CHAPTER XII.

OF ANGLING IN THE MIDDLE FOR TROUT OR GRAYLING.

Piscator. ANGLING in the middle, then, for Trout or Grayling, is of two sorts; with a Penk, or Minnow, for a Trout; or with a worm, grub, or cadis, for a Grayling.

For the first: It is with a Minnow, half a foot or a foot within the superficies of the water. And as to the rest that concerns this sort of angling, I shall wholly refer you to Mr Walton's direction, who is undoubtedly the best angler with a Minnow in England; only, in plain truth, I do not approve of those baits he keeps in salt,* unless where the living ones are not possibly to be had (though I know he frequently kills with them, and, peradventure, more than with any other; nay, I have seen him refuse a living one for one of them ;) and much less for his artificial one; * for though we do it with a counterfeit fly, methinks it should hardly be expected that a man should deceive a fish with a counterfeit fish. Which having said, I shall only add, (and that out of my own experience,) that I do believe a Bull-head, with his gill-fins cut off, at some times of the year especially, to be a much better bait for a Trout than a Minnow, and a Loach much better than that: to prove which I shall only tell you, that I have much oftener taken Trouts with a Bull-head or a Loach, in their throats (for there a Trout has questionless his first digestion) than a Minnow; and that one day especially, having angled a good part of the day with a Minnow, and that in as hopeful a day, and as fit a water as could be wished for that purpose, without raising any one fish, I at last fell to it with the worm, and with that took fourteen in a very short space; amongst all which there was not, to my remembrance, so much as one that had not a Loach or two, and some of them three, four, five, and six Loaches, in his throat and stomach; from whence I concluded, that had I angled with that bait, I had made a notable day's work of it.

But, after all, there is a better way of angling with a Minnow than perhaps is fit either to teach or to practise; to which I shall only add, that a Grayling will certainly rise at, and sometimes take, a Minnow, though it will be hard to be believed by any one who shall consider the littleness of that fish's mouth, very unfit to take so great a bait; but it is affirmed by many that he will sometimes do it, and I myself know it to be true; for though I never took a Grayling so, yet a man of mine once

* See vol. i. p. 99.

did, and within so few paces of me, that I am as certain of it as I can be of any thing I did not see, and, which made it appear the more strange, the Grayling was not above eleven inches long.

I must here also beg leave of your master, and mine, not to controvert, but to tell him, that I cannot consent to his way of throwing in his rod to an overgrown Trout, and afterwards recovering his fish with his tackle for though I am satisfied he has sometimes done it, because he says so, yet I have found it quite otherwise: and though I have taken with the angle, I may safely say, some thousands of Trouts in my life, my top never snapped, though my line still continued fast to the remaining part of my rod, by some lengths of line curled round about my top, and there fastened, with wax silk, against such an accident, nor my hand never slacked, or slipped by any other chance, but I almost always infallibly lost my fish, whether great or little, though my hook came home again. And I have often wondered how a Trout should so suddenly disengage himself from so great a hook as that we bait with a Minnow, and so deep bearded as those hooks commonly are, when I have seen by the forenamed accidents, or the slipping of a knot in the upper part of the line, by sudden and hard striking, that though the line has immediately been recovered, almost before it could be all drawn into the water, the fish cleared and was gone in a moment. And yet, to justify what he says, I have sometimes known a Trout, having carried away a whole line, found dead three or four days after, with the hook fast sticking in him; but then it is to be supposed he had gorged it, which a Trout will do, if you be not too quick with him when he comes at a Minnow, as sure and much sooner than a Pike and I myself have also, once or twice in my life, taken the same fish, with my own fly sticking in his chaps, that he had taken from me the day before, by the slipping of a hook in the arming. But I am very confident a Trout will not be troubled two hours with any hook that has so much as one handful of line left behind with it, or that is not struck through a bone, if it be in any part of his mouth only nay, I do certainly know that a Trout, so soon as ever he feels himself pricked, if he carries away the hook, goes immediately to the bottom, and will there root, like a hog upon the gravel, till he either rub out or break the hook in the middle. And so much for this first sort of angling in the middle for a Trout.

The second way of angling in the middle is with a worm, grub, cadis, or any other ground-bait, for a Grayling; and that is with a cork, and a foot from the bottom, a Grayling taking it much better there than at the bottom, as has been said before; and this always in a clear water, and with the finest tackle.

To which we may also, and with very good reason, add the third way of angling by hand with a ground-bait, as a third way of fishing in the middle, which is common to both Trout and Grayling; and, as I said before, the best way of angling with a worm of all other I ever tried whatever.

And now, sir, I have said all I can at present think of concerning angling for a Trout and Grayling, and, I doubt not, have tired you sufficiently: but I will give you no more trouble of this kind whilst you stay, which I hope will be a good while longer.

Viator. That will not be above a day longer; but if I live till May come twelvemonth, you are sure of me again, either with my master Walton or without him; and in the meantime shall acquaint him how much you have made of me for his sake, and I hope he loves me well enough to thank you for it.

Piscator. I shall be glad, sir, of your good company at the time you speak of, and shall be loath to part with you now; but when you tell me you must go, I will then wait upon you more miles on your way than I have tempted you out of it, and heartily wish you a good journey.

A SHORT DISCOURSE,

BY WAY OF

POSTSCRIPT,

TOUCHING THE LAWS OF ANGLING.*

MY GOOD FRIEND,

I CANNOT but tender my particular thanks to you, for that you have been pleased, by three editions of your Complete Angler, freely to dispense your dear-bought experience to all the lovers of that art; and have thereby so excellently vindicated the legality thereof, as to divine approbation, that if I should go about to say more in that behalf, it indeed were to light a candle to the sun. But since all pleasures, though never so innocent in themselves, lose that stamp, when they are either pursued with inordinate affections, or to the prejudice of another, therefore, as to the former, every man ought to endeavour, through a serious consideration of the vanity of worldly contentments, to moderate his affections thereunto, whereby they may be made of excellent use, as some poisons allayed are in physic; and, as to the latter, we are to have recourse to the known laws, ignorance whereof excuseth no man, and therefore, by their directions, so to square our actions, that we hurt no man, but keep close to that golden rule, "To do to all men as we would ourselves be done unto."

Now, concerning the art of angling, we may conclude, sir, that as you have proved it to be of great antiquity, so I find it favoured by the laws of this kingdom; for where provision is made by our statutes, primo Elizabeth, cap. 17, against taking fish by nets that be not of such and such a size there set down, yet those law-makers had so much respect to anglers, as to except them, and leave them at liberty to catch as big as they could, and as little as they would catch. And yet, though this apostolical recreation be simply in itself lawful, yet no man can go upon another man's ground to fish without his licence, but that he is a trespasser. But if a man have a licence to enter into a close or ground for such a space of time, there, though he practise angling all that time, he is not a trespasser, because his fishing is no abuse of his

This Discourse was first published with, and was printed at the end of, the third edition of Walton's book: but, as the subject matter of it relates as well to Cotton's part as the other, it was thought proper to transpose it.

licence but this is to be understood of running streams, and not of ponds, or standing pools; for in case of a pond, or standing pool, the owner thereof hath a property in the fish, and they are so far said to be his, that he may have trespass for the fish against any one that shall take them without his licence, though it be upon a common, or adjoining to the King's highway, or adjoining to another man's ground, who gives licence. But in case of a river, where one or more have liberia piscaria only, it is otherwise; for there the fishes are said to be feræ naturâ; and the taking of them with an angle is not trespass, for that no man is said to have a property in them till he have caught them; and then it is a trespass for any to take them from him. But this is not to be understood of fishes confined to a man's own ground, by gates or otherwise, so that they cannot pass away, but may be taken out or put in at pleasure; for in that case the party hath a property in them, as in the case of a standing pool.

But where any one hath separalis piscaria, as in Child and Greenhill's case in Trín. 15, Car. Î, in the King's Bench, there it seemeth that the fish may be said to be his, because no man else may take them whilst they are within his several fishing. Therefore what is meant by a several fishing is necessary to be considered. And though the difference between a free fishing and a several fishing be often treated of in the ancient books of the law; and some opinions will have the difference to be great, and others small, or nothing at all, yet the certainest definition of a several fishing is, "Where one hath the royalty, and owneth the ground on each side of the water;" which agreeth with Sir William Calthorp's case, where an action was brought by him against another for fishing in his several fishing, &c. ; to which the defendant pleaded, that the place wherein the trespass was supposed to be done, contained ten perches of land in length, and twenty perches in breadth, which was his own freehold at the time when the trespass was supposed to be done, and that he fished there as was lawful for him to do; and this was adjudged a good plea by the whole court: and, upon argument in that very case, it was agreed, that no man could have a several fishing but in his own soil, and that free fishing may be in the soil of another man, which was all agreed unto by Littleton, our famous English lawyer. So that from all this may be drawn this short conclusion, that if the angler take care that he offend not with his feet, there is no great danger of his hands.

But there are some covetous rigid persons, whose souls hold no sympathy with those of the innocent anglers, having either got to be lords of royalties, or owners of lands adjoining to rivers; and these do, by some apted clownish nature and education for the purpose, insult and domineer over the innocent angler, beating him, breaking his rod, or at least taking it from him, and sometimes imprisoning his person as

*

There is no reading this passage without figuring to one's imagination the poor, humble, patient angler, standing still and defenceless, while the merciless lord of the manor is laying on him with a stick, perhaps the butt of his own rod, or a worse weapon. I will not dispute with the author, whether the meekness and submission of the poor fisher upon this occasion are very becoming or not: but this sort of passive valour is rather to be admired than imitated. Yet has the angler his remedy, as the reader will see a few lines below.