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 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 when 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 temptation 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 somewhat 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.
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