CHAP. IV.
OF ANGLING AT THE GROUND.
Nowwe are come to the second part of angling, viz. under the water, which if it be with the ground-line for the Trout, then you must not use any float at all, only a plumb of lead, which I would wish might be a small bullet, the better to roll on the ground; and it must also be lighter or heavier, as the stream runs swift or slow, and you must place it about nine inches or a foot from the hook; the lead must run upon the ground, and you must keep your line as straight as possible, yet by no means so as to raise the lead from the ground; your top must be very gentle, that the fish may more easily, and to himself insensibly, run away with the bait, and not be scared with the stiffness of the rod; and if you make your top of black thorn and whale-bone, as I before directed, it will conduce much to this purpose: neither must you strike so soon as you feel the fish bite,but slack your line a little, that so he may more securely swallow the bait, and hook himself, which he will sometimes do, especially if he be a good one; the least jerk, however, hooks him, and indeed you can scarce strike too easily. Your tackle must be very fine and slender, and so you will have more sport than if you had strong lines, which frighten the fish, but the slender line is easily broke; with a small jerk. Morning and evening are the best times for the ground-line for a Trout, in clear weather and water, but in cloudy weather, or muddy water, you may angle at ground all day.
2. You may also in the night angle for the Trout with two great garden worms, hanging as equally in length as you can place them on your hook; cast them from you as you would cast the fly, and draw them to you again upon the top of the water, and not suffer them to sink; therefore you must use no lead this way of angling; when you hear the fish rise, give some time for him to gorge your bait, as at the ground, then strike gently. If he will not take them at the top, add some lead, and try at the ground, as in the day time; when you feel him bite, order yourself as in day angling at the ground. Usually the best Trouts bite in the night, and will rise in the still deeps, but not ordinarily in the stream.
3. You may angle also with a minnow for the Trout, which you must put on your hook thus: first, put your hook through the very point of his lower chap, and draw it quite through; then put your hook in at his mouth, and bring the point to his tail, then drawyour line straight, and it will bring him into a round compass, and close his mouth that no water gets in, which you must avoid; or you may stitch up his mouth; or you may, when you have set on your hook, fasten some bristles under the silk, leaving the points about a straw’s breadth and half, or almost half an inch standing out towards the line, which will keep him from slipping back. You may also imitate the minnow as well as the fly, but it must be done by an artist with the needle.
You must also have a swivel or turn, placed about a yard or more from your hook, observing you need no lead on your line, for you must continually draw your bait up the stream, near the top of the water. If you strike a large Trout, and it should break either your hook or line, or get off, then near to her hole, if you can discover it, or the place you struck her, fix a short stick in the water, and with your knife loose a small piece of the rind, so as you may lay your line in it, and yet the bark be close enough to keep your line in, that it slip not out, nor the stream carry it away: bait your hook with a garden or lob-worm, your hook and line being very strong, let the bait hang a foot from the stick, then fasten the other end of your line to some stick or bough in the bank, and within one hour, you may be sure of her, if all your tackle hold.
The next way of angling is with a troll for the Pike, which is very delightful; you may buy your troll ready made, therefore I shall not trouble myself to describe it, only let it have a winch to wind it up withall.For this kind of fish, your tackle must be strong, your rod must not be very slender at the top, where you must place a small slender ring for your line to run through; let your line be silk, at least two yards next the hook, and the rest of strong shoe-maker’s thread; your hook double, and strongly armed with wire, for above a foot; then with a probe or needle, you must draw the wire in at the fish’s mouth and out at the tail, that so the hook may lie in the mouth of the fish, and both the points on either side; upon the shank of the hook fasten some lead very smooth, that it go into the fish’s mouth, and sink her with the head downward, as though she had been playing on the top of the water, and were returning to the bottom; your bait may be small Roach, Dace, Gudgeon, Loach, or sometimes a Frog; your hook thus baited, you must tie the tail of the fish close and fast to the wire, or else with drawing to and again, the fish will rend off the hook, or, which I judge neater, with a needle and strong thread, stitch through the fish on either side the wire, and tie it very fast: all being thus fitted, cast your fish up and down in such places as you know Pike frequent, observing still, that he sink some depth before you pull him up again. When the Pike rises, if it be not sunk deep, you may see the water move, or at least you may feel him; then slacken your line, and give him length enough to run away to his hold, whither he will go directly, and there pouch it, ever beginning, as you may observe, with the head swallowing that first, thus let him lie, until you see the line move in the water, and then you may certainly conclude he hath pouched yourbait, and rangeth abroad for more; then with your troll wind up your line, till you think you have it almost straight, then with a smart jerk hook him, and make your pleasure to your content. Some use no rod at all, but hold the line in links on their hand, using lead and float. Others use a very great hook, with the hook at the tail of the fish, and when the Pike rises, then they strike at the first pull. Others put a strong string or thread in at the mouth of the bait, and out at one of the gills; then over the head, and in at the other gill, and so tie the bait to the hook, leaving a little length of the thread or string betwixt the fish and the hook, that so the Pike may turn the head of the bait, the better to swallow it, and then as before; after some pause, strike. Some tie the bait-hook and line to a bladder or bundle of flags, or bull-rushes, fastening the line very gently in the cleft of a small stick, to hold the bait from sinking more than its allowed length, half a yard. The stick must be fastened to the bladder or flags, to which the line being tied, that it may easily unfold and run to its length, and so give the Pike liberty to run away with the bait, and by the bladder or flags, recover their line again. You must observe this way to turn off your bait with the wind or stream, that they may carry it away. Some use, for more sport, if the Pike be a great one, to tie the same to the foot of a goose, which the Pike, if large, will sometimes pull under the water. Before I proceed to give you each sort of bait for every kind of fish, give me leave to add a caution or two, forthe ground-line and fishing, as I did for the natural and artificial fly, and then we shall go on.
There are two ways of fishing for Eels, proper and peculiar to that fish alone; the first is termed by some, angling for Eels, which is thus: take a short strong rod, and exceeding strong line, with a little compassed, but strong hook, which you must bait with a large well-scoured red worm, then place the end of the hook very easily in a cleft of a stick, that it may very easily slip out; with this stick and hook thus baited, search for holes under stones, timbers, roots, or about flood-gates; if there be a good Eel, give her time, and she will take it; but be sure she has gorged it, and then you may conclude, if your tackling hold, she is your own.
The other way is called bobbing for Eels, which is thus: take the largest garden worms, scour them well, and with a needle run a very strong thread or silk through them from end to end; take so many as that at last you may wrap them about a board, for your hand will be too narrow, a dozen times at least, then tie them fast with the other two ends of the thread or silk, that they may hang in so many long bouts or hanks; then fasten all to a strong cord, and something more than a handful above the worms, fasten a plumb of lead, of about three quarters of a pound, making your cord sure to a long and strong pole; with these worms thus ordered, you must fish in a muddy water, and you will feel the Eels tug strongly at them; when you think they have swallowed them as far as they can, gentlydraw up your worms and Eels, and when you have them near the top of the water, hoist them amain to land; and thus you may take three or four at once, and good ones, if there be store.
1. When you angle at ground, keep your line as straight as possible, suffering none of it to lie in the water, because it hinders the nimble jerk of the rod; but if, as sometimes it will happen, that you cannot avoid but some little will lie in the water, yet keep it in the stream above your float, by no means below it.
2. When you angle at ground for small fish, put two hooks to your line, fastened together thus: lay the two hooks together, then draw the one shorter than the other by nine inches, this will cause the other end to over-reach as much, as the other is shorter at the hooks, then turn that end back, and with a water-knot, in which you must make both the links to fasten, tie them so as both links may hang close together, and not come out at both ends of the knot. Then upon that link which hangeth longest, fasten your lead near a foot above the hook; put upon your hooks two different baits, and so you may try, with more ease and less time, what bait the fish love best; and also very often, as I have done, take two fish at once with one rod. You have also, by this experience, one bait for such as feed close upon the ground, as Gudgeon, Flounder, &c. and another for such as feed a little higher, as Roach, Dace, &c.
3. Some use to lead their lines heavily, and to set their float about a foot or more from the end of the rod, with a little lead to buoy it up, and thus in violent swiftstreams, they avoid the offence of a float, and yet perfectly discern the biting of the fish, and so order themselves accordingly; but this has its inconvenience, viz. the lying of the line in the water.
4. Give all fish time to gorge the bait, and be not over hasty, except you angle with such tender baits as will not endure nibbling at, but must upon every touch be struck at, as sheep’s blood and flies, which are taken away at the first pull of the fish, and therefore enforce you, at the first touch, to try your fortune.
Now we are to speak next of baits, more particularly proper for every fish, wherein I shall observe this method, first to name the fish, then the baits, according as my experience hath proved them grateful to the fish; and to place them as near as I can in such order as they come in season, though many of them are in season at one instant of time, and equally good. I would not be understood, as if when a new bait comes in, the old one were antiquated and useless; for I know the worm lasts all the year, flies all the Summer, one sort of bob-worm all the Winter, the other under cow-dung, in June and July; but I intimate that some are found when others are not in rerum natura.