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 verb longe suavissimi.' ' 'Tis supremely sweet to any
fish, and yet assa foetida may do the like.'

But in these I have no great faith ; yet grant it probable ;
and have had from some chymical men, namely, from Sir
George Hastings and others, an affirmation of them to be
very advantageous. But no more of these ; especially not
in this place.

I might here, before I take my leave of the Salmon, tell
you, that there is more than one sort of them, as namely,
a Tecon, and another called in some places a Samlet, or by
some a Skegger ; but these, and others which I forbear to
name, may be fish of another kind, and differ as we know a
Herring and a Pilchard do, which, I think, are as different
as the rivers in which they breed, and must, by me, be left
to the disquisitions of men of more leisure, and of greater
abilities than I profess myself to have.

And lastly, I am to borrow so much of your promised
patience, as to tell you, that the trout, or Salmon, being in
season, have, at their first taking out of the water, which
continues during life, their bodies adorned, the one with
such red spots, and the other with such black or blackish



The FOURTH DAY



i8i



spots, as give them such an addition of natural beauty as,
I think, was never given to any woman by the artificial
paint or patches in which they so much pride themselves in
this age. And so I shall leave them both j and proceed to
some observations of the Pike.




rhe FOURTH "DAY— continued
On the Luce or Pike

CHAPTER VIII

PISCATOR AND VENATOR

PiscATOR. The mighty Luce or Pike is taken to be the
tyrant, as the Salmon is the king, of the fresh waters. 'Tis
not to be doubted, but that they are bred, some by genera-
tion, and some not ; as namely, of a weed called pickerel-
weed, unless learned Gesner be much mistaken, for he says,
this weed and other glutinous matter, with the help of the
sun's heat, in some particular months, and some ponds,
apted for it by nature, do become Pikes. But, doubtless,
divers Pikes are bred after this manner, or are brought into
some ponds some such other ways as is past man's finding
out, of which we have daily testimonies.

Sir Francis Bacon, in his History of Life and Death^
observes the Pike to be the longest lived of any fresh-water
fish ; and yet he computes it to be not usually above forty
years ; and others think it to be not above ten years : and
yet Gesner mentions a Pike taken in Swedeland, in the year
1449, with a ring about his neck, declaring he was put
into that pond by Frederick the Second, more than two
hundred years before he was last taken, as by the inscription
in that ring, being Greek, was interpreted by the then

182



The FOURTH DAY 183

Bishop of Worms. But of this no more ; but that it is
observed, that the old or very great Pikes have in them
more of state than goodness ; the smaller or middle-sized
Pikes being, by the most and choicest palates, observed to
be the best meat : and, contrary, the Eel is observed to be
the better for age and bigness.

All Pikes that live long prove chargeable to their keepers,
because their life is maintained by the death of so many
other fish, even those of their ovv^n kind ; which has made
him by some w^riters to be called the tyrant of the rivers,
or the fresh-water wolf, by reason of his bold, greedy,
devouring disposition ; which is so keen, as Gesner relates,
A man going to a pond, where it seems a Pike had devoured
all the fish, to water his mule, had a Pike bit his mule by
the Hps ; to which the Pike hung so fast, that the mule
drew him out of the water; and by that accident, the owner
of the mule angled out the Pike. And the same Gesner
observes, that a maid in Poland had a Pike bit her by the
foot, as she was washing clothes in a pond. And I have
heard the like of a woman in Killingworth pond, not far
from Coventry. But I have been assured by my friend
Mr. Segrave, of whom I spake to you formerly, that
keeps tame Otters, that he hath known a Pike, in extreme
hunger, fight with one of his Otters for a Carp that the
Otter had caught, and was then bringing out of the water.
I have told you who relate these things ; and tell you they
are persons of credit ; and shall conclude this observation,
by telling you, what a wise man has observed, ' It is a hard
thing to persuade the belly, because it has no ears.'

But if these relations be disbelieved, it is too evident to
be doubted, that a Pike will devour a fish of his own kind
that shall be bigger than his belly or throat will receive,



1 84 The COMPLETE ANGLER

and swallow a part of him, and let the other part remain in
his mouth till the swallowed part be digested, and then
swallow that other part that was in his mouth, and so put it
over by degrees ; which is not unlike the Ox, and some
other beasts taking their meat, not out of their mouth
immediately into their belly, but first into some place
betwixt, and then chew it, or digest it by degrees after,
which is called chewing the cud. And, doubtless. Pikes will
bite when they are not hungry ; but, as some think, even
for very anger, when a tempting bait comes near to them.

And it is observed, that the Pike will eat venomous
things, as some kind of frogs are, and yet live without
being harmed by them ; for, as some say, he has in him a
natural balsam, or antidote against all poison. And he has
a strange heat, that though it appear to us to be cold, can
yet digest or put over any fish-flesh, by degrees, without
being sick. And others observe, that he never eats the
venomous frog till he have first killed her, and then as
ducks are observed to do to frogs in spawning-time, at which
time some frogs are observed to be venomous, so thoroughly
washed her, by tumbling her up and down in the water,
that he may devour her without danger. And Gesner
affirms, that a Polonian gentleman did faithfully assure him,
he had seen two young geese at one time in the belly of a
Pike. And doubtless a Pike in his height of hunger will
bite at and devour a dog that swims in a pond ; and there
have been examples of it, or the like ; for as I told you,
' The belly has no ears when hunger comes upon it.'

The Pike is also observed to be a solitary, melancholy,
and a bold fish j melancholy, because he always swims or
rests himself alone, and never swims in shoals or with com-
pany, as Roach and Dace, and most other fish do : and bold,



The FOURTH DAY 185

because he fears not a shadow, or to see or be seen of any-
body, as the Trout and Chub, and all other fish do.

And it is observed by Gesner, that the jaw-bones, and
hearts, and galls of Pikes, are very medicinable for several
diseases, or to stop blood, to abate fevers, to cure agues,
to oppose or expel the infection of the plague, and to be
many ways medicinable and useful for the good of man-
kind : but he observes, that the biting of a Pike is venom-
ous, and hard to be cured.

And it is observed, that the Pike is a fish that breeds
but once a year ; and that other fish, as namely Loaches,
do breed oftener : as we are certain tame Pigeons do
almost every month ; and yet the Hawk, a bird of prey,
as the Pike is a fish, breeds but once in twelve months.
And you are to note, that his time of breeding, or spawn-
ing, is usually about the end of February, or, somewhat
later, in March, as the weather proves colder or warmer :
and to note, that his manner of breeding is thus : a he
and a she Pike will usually go together out of a river into
some ditch or creek ; and that there the spawner casts
her eggs, and the melter hovers over her all that time
that she is casting her spawn, but touches her not.

I might say more of this, but it might be thought
curiosity or worse, and shall therefore forbear it ; and take
up so much of your attention as to tell you that the best
of Pikes are noted to be in rivers 5 next, those in great
ponds or meres ; and the worst, in small ponds.

But before I proceed further, I am to tell you, that
there is a great antipathy betwixt the Pike and some
frogs : and this may appear to the reader of Dubravius,^^
a bishop in Bohemia, who, in his book Of Fish and
Fish-ponds^ relates what he says he saw with his own



1 86 The COMPLETE ANGLER

eyes, and could not forbear to tell the reader. Which
was :

*As he and the bishop Thurzo were walking by a
large pond in Bohemia, they saw a frog, when the Pike
lay very sleepily and quiet by the shore side, leap upon
his head -, and the frog having expressed malice or anger
by his swoln cheeks and staring eyes, did stretch out his
legs and embrace the Pike's head, and presently reached
them to his eyes, tearing with them, and his teeth, those
tender parts : the Pike, moved with anguish, moves up
and down the water, and rubs himself against weeds, and
whatever he thought might quit him of his enemy ; but
all in vain, for the frog did continue to ride triumphantly,
and to bite and torment the Pike till his strength failed ;
and then the frog sunk with the Pike to the bottom of
the water : then presently the frog appeared again at the
top, and croaked, and seemed to rejoice like a conqueror,
after which he presently retired to his secret hole. The
bishop, that had beheld the battle, called his fisherman
to fetch his nets, and by all means to get the Pike that
they might declare what had happened : and the Pike
was drawn forth, and both his eyes eaten out ; at which
when they began to wonder, the fisherman wished them
to forbear, and assured them he was certain that Pikes
were often so served.'

I told this, which is to be read in the sixth chapter of
the book of Dubravius, unto a friend, who replied, ' It
was as improbable as to have the mouse scratch out the
cat's eyes.' But he did not consider, that there be Fishing-
frogs, which the Dalmatians call the Water-devil, of which
I might tell you as wonderful a story : but I shall tell
you that 'tis not to be doubted but that there be some



The FOURTH DAY 187

frogs so fearful of the water-snake, that when they swim
in a place in which they fear to meet with him, they then
get a reed across into their mouths ; which, if they two
meet by accident, secures the frog from the strength and
malice of the snake ; and note, that the frog usually swims
the fastest of the two.

And let me tell you, that as there be water and land
frogs, so there be land and water snakes. Concerning
which take this observation, that the land-snake breeds
and hatches her eggs, which become young snakes, in
some old dunghill, or a like hot place : but the water-
snake, which is not venomous, and as I have been assured
by a great observer of such secrets, does not hatch, but
breed her young alive, which she does not then forsake,
but bides with them, and in case of danger will take them
all into her mouth and swim away from any apprehended
danger, and then let them out again when she thinks all
danger to be past : these be accidents that we Anglers
sometimes see, and often talk of.

But whither am I going ? I had almost lost myself, by
remembering the discourse of Dubravius. I will therefore
stop here ; and tell you, according to my promise, how
to catch this Pike.

His feeding is usually of fish or frogs ; and sometimes
a weed of his own, called pickerel-weed, of which I told
you some think Pikes are bred ; for they have observed,
that where none have been put into ponds, yet they have
there found many ; and that there has been plenty of that
weed in those ponds, and that that weed both breeds and
feeds them : but whether those Pikes, so bred, will ever
breed by generation as the others do, I shall leave to the
disquisitions of men of more curiosity and leisure than



i88 The COMPLETE ANGLER

I profess myself to have : and shall proceed to tell you,
that you may fish for a Pike, either with a ledger or a
walking-bait ; and you are to note, that I call that a
Ledger-bait, which is fixed or made to rest in one certain
place when you shall be absent from it ; and I call that
a Walking-bait, which you take with you, and have ever
in motion. Concerning which two, I shall give you this
direction ; that your ledger-bait is best to be a living bait
(though a dead one may catch), whether it be a fish or a
frog : and that you may make them live the longer, you
may, or indeed you must, take this course :

First, for your live-bait. Of fish, a roach or dace
is, I think, best and most tempting ; and a perch is the
longest lived on a hook, and having cut off his fin on his
back, which may be done without hurting him, you must
take your knife, which cannot be too sharp, and betwixt
the head and the fin on the back, cut or make an incision,
or such a scar, as you may put the arming-wire of your
hook into it, with as little bruising or hurting the fish as
art and diligence will enable you to do ; and so carrying
your arming-wire along his back, unto or near the tail of
your fish, betwixt the skin and the body of it, draw out
that wire or arming of your hook at another scar near to
his tail : then tie him about it with thread, but no harder
than of necessity, to prevent hurting the fish ; and the
better to avoid hurting the fish, some have a kind of
probe to open the way for the more easy entrance and
passage of your wire or arming : but as for these, time
and a little experience will teach you better than I can
by words. Therefore I will for the present say no more
of this ; but come next to give you some directions how
to bait your hook with a frog.



The FOURTH DAY 189

Venator. But, good master, did you not say even
now, that some frogs were venomous ; and is it not danger-
ous to touch them ?

PiscATOR. Yes, but I will give you some rules or
cautions concerning them. And first you are to note, that
there are two kinds of frogs, that is to say, if I may so
express myself, a flesh and a fish frog. By flesh-frogs, I
mean frogs that breed and live on the land ; and of these
there be several sorts also, and of several colours, some
being speckled, some greenish, some blackish, or brown :
the green frog, which is a small one, is, by Topsel, taken
to be venomous ; and so is the paddock, or frog-paddock,
which usually keeps or breeds on the land, and is very
large and bony, and big, especially the she-frog of that
kind : yet these will sometimes come into the water, but
it is not often : and the land-frogs are some of them
observed by him, to breed by laying eggs ; and others to
breed of the slime and dust of the earth, and that in
winter they turn to slime again, and that the next summer
that very slime returns to be a living creature ; this is the
opinion of Pliny. And Cardanus^^ undertakes to give a
reason for the raining of frogs : but if it were in my
power, it should rain none but water-frogs ; for those
I think are not venomous, especially the right water-
frog, which, about February or March, breeds in ditches,
by slime, and blackish eggs in that slime : about which
time of breeding, the he and she frogs are observed
to use divers summersaults, and to croak and make
a noise, which the land-frog, or paddock-frog, never
does.

Now of these water-frogs, if you intend to fish with a
frog for a Pike, you are to choose the yellowest that you



190 The COMPLETE ANGLER

can get, for that the Pike ever likes best. And thus use
your frog, that he may continue long alive :

Put your hook into his mouth, w^hich you may easily
do from the middle of April till August ; and then the
frog's mouth grov^^s up, and he continues so for at least
six months vv^ithout eating, but is sustained, none but He
w^hose name is Wonderful knows how^ : I say, put your
hook, I mean the arming-w^ire, through his mouth, and
out at his gills ; and then v^^ith a line needle and silk sew
the upper part of his leg, with only one stitch, to the
arming-wire of your hook ; or tie the frog's leg, above the
upper joint, to the armed-wire ; and, in so doing, use him
as though you loved him, that is, harm him as little as
you may possibly, that he may live the longer.

And now, having given you this direction for the bait-
ing your ledger-hook with a live fish or frog, my next
must be to tell you, how your hook thus baited must or
may be used ; and it is thus : having fastened your hook
to a line, which if it be not fourteen yards long should not
be less than twelve, you are to fasten that line to any
bough near to a hole where a Pike is, or is likely to lie,
or to have a haunt 5 and then wind your line on any forked
stick, all your line, except half a yard of it or rather
more ; and split that forked stick, with such a nick or
notch at one end of it as may keep the line from any
more of it ravelling from about the stick than so much of
it as you intend. And choose your forked stick to be of
that bigness as may keep the fish or frog from pulling the
forked stick under the water till the Pike bites ; and then
the Pike having pulled the line forth of the cleft or nick
of that stick in which it was gently fastened, he will have
line enough to go to his hold and pouch the bait. And



i M'I.^'M(




Use him as though you loved him.



The FOURTH DAY 193

if you would have this ledger-bait to keep at a fixt place
undisturbed by wind or other accidents which may drive
it to the shore-side, for you are to note, that it is likeliest
to catch a Pike in the midst of the water, then hang a
small plummet of lead, a stone, or piece of tile, or a turf,
in a string, and cast it into the water with the forked
stick to hang upon the ground, to be a kind of anchor to
keep the forked stick from moving out of your intended
place till the Pike come : this I take to be a very good
way to use so many ledger-baits as you intend to make
trial of.

Or if you bait your hooks thus with live fish or frogs,
and in a windy day, fasten them thus to a bough or bundle
of straw, and by the help of that wind can get them to
move across a pond or mere, you are like to stand still on
the shore and see sport presently, if there be any store of
Pikes. Or these live baits may make sport, being tied
about the body or wings of a goose or duck, and she chased
over a pond. And the like may be done with turning
three or four live baits, thus fastened to bladders, or boughs,
or bottles of hay or flags, to swim down a river, whilst you
walk quietly alone on the shore, and are still in expectation
of sport. The rest must be taught you by practice ; for
time will not allow me to say more of this kind of fishing
with live baits.

And for your dead-bait for a Pike : for that you may
be taught by one day's going a-fishing with me, or any
other body that fishes for him ; for the baiting your hook
with a dead gudgeon or a roach, and moving it up and
down the water, is too easy a thing to take up any time to
direct you to do it. And yet, because I cut you short in
that, I will commute for it by telling you that that was

N



194 "^he COMPLETE ANGLER

told me for a secret : it is this : Dissolve gum of ivy in oil
of spike, and therewith anoint your dead bait for a Pike ;
and then cast it into a likely place ; and w^hen it has lain a
short time at the bottom, draw it towards the top of the
water, and so up the stream ; and it is more than likely
that you have a Pike follow with more than common
eagerness. And some affirm, that any bait anointed with
the marrow of the thigh-bone of a heron is a great tempta-
tion to any fish.

These have not been tried by me, but told me by a
friend of note, that pretended to do me a courtesy. But if
this direction to catch a Pike thus do you no good, yet I
am certain this direction how to roast him when he is
caught is choicely good ; for I have tried it, and it is some-
what the better for not being common. But with my
direction you must take this caution, that your Pike must
not be a small one, that is, it must be more than half a yard^
and should be bigger.

' First, open your Pike at the gills, and if need be, cut
also a little slit towards the belly. Out of these, take his
guts ; and keep his liver, which you are to shred very small,
with thyme, sweet marjoram, and a little winter-savoury ;
to these put some pickled oysters, and some anchovies, two
or three ; both these last whole, for the anchovies will
melt, and the oysters should not ; to these, you must add
also a pound of sweet butter, which you are to mix with
the herbs that are shred, and let them all be well salted. If
the Pike be more than a yard long, then you may put into
these herbs more than a pound, or if he be less, then less
butter will suflice : These, being thus mixt, with a blade
or two of mace, must be put into the Pike's belly ; and
then his belly so sewed up as to keep all the butter in his




Too good for any but anglers^ or -very honest men.



The FOURTH DAY 197

belly if it be possible ; if not, then as much of it as you
possibly can. But take not ofF the scales. Then you are
to thrust the spit through his mouth, out at his tail. And
then take four or five or six split sticks, or very thin laths,
and a convenient quantity of tape or filleting ; these laths
are to be tied round about the Pike's body, from his head
to his tail, and the tape tied somewhat thick, to prevent his
breaking or falling ofF from the spit. Let him be roasted
very leisurely ; and often basted with claret wine, and
anchovies, and butter, mixt together ; and also with what
moisture falls from him into the pan. When you have
roasted him sufficiently, you are to hold under him, when
you unwind or cut the tape that ties him, such a dish as
you purpose to eat him out of; and let him fall into it
with the sauce that is roasted in his belly ; and by this
means the Pike will be kept unbroken and complete.
Then, to the sauce which was within, and also that sauce
in the pan, you are to add a fit quantity of the best butter,
and to squeeze the juice of three or four oranges. Lastly,
you may either put it into the Pike, with the oysters, two
cloves of garlick, and take it whole out, when the Pike is
cut ofF the spit ; or, to give the sauce a haut gout, let the
dish into which you let the Pike fall be rubbed with it :
The using or not using of this garHck is left to your
discretion. M. B.

This dish of meat is too good for any but anglers, or
very honest men ; and I trust you will prove both, and
therefore I have trusted you with this secret.

Let me next tell you, that Gesner tells us, there are no
Pikes in Spain, and that the largest are in the lake Thrasy-
mene in Italy ; and the next, if not equal to them, are the
Pikes of England ; and that in England, Lincolnshire



198



The COMPLETE ANGLER



boasteth to have the biggest. Just so doth Sussex boast of
four sorts of fish, namely, an Arundel Mullet, a Chichester
Lobster, a Shelsey Cockle, and an Amerly Trout.

But I will take up no more of your time with this
relation, but proceed to give you some Observations of the
Carp, and how to angle for him ; and to dress him, but not
till he is caught.





— ^^p



The FOURTH "DhX— continued
On the Carp

CHAPTER IX

PISCATOR

The Carp is the queen of rivers ; a stately, a good, and
a very subtil fish ; that was not at first bred, nor hath been
long in England, but is novv^ naturalized. It is said, they
were brought hither by one Mr. Mascal, a gentleman
that then lived at Plumsted in Sussex, a county that
abounds more with this fish than any in this nation.

You may remember that I told you Gesner says there
are no Pikes in Spain ; and doubtless there was a time,
about a hundred or a few more years ago, when there were
no Carps in England, as may seem to be affirmed by Sir
Richard Baker, in whose Chronicle you may find these

verses :

Hops and turkles, carps and beer.
Came into England all in a year.

And doubtless, as of sea-fish the Herring dies soonest out
of the water, and of fresh-water fish the Trout, so, except
the Eel, the Carp endures most hardness, and lives longest
out of its own proper element ; and, therefore, the report

201



202 The COMPLETE ANGLER

of the Carp's being brought out of a foreign country into
this nation is the more probable.

Carps and Loaches are observed to breed several months
in one year, which Pikes and most other fish do not j and
this is partly proved by tame and wild rabbits ; as also by