against he baited his hook the next time ": but he has been
observed,
both by others and myself, to catch more fish than I, or any other
body
that has ever gone a-fishing with him, could do, and especially
Salmons. And I have been told lately, by one of his most intimate
and
secret friends, that the box in which he put those worms was anointed
with a drop, or two or three, of the oil of ivy-berries, made by
expression or infusion; and told, that by the worms remaining in
that
box an hour, or a like time, they had incorporated a kind of smell
that
was irresistibly attractive, enough to force any fish within the
smell of
them to bite. This I heard not long since from a friend, but have
not
tried it; yet I grant it probable, and refer my reader to Sir Francis
Bacon's Natural history, where he proves fishes may hear, and,
doubtless, can more probably smell: and I am certain Gesner says,
the
Otter can smell in the water; and I know not but that fish may do
so too.
'Tis left for a lover of angling, or any that desires to improve
that art, to
try this conclusion.
I shall also impart two other experiments, but not tried by myself,
which I will deliver in the same words that they were given me
by an
excellent angler and a very friend, in writing: he told me the
latter was
too good to be told, but in a learned language, lest it should
be made
common.
"Take the stinking oil drawn out of polypody of the oak
by a retort,
mixed with turpentine and hive-honey, and anoint your bait therewith,
and it will doubtless draw the fish to it." The other is
this: " Vulnera
hederae grandissimae inflicta sudant balsamum oleo gelato,
albicantique persimile, odoris vero longe suavissimi". "'Tis
supremely
sweet to any fish, and yet assa foetida may do the like."
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