stronger tackle, and allow a nearer approach to the stream, I may peradventure give you some instructions that may be of use even in your own rivers, and shall bring you acquainted with more flies and show you how to make them, and with what dubbing too, than he has taken notice of in his COMPLETE ANGLER.*

VIATOR. I beseech you, Sir, do; and if you will lend me your steel, I will light a pipe the while, for that is, commonly, my breakfast in a morning, too.†

CHAP. IV.

PISCATOR. WHY then, Sir, to begin methodically, as a master in any art should do, and I will not deny but that I think myself a master in this, I shall divide Angling for Trout, or Grayling, into these three ways: at the top; at the bottom; and in the middle. Which three ways, though they are all of them, as I shall hereafter endeavour to make it appear, in some sort common to both those kinds of fish; yet are they not so generally and absolutely so, but that they will necessarily require a distinction, which, in due place, I will also give you.

That which we call angling at the top, is with a fly; at the bottom, with a ground-bait; in the middle, with a minnow or ground-bait.

Angling at the top is of two sorts; with a quick ‡ fly, or with an artificial fly.

That we call Angling at the bottom, is also of two sorts; by hand, or with a cork or float.

That we call Angling in the middle, is also of two sorts; with a Minnow, for a Trout, or with a ground-bait for a Grayling.

*See Part I. chap. v. p. 100.

↑ It should seem by what Walton says, chap. x., that he was a smoker: and the reader sees, by the passage in the text, that Piscator, by whom we are to understand Cotton himself, was also, and so curious as to have his tobacco from London. Vide p. 235

Smoking, or, as the phrase was, "taking tobacco," was, in Queen Elizabeth's and her successor's time, esteemed the greatest of all foppery. Ben Jonson, who mortally hated it, has numberless sarcasms against smoking and smokers; all which are nothing compared to those contained in that work of our King James the First, A Counterblast to Tobacco. Nor was the ordinary conversation of this monarch less fraught with reasons and invectives against the use of that weed, as will appear from the following saying of his, extracted from "A Collection of witty apophthegms, delivered by him and others, at several times, and on sundry occasions," published in 12m0, 1671 :

"That tobacco was the lively image and pattern of hell; for that it had, by allusion, in it all the parts and vices of the world whereby hell may be gained; to wit: First, it was a smoke; so are the vanities of this world. Secondly, it delighteth them who take it; so do the pleasures of the world delight the men of the world. Thirdly, it maketh men drunken, and light in the head; so do the vanities of the world: men are drunken therewith. Fourthly, he that taketh tobacco saith he cannot leave it, it doth bewitch him even so the pleasures of the world make men loath to leave them, they are for the most part so enchanted with them. And further, besides all this, It is like hell in the very substance of it, for it is a stinking loathsome thing; and so is hell. And further, his Majesty professed that, were he to invite the devil to dinner, he should have three dishes: 1. A pig; 2. A pole of ling and mustard; and 3. A pipe of tobacco for digesture."

Living.

Of all which several sorts of angling, I will, if you can have the patience to hear me, give you the best account I can.

VIATOR. The trouble will be yours, and mine the pleasure and the obligation: I beseech you therefore to proceed.

PISCATOR.
PISCATOR.

CHAP. V.

Why then, first of fly-fishing.

FLY-FISHING, or fishing at the top, is, as I said before, of two sorts; with a natural and living fly, or with an artificial and made fly.

First, then, of the Natural Fly; of which we generally use but two sorts; and those but in the two months of May and June only; namely, the Green-drake, and the Stone-fly: though I have made use of a third, that way, called the Camlet-fly, with very good success, for Grayling, but never saw it angled with by any other, after this manner, my master only excepted, who died many years ago, and was one of the best anglers that ever I knew.

These are to be angled with with a short line, not much more than half the length of your rod, if the air be still; or with a longer, very near, or all out, as long as your rod, if you have any wind to carry it from you. And this way of fishing we call daping, dabbing, or dibling; wherein you are always to have your line flying before you up or down the river, as the wind serves, and to angle as near as you can to the bank of the same side whereon you stand, though where you see a fish rise near you you may guide your quick fly over him, whether in the middle or on the contrary side; and if you are pretty well out of sight, either by kneeling or the interposition of a bank or bush, you may almost be sure to raise, and take him too, if it be presently done; the fish will, otherwise, peradventure be removed to some other place, if it be in the still deeps, where he is always in motion, and roving up and down to look for prey, though, in a stream, you may always almost, especially if there be a good stone near, find him in the same place. Your Line ought in this case to be three good hairs next the hook; both by reason you are, in this kind of angling, to expect the biggest fish, and also that, wanting length to give him line after he has struck, you must be forced to tug for it to which I will also add, that not an inch of your line being to be suffered to touch the water in dibling, it may be allowed to be the stronger. I should now give you a description of those flies, their shape and colour; and then give you an account of their breeding; and withal show you how to keep and use them; but shall defer them to their proper place and

season,

2

VIATOR.

In earnest, Sir, you discourse very rationally of this affair, and I am glad to find myself mistaken in you: for, in plain truth, I did not expect so much from you.

PISCATOR. Nay, Sir, I can tell you a great deal more than this; and will conceal nothing from you. But I must now come to the second way of Angling at the top; which is with an artificial fly, which also I will show you how to make before I have done but first shall acquaint you, that with this you are to angle with a line longer by a yard and a half, or sometimes two yards, than your rod and with both this and the other in a still day, in the streams, in a breeze that curls the water, in the still deeps, where excepting in May and June, that the best Trouts will lie in shallow streams to watch for prey, and even then too, you are like to hit the best fish.

For the length of your rod, you are always to be governed by the breadth of the river you shall choose to angle at: and for a Trout-river, one of five or six yards long is commonly enough; and longer, though never so neatly and artificially made, it ought not to be, if you intend to fish at ease; and if otherwise, where lies the sport?

Of these, the best that ever I saw are made in Yorkshire; which are all of one piece, that is to say, of several, six, eight, ten, or twelve pieces, so neatly pieced and tied together with fine thread below and silk above as to make it taper like a switch, and to ply with a true bent to your hand. And these, too, are light, being made of firwood for two or three lengths nearest to the hand, and of other wood nearer to the top, that a man might, very easily, manage the longest of them that ever I saw, with one hand. And these, when you have given over angling for a season, being taken to pieces and laid up in some dry place, may afterwards be set together again in their former postures, and will be as straight, sound, and good as the first hour they were made, and being laid in oil and colour, according to your master Walton's direction, will last many years.

The length of your line, to a man that knows how to handle his rod, and to cast it, is no manner of incumbrance, excepting in woody places and in landing of a fish, which every one that can afford to angle for pleasure has somebody to do for him. And the length of line is a mighty advantage to the fishing at distance; and to fish fine and far off is the first and principal rule for Trout-angling.

Your line in this case should never be less, nor ever exceed

two hairs next to the hook; for one (though some, I know, will pretend to more art than their fellows) is indeed too few, the least accident, with the finest hand, being sufficient to break it: but he that cannot kill a Trout of twenty inches long with two, in a river clear of wood and weeds, as this and some others of ours are, deserves not the name of an Angler.

Now, to have your whole line as it ought to be, two of the first lengths nearest the hook should be of two hairs apiece; the next three lengths above them of three; the next three above them of four; and, so, of five, and six, and seven, to the very top by which means your rod and tackle will, in a manner, be taper from your very hand to your hook: your line will fall much better and straighter, and cast your fly to any certain place to which the hand and eye shall direct it, with less weight and violence, that would otherwise circle the water and fright away the fish.

In casting your line, do it always before you,* and so that your fly may first fall upon the water, and as little of your line with it as possible though if the wind be stiff, you will then, of necessity, be compelled to drown a good part of your line, to keep your fly in the water. And in casting your fly you must aim at the further or nearer bank, as the wind serves your turn, which also will be with and against you, on the same side, several times in an hour, as the river winds in its course, and you will be forced to angle up and down by turns accordingly, but are to endeavour, as much as you can, to have the wind, evermore, on your back. And always be sure to stand as far off the bank as your length will give you leave when you throw to the contrary side: though when the wind will not permit you so to do, and that you are constrained to angle on the same side whereon you stand, you must then stand on the very brink of the river, and cast your fly to the utmost length of your rod and line, up or down the river, as the gale serves.

It only remains, touching your line, to inquire, whether your two hairs next to the hook are better twisted or open? And for that I should declare that I think the open way the better, because it makes less show in the water, but that I have found an incon

The tyro in the art of fly-fishing, who may be desirous of further instructions for "casting his line" than those given by Cotton in the text, is referred to the "Complete Angler's Vade Mecum," by Captain Williamson, who has endeavoured to supply the learner with such plain matter-of-fact directions, with respect to the management of his fly-rod, as may at once enable him to cast his line without restraint;" and to Taylor's Art of Angling; but it is almost needless to observe, that one day's instruction from an experienced fly-fisher will be found of more value than all the directions ever written. -H.

venience or two, or three, that have made me almost weary of that way; of which one is, that, without dispute, they are not so strong open as twisted;* another, that they are not, easily, to be fastened of so exact an equal length in the arming that the one will not cause the other to bag, by which means a man has but one hair upon the matter to trust to; and the last is, that these loose flying hairs are not only more apt to catch upon every twig or bent they meet with, but, moreover, the hook, in falling upon the water, will, very often, rebound and fly back betwixt the hairs, and there stick (which, in a rough water especially, is not presently to be discerned by the angler) so as the point of the hook shall stand reversed; by which means your fly swims backward, makes a much greater circle in the water and till taken home to you and set right, will never raise any fish, or if it should, I am sure, but by a very extraordinary chance, can hit none.†

Having done with both these ways of fishing at the top, the length of your rod, and line, and all, I am next to teach you how to make a fly; and, afterwards, of what dubbing you are to make the several flies I shall hereafter name to you.

In making a fly, then, which is not a hackle or palmer fly (for of those, and their several kinds, we shall have occasion to speak every month in the year), you are, first, to hold your hook fast betwixt the forefinger and thumb of your left hand, with the back of the shank upwards, and the point towards your fingers' ends; then take a strong small silk of the colour of the fly you intend to make, wax it well with wax of the same colour too, to which end you are always, by the way, to have wax of all colours about you, and draw it betwixt your finger and thumb to the head of the shank; and then whip it twice or thrice about the bare hook, which, you must know, is done, both to prevent slipping, and also that the shank of the hook may not cut the hairs of your towght, which sometimes it will otherwise do. Which being done, take your line, and draw it likewise betwixt your finger and thumb, holding the hook so fast as only to suffer it to pass by, until you have the knot of your towght almost to the middle of the shank of your hook, on the inside of it; then whip your silk twice or thrice about both hook and line as hard as the strength of the silk will permit. Which being done, strip the feather for the wings proportionable to the bigness of your fly, placing that

* In the original the words are twisted as open, contrary to what is evidently, from the connection, the Author's meaning: the Editor has therefore transposed the words

This, and the other inconveniences mentioned in this paragraph, are effectually avoided by the use of a fine grass, or gut, of about half a yard long, next the hook.