He says, they begin to be good in May, and that they
cease to be so in August: but it is found to be otherwise in this nation.
But thus far we agree with him, that the spawn of a Barbel, if it be not
poison, as he says, yet that it is dangerous meat, and especially in the
month of May, which is so certain, that Gesner and Gasius declare it
had an ill effect upon them, even to the endangering of their lives.
The fish is of a fine cast and handsome shape, with small scales, which
are placed after a most exact and curious manner, and, as I told you,
may be rather said not to be ill, than to be good meat, The Chub and he
have, I think, both lost part of their credit by ill cookery; they being
reputed the worst, or coarsest, of fresh-water fish. But the Barbel
affords an angler choice sport, being a lusty and a cunning fish; so lusty
and cunning as to endanger the breaking of the angler's line, by running
his head forcibly towards any covert, or hole, or bank, and then striking
at the line, to break it off, with his tail; as is observed by Plutarch, in his
book De Industria Animalium: and also so cunning, to nibble and suck
off your worm close to the hook, and yet avoid the letting the hook
come into his mouth.
The Barbel is also curious for his baits; that is to say, that they be clean
and sweet; that is to say, to have your worms well scoured, and not kept
in sour and musty moss, for he is a curious feeder: but at a well-scoured
lob-worm he will bite as boldly as at any bait, and specially if, the night
or two before you fish for him, you shall bait the places where you
intend to fish for him, with big worms cut into pieces.
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