Chapter 7

_Pisc_. Yes, but I wil give you some Rules or Cautions concerning them: And first, you are to note, there is two kinds of _Frogs_; that is to say, (if I may so express my self) 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 and colours, some being peckled, some greenish, some blackish, or brown: the green _Frog_, which is a smal one, is by _Topsell_ taken to be venemous; and so is the _Padock_, or _Frog-Padock_, 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 wil sometime 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 [in his 16th Book De subtil. ex.] _Cardanus_ undertakes to give 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 venemous, 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 _frog_ are observed to use divers simber salts, and to croke and make a noise, which the land _frog_, or _Padock frog_ never does. Now of these water _Frogs_, you are to chuse the yellowest that you 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, which you may easily do from about the middle of _April_ till _August_, and then the _Frogs_ mouth grows up and he continues so for at least six months without eating, but is sustained, none, but he whose name is Wonderful, knows how. I say, put your hook, I mean the arming wire, through his mouth and out at his gills, and then with a fine needle and Silk sow the upper part of his leg with only one stitch to the armed wire of your hook, or tie the _frogs_ leg above the upper joint to the armed wire, and in so doing use him as though you loved him, that is, harme him as little as you may possibly, that he may live the longer.

And now, having given you this direction for the baiting 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 fastned your hook to a line, which if it be not fourteen yards long, should not be less then twelve; you are to fasten that line to any bow neer to a hole where a _Pike_ is, or is likely to lye, or to have a haunt, and then wind your line on any forked stick, all your line, except a half 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, then so much of it as you intended; and chuse 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 clift or nick in which it was gently fastened, will have line enough to go to his hold and powch the bait: and 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 shoare 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 tyle, or a turfe in a string, and cast it into the water, with the forked stick to hang upon the ground, to be as an 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 tryal of.

Or if you bait your hooks thus, with live fish or Frogs, and in a windy day fasten them thus to a bow or bundle of straw, and by the help of that wind can get them to move cross a _Pond_ or _Mere_, you are like to stand still on the shoar and see sport, 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 on the shore along with them, and are still in expectation of sport. The rest must be taught you by practice, for time will not alow 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 dayes going a fishing with me or any other body that fishes for him, for the baiting your hook with a dead _Gudgion_ or a _Roch_, and moving it up and down the water, is too easie 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 told me for a secret: it is this:

_Dissolve_ Gum of Ivie _in Oyle of_ Spike, _and therewith annoint your dead bait for a_ Pike, _and then cast it into a likely place, and when it has layen a short time at the bottom, draw it towards the top of the water, and so up the stream, and it is more then likely that you have a_ Pike _follow you with more then common eagerness_.

This has not been tryed by me, but told me by a friend of note, that pretended to do me a courtesie: but if this direction to catch a _Pike_ thus do you no good, I am certaine this direction how to roste him when he is caught, is choicely good, for I have tryed it, and it is somewhat the better for not being common; but with my direction you must take this Caution, that your Pike must not be a smal one.

_First open your_ Pike _at the gills, and if need be, cut also a little slit towards his belly; out of these, take his guts, and keep his liver, which you are to shred very small with_ Time, Sweet Margerom, _and a little_ Winter-Savoury; _to these put some pickled_ Oysters, _and some_ Anchovis, _both these last whole (for the_ Anchovis _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 then a yard long, then you may put into these herbs more then a pound, or if he be less, then less_ Butter _will suffice:) these being thus mixt, with a blade or two of Mace, must be put into the_ Pikes _belly, and then his belly sowed up; then you are to thrust the spit through his mouth out at his tail; and then with four, or five, or six split sticks or very thin laths, and a convenient quantitie of tape or filiting, these laths are to be tyed roundabout the_ Pikes _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 rosted very leisurely, and often basted with Claret wine, and Anchovis, and butter mixt together, and also with what moisture falls from him into the pan: when you have rosted 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 sawce that is rosted in his belly; and by this means the_ Pike _will be kept unbroken and complete; then to the sawce, which was within him, and also 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 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 sawce a hogoe, let the dish (into which you let the_ Pike _fall) be rubed with it; the using or not using of this Garlick is left to your discretion. This dish of meat is too good for any but Anglers or honest men; and, I trust, you wil prove both, and therefore I have trusted you with this Secret. And now I shall proceed to give you some Observations concerning the _Carp_.

CHAP. VIII.

_Pisc_. The _Carp_ is a stately, a good, and a subtle fish, a fish that hath not (as it is said) been long in _England_, but said to be by one Mr. _Mascall_ (a Gentleman then living at _Plumsted_ in _Sussex_) brought into this Nation: and for the better confirmation of this, you are to remember I told you that _Gesner_ sayes, there is not a _Pike_ in _Spain_, and that except the _Eele_, which lives longest out of the water, there is none that will endure more hardness, or live longer then a _Carp_ will out of it, and so the report of his being brought out of a forrain Nation into this, is the more probable.

_Carps_ and _Loches_ are observed to breed several months in one year, which most other fish do not, and it is the rather believed, because you shall scarce or never take a Male _Carp_ without a _Melt_, or a _Female_ without a _Roe_ or _Spawn_; and for the most part very much, and especially all the Summer season; and it is observed, that they breed more naturally in Ponds then in running waters, and that those that live in Rivers are taken by men of the best palates to be much the better meat.

And it is observed, that in some Ponds _Carps_ will not breed, especially in cold Ponds; but where they will breed, they breed innumerably, if there be no _Pikes_ nor _Pearch_ to devour their Spawn, when it is cast upon grass, or flags, or weeds, where it lies ten or twelve dayes before it be enlivened.

The _Carp_, if he have water room and good feed, will grow to a very great bigness and length: I have heard, to above a yard long; though I never saw one above thirty three inches, which was a very great and goodly fish.

Now as the increase of _Carps_ is wonderful for their number; so there is not a reason found out, I think, by any, why the should breed in some Ponds, and not in others of the same nature, for soil and all other circumstances; and as their breeding, so are their decayes also very mysterious; I have both read it, and been told by a Gentleman of tryed honestie, that he has knowne sixtie or more large _Carps_ put into several Ponds neer to a house, where by reason of the stakes in the Ponds, and the Owners constant being neer to them, it was impossible they should be stole away from him, and that when he has after three or four years emptied the Pond, and expected an increase from them by breeding young ones (for that they might do so, he had, as the rule is, put in three Melters for one Spawner) he has, I say, after three or four years found neither a young nor old _Carp_ remaining: And the like I have known of one that has almost watched his Pond, and at a like distance of time at the fishing of a Pond, found of seventy or eighty large _Carps_, not above five or six: and that he had forborn longer to fish the said Pond, but that he saw in a hot day in Summer, a large _Carp_ swim neer to the top of the water with a _Frog_ upon his head, and that he upon that occasion caused his Pond to be let dry: and I say, of seventie or eighty _Carps_, only found five or six in the said Pond, and those very sick and lean, and with every one a Frog sticking so fast on the head of the said _Carps_, that the Frog would not bee got off without extreme force or killing, and the Gentleman that did affirm this to me he saw it, and did declare his belief to be (and I also believe the same) that he thought the other _Carps_ that were so strangely lost, were so killed by _Frogs_, and then devoured.

But I am faln into this discourse by accident, of which I might say more, but it has proved longer then I intended, and possibly may not to you be considerable; I shall therefore give you three or four more short observations of the _Carp_, and then fall upon some directions how you shall fish for him.

The age of _Carps_ is by S. _Francis Bacon_ (in his History of Life and Death) observed to be but ten years; yet others think they live longer: but most conclude, that (contrary to the _Pike_ or _Luce_) all _Carps_ are the better for age and bigness; the tongues of _Carps_ are noted to be choice and costly meat, especially to them that buy them; but _Gesner_ sayes, _Carps_ have no tongues like other fish, but a piece of flesh-like-fish in their mouth like to a tongue, and may be so called, but it is certain it is choicely good, and that the _Carp_ is to be reckoned amongst those leather mouthed fish, which I told you have their teeth in their throat, and for that reason he is very seldome lost by breaking his hold, if your hook bee once stuck into his chaps.

I told you, that Sir _Francis Bacon_ thinks that the _Carp_ lives but ten years; but _Janus Dubravius_ (a _Germane_ as I think) has writ a book in Latine of Fish and Fish Ponds, in which he sayes, that _Carps_ begin to Spawn at the age of three yeers, and continue to do so till thirty; he sayes also, that in the time of their breeding, which is in Summer when the Sun hath warmed both the earth and water, and so apted them also for generation, that then three or four Male _Carps_ will follow a Female, and that then she putting on a seeming coyness, they force her through weeds and flags, where she lets fall her eggs or Spawn, which sticks fast to the weeds, and then they let fall their Melt upon it, and so it becomes in a short time to be a living fish; and, as I told you, it is thought the _Carp_ does this several months in the yeer, and most believe that most fish breed after this manner, except the _Eele_: and it is thought that all _Carps_ are not bred by generation, but that some breed otherwayes, as some _Pikes_ do.

* * * * *

Much more might be said out of him, and out of _Aristotle_, which Dubravius often quotes in his Discourse, but it might rather perplex then satisfie you, and therefore I shall rather chuse to direct you how to catch, then spend more time discoursing either of the nature or the breeding of this _Carp_, or of any more circumstances concerning him, but yet I shall remember you of what I told you before, that he is a very subtle fish and hard to be caught.

And my first directon is, that if you will fish for a _Carp_, you must put on a very large measure of patience, especially to fish for a River _Carp_: I have knowne a very good Fisher angle diligently four or six hours in a day, for three or four dayes together for a River _Carp_, and not have a bite: and you are to note, that in some Ponds it is as hard to catch a _Carp_ as in a River; that is to say, where they have store of feed, & the water is of a clayish colour; but you are to remember, that I have told you there is no rule without an exception, and therefore being possest with that hope and patience which I wish to all Fishers, especially to the _Carp-Angler_, I shall tell you with what bait to fish for him; but that must be either early or late, and let me tell you, that in hot weather (for he will seldome bite in cold) you cannot bee too early or too late at it.

The _Carp_ bites either at wormes or at Paste; and of worms I think the blewish Marsh or Meadow worm is best; but possibly another worm not too big may do as well, and so may a Gentle: and as for Pastes, there are almost as many sorts as there are Medicines for the Toothach, but doubtless sweet Pastes are best; I mean, Pastes mixt with honey, or with Sugar; which, that you may the better beguile this crafty fish, should be thrown into the Pond or place in which you fish for him some hours before you undertake your tryal of skil by the Angle-Rod: and doubtless, if it be thrown into the water a day or two before, at several times, and in smal pellets, you are the likelier when you fish for the _Carp_, to obtain your desired sport: or in a large Pond, to draw them to any certain place, that they may the better and with more hope be fished for: you are to throw into it, in some certaine place, either grains, or bloud mixt with Cow-dung, or with bran; or any Garbage, as Chickens guts or the like, and then some of your smal sweet pellets, with which you purpose to angle; these smal pellets, being few of them thrown in as you are Angling.

And your Paste must bee thus made: Take the flesh of a Rabet or Cat cut smal, and Bean-flower, or (if not easily got then) other flowre, and then mix these together, and put to them either Sugar, or Honey, which I think better, and then beat these together in a Mortar; or sometimes work them in your hands, (your hands being very clean) and then make it into a ball, or two, or three, as you like best for your use: but you must work or pound it so long in the Mortar, as to make it so tough as to hang upon your hook without washing from it, yet not too hard; or that you may the better keep it on your hook, you may kneade with your Paste a little (and not much) white or yellowish wool.

And if you would have this Paste keep all the year for any other fish, then mix with it _Virgins-wax_ and _clarified honey_, and work them together with your hands before the fire; then make these into balls, and it will keep all the yeer.

And if you fish for a _Carp_ with Gentles, then put upon your hook a small piece of Scarlet about this bigness {breadth of two letters}, it being soked in, or anointed with _Oyl of Peter_, called by some, _Oyl of the Rock_; and if your Gentles be put two or three dayes before into a box or horn anointed with Honey, and so put upon your hook, as to preserve them to be living, you are as like to kill this craftie fish this way as any other; but still as you are fishing, chaw a little white or brown bread in your mouth, and cast it into the Pond about the place where your flote swims. Other baits there be, but these with diligence, and patient watchfulness, will do it as well as any as I have ever practised, or heard of: and yet I shall tell you, that the crumbs of white bread and honey made into a Paste, is a good bait for a _Carp_, and you know it is more easily made. And having said thus much of the _Carp_, my next discourse shal be of the _Bream_, which shall not prove so tedious, and therefore I desire the continuance of your attention.

CHAP. IX.

_Pisc_. The _Bream_ being at a full growth, is a large and stately fish, he will breed both in Rivers and Ponds, but loves best to live in Ponds, where, if he likes the aire, he will grow not only to be very large, but as fat as a Hog: he is by _Gesner_ taken to be more pleasant or sweet then wholesome; this fish is long in growing, but breeds exceedingly in a water that pleases him, yea, in many Ponds so fast, as to over store them, and starve the other fish.

The Baits good for to catch the _Bream_ are many; as namely, young Wasps, and a Paste made of brown bread and honey, or Gentels, or especially a worm, a worm that is not much unlike a Magot, which you will find at the roots of _Docks_, or of _Flags_, or of _Rushes_ that grow in the water, or watry places, and a _Grashopper_ having his legs nip'd off, or a flye that is in _June_ and _July_ to be found amongst the green Reed, growing by the water side, those are said to bee excellent baits. I doubt not but there be many others that both the _Bream_ and the _Carp_ also would bite at; but these time and experience will teach you how to find out: And so having according to my promise given you these short Observations concerning the _Bream_, I shall also give you some Observations concerning the _Tench_, and those also very briefly.

The _Tench_ is observed to love to live in Ponds; but if he be in a River, then in the still places of the River, he is observed to be a Physician to other fishes, and is so called by many that have been searchers into the nature of fish; and it is said, that a _Pike_ will neither devour nor hurt him, because the _Pike_ being sick or hurt by any accident, is cured by touching the _Tench_, and the _Tench_ does the like to other fishes, either by touching them, or by being in their company.

_Randelitius_ sayes in his discourse of fishes (quoted by _Gesner_) that at his being at _Rome_, he saw certaine Jewes apply _Tenches_ to the feet of a sick man for a cure; and it is observed, that many of those people have many Secrets unknown to Christians, secrets which have never been written, but have been successsively since the dayes of Solomon (who knew the nature of all things from the Shrub to the Cedar) delivered by tradition from the father to the son, and so from generation to generation without writing, or (unless it were casually) without the least communicating them to any other Nation or Tribe (for to do so, they account a profanation): yet this fish, that does by a natural inbred Balsome, not only cure himselfe if he be wounded, but others also, loves not to live in clear streams paved with gravel, but in standing waters, where mud and the worst of weeds abound, and therefore it is, I think, that this _Tench_ is by so many accounted better for Medicines then for meat: but for the first, I am able to say little; and for the later, can say positively, that he eats pleasantly; and will therefore give you a few, and but a few directions how to catch him.

He will bite at a Paste made of brown bread and honey, or at a Marsh-worm, or a Lob-worm; he will bite also at a smaller worm, with his head nip'd off, and a Cod-worm put on the hook before the worm; and I doubt not but that he will also in the three hot months (for in the nine colder he stirs not much) bite at a Flag-worm, or at a green Gentle, but can positively say no more of the _Tench_, he being a fish that I have not often Angled for; but I wish my honest Scholer may, and be ever fortunate when hee fishes.

_Viat_. I thank you good Master: but I pray Sir, since you see it still rains _May_ butter, give me some observations and directions concerning the _Pearch_, for they say he is both a very good and a bold biting fish, and I would faine learne to fish for him.

_Pisc_. You say true, Scholer, the _Pearch_ is a very good, and a very bold biting fish, he is one of the fishes of prey, that, like the _Pike_ and _Trout_, carries his teeth in his mouth, not in his throat, and dare venture to kill and devour another fish; this fish, and the _Pike_ are (sayes _Gesner_) the best of fresh water fish; he Spawns but once a year, and is by Physicians held very nutritive; yet by many to be hard of digestion: They abound more in the River _Poe_, and in _England_, (sayes _Randelitius_) then other parts, and have in their brain a stone, which is in forrain parts sold by Apothecaries, being there noted to be very medicinable against the stone in the reins: These be a part of the commendations which some Philosophycal brain have bestowed upon the fresh-water _Pearch_, yet they commend the _Sea Pearch_, which is known by having but one fin on his back, (of which they say, we _English_ see but a few) to be a much better fish.

The _Pearch_ grows slowly, yet will grow, as I have been credibly informed, to be almost two foot long; for my Informer told me, such a one was not long since taken by Sir _Abraham Williams_, a Gentleman of worth, and a lover of Angling, that yet lives, and I wish he may: this was a deep bodied fish; and doubtless durst have devoured a _Pike_ of half his own length; for I have told you, he is a bold fish, such a one, as but for extreme hunger, the _Pike_ will not devour; for to affright the _Pike_, the _Pearch_ will set up his fins, much like as a _Turkie-Cock_ wil sometimes set up his tail.