THE 
 
 NORTH COUNTRY ANGLER; 
 
 OR THE 
 
 ART OF ANGLING : 
 
 AS PRACTISED IN 
 
 THE NORTHERN COUNTIES 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, 
 
 PATERNOSTER-ROW ; 
 AND ROBINSON, SON, AND HOLDSWORTH, LEEDS. 
 
 1817. 
 
FOURTH EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS. 
 
 ' At 
 
 IEEDS: PRINTED BY B. DEWHIRST. 
 
THE 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page, 
 
 CHAP. I. Of Fishing-Rods. How and when 
 to lay in a Stock of Materials at a very 
 
 little Expence I 
 
 CHAP. II. How to make Lines for all Kinds 
 of Angling. What hair is best, How 
 to make it ready for twisting, fyc. .... 5 
 CHAP. III. Of Hog's Bristles. Their Use 
 
 and Excellence 12 
 
 CHAP. IV, The Angler's Pocket-Book and 
 Box. How to make it) and furnish it 
 with all Materials for present Use . . 15 
 
 CHAP. V. Of Dubbings 19 
 
 CHAP. VI. Of the Landing Net, Hook, %c . . 20 
 
 CHAP. VII. Of the Bag and Creel 21 
 
 CHAP. VIII. Of Trouts 23 
 
 CHAP. IX. The Salmon Trout. 28 
 
 CHAP. X. Of the Pink, or Brandling Trout, 32 
 CHAP. XI. Of the Spaivning of Salmon, 
 
 Trouts, fyc % 37 
 
 CHAP. XII. Of Fly Fishing. How to dress 
 all Sorts o/ Flies for every Kind of 
 Fish that ivill take a Fly 34- 
 
IV, 
 
 Page. 
 CHAP. XIII. Of the Creeper, or Water 
 
 Cricket 48 
 
 CHAP. XIV. Of the Palm, or Gosling-Fly, 53 
 CHAP. XV. Of the Twinge, Earwig, or 
 
 Twichbell 56 
 
 CHAP. XVI. Of the Grub, or Earth-Bob . . 57 
 CHAP. XVII. Of the Gentle or Maggot . . 59 
 
 CHAP. XVIII. Of Salmon-Hoe Ib. 
 
 CHAP. XIX. Of Bush or Shade Fishing.. 61 
 CHAP. XX. Of Angling with Minnow, .... 66 
 CHAP. XXI. How to get the largest Fish 
 
 where you cannot use a Rod . . 70 
 
 CHAP. XXII. Of Angling at Night, in ivhat 
 
 Places, and with what Flies and Baits, 72 
 CHAP. XXIII. Of Eels, how they are bred, 
 and of the several Ways of catching 
 
 them ., 75 
 
 CHAP. XXIV. How to catch Minnows .... 80 
 CHAP. XXV. Of Night-Lines. How to 
 make them. When, where, and how 
 
 to lay them. 81 
 
 CHAP. XXVI. HQW to catch most of the 
 Trouts and Eels, that are in little 
 
 Burns or Becks. . . . , , 85 
 
 CHAP. XXVII. Of Flood- Fishing. What 
 Tackling is most proper, Rods, Lines, 
 and Baits. ....., Sj 
 
THE 
 
 NORTH COUNTRY ANGLER, 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 Of Fishing-rods. How and when to lay in a 
 Stock of Materials at a very little Expence. 
 
 OST Anglers are 
 very curious about 
 their fishing-rods ; 
 some in choosing the 
 materials, others in 
 the manner of mak- 
 ing them. And al- 
 though I observe, 
 that neitherMr. Wal- 
 ton nor Mr. Cotton, 
 in their books of the 
 Complete Angler, 
 
 give any directions, or say any thing about 
 them ; yet others that have written of Ang- 
 ling, give us enough of that article. One, 
 who has written very ingeniously and methodi- 
 cally, recommends the bag-rod, as the unum 
 
2 The North Country Angler. 
 
 necessarium, as if one could not be an Angler 
 without having such a one : It is to be made of 
 I do not know how many short pieces, to be 
 carried in a bag by one's side ; so that I cannot 
 help thinking I see the 'Squire trudging along to 
 the river, like one of our North Country pipers, 
 with his great drone, and his less lilters, in a 
 great bag under his coat lap. Another must 
 have his cane rod, or there is nothing to be done ; 
 and, lest the colour should be offensive, it must 
 be scraped off, though he owns it spoils the 
 rod ; or else it must be covered with thin leather 
 or parchment. But I think such a rod would 
 not endure being dragged about in a great pool, 
 by a large fish, for half an hour or more, as mine 
 often has been. 
 
 Therefore, I set all these babbling curiosities 
 aside, and content myself with a root-piece of 
 fir, sawn from the sap side of a deal board ; 
 though if I could get a hazle root, finely taper 
 and light enough, I should like it as well : Nei- 
 ther would 1 make any objection to a hazle root, 
 bored so far as just to hold a top of five feet or 
 two yards, for that may be dried again without 
 any considerable damage. I make my root eight 
 feet, or rather three yards ; with a piece of stick 
 an inch longer than the splice, to wrap on to it, 
 to save the small end of the splice from being 
 broken by any accident. I fasten my top to the 
 root with three or four leather loops, till I come 
 to the river. I must own. I take some pains in 
 making my top ; sometimes 1 have made it of a 
 wood called Hickery, that is brought over sea, 
 of which the ends of great casks are made ; but 
 
The North Country Angler. 3 
 
 this, besides its being a heavy top, will take any 
 bent when much wet. I have made very pretty 
 tops of red-wood, and sometimes good ones, 
 when the wood has been sawn streight with the 
 grain ; but this is not always observed by joiners, 
 and those that saw it into lengths, and square 
 the pieces with a plane. These, when rasped 
 and filed, and neatly made up, look very well ; 
 but being a short-grained wood, is apt to break 
 off like a splice, as I have sometimes known it 
 do, upon striking a fish that has taken the fly 
 too near me, and so I have lost line, fish, top 
 and all. I have tried barberry, brier, and dog- 
 tree, but upon trial have found fault with^them 
 all. Some think hazle, if chosen with judgment^ 
 makes as good a top as any; and I own it does 
 so, for coarse strong tackle. Some prefer the 
 rush-grown cane tops to all others, but I cannot 
 be altogether of their opinion. I once, indeed, 
 saw a cane top that surprized me very much : I 
 could not have believed, unless I had seen it, 
 that any thing naturally grown, with such joints 
 and cavities as canes always have, could have 
 been so taper, light and strong. 
 
 Yew, especially the white of it, makes a very 
 fine top ; but among all that I have tried, I have 
 found none so generally serviceable as the bur- 
 tree or elder : But to make it such, I must insist 
 upon its being used exactly as I do, otherwise I 
 will not answer for it. I cut my bur-tree about 
 Martinmas; a branch of three years growth is 
 old enough. As soon as I bring it home, I saw 
 it through at every joint ; only sometimes, when 
 the branch is exactly streight, I make a length of 
 
4 The North Country Angler. 
 
 two joints : For, you may observe, that the two 
 branches which grow out at every joint, do not 
 grow out at the same side of the branch for two 
 joints together, but alternately two on one side 
 at one joint, and on the other side at the next 
 joint. This length of two joints, 1 chuse, if I 
 can^ at the thick end of the branch, and split it 
 so that I can have a piece of its full length from 
 either side without a knot ; these pieces will be 
 near three-quarters of a yard long. One of these 
 makes the thick end of the top ; the other joints 
 I split into four, shaving off the bark and the 
 core or pith, and tie every joint by itself. 
 
 I always make a top of the same joint, cut at 
 the same time ; and when I dress the pieces, I 
 take care to place the thick end of every piece 
 towards the thick end of the rod, that-end being 
 naturally a little harder and more solid than the 
 other. I keep my pieces when split and tied 
 together, twelve months at least, and then plane 
 or rasp them taper and square first, then rasp off 
 the arriges, and dress them with a file exactly 
 round, taper and smooth : I make the splice smooth, 
 rub it with shoemaker's wax, but very thin, wrap 
 it close with fine white silk, filing all the outside 
 of the joint so, that when wrapped, it may not be 
 thicker than the joint an inch above it. The 
 finer tops for small fly, are two yards or seven feet 
 long ; the stronger for large fly, trowling with 
 minnow, &c. not quite two yards. I seldom have 
 more than one root for both these tops, and can 
 make a shift with either of them, to do the work 
 that more properly belongs to the other. 
 
The North Country Angler. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 How to make Lines for all Kinds of Angling, 
 What Hair is best. How to make it ready for 
 twisting, fyc. 
 
 JlF I might choose, it should be the tail of an 
 unrumped stallion, next to that of a strong geld- 
 ing, of a pale transparent water colour. Such a 
 tail is now a great rarity, most gentlemen rump- 
 ing their horses hefore the hair is come to its 
 full strength. When I have got such a one, I 
 lay it five or six days in a moist place, or till the 
 hairs will draw out of it easily, without straining 
 them, I draw out loO or 200 near the same 
 place of the rump, wrap a thread about the root 
 end of them, wash them well, and rub them dry 
 with a little bran ; then I lay them in a book, 
 and draw them out by the root end, as barbers 
 do from their cards; and when I have made them 
 exactly equal at that end, I wrap a bit of paper 
 about them, four or five inches from it, with a 
 waxed thread, and cut off as much of the small 
 end as I think is not good enough. In this man- 
 ner I keep all my links, which, though of diffe- 
 rent lengths, yet all the hairs of every link are 
 exactly the same, and ready for making what 
 sort of lines you please. There are so many 
 ways of twisting or plaiting the hairs, that if I 
 was to give the preference to any one, some 
 fishers, that like their own way better, would 
 censure my judgment; I shall, therefore, only 
 B 2 
 
6 The North Country Angler. 
 
 mention some of the best, and leave every one at 
 liberty to choose according to his fancy. 
 
 The first I shall take notice of is, that of twist- 
 ing them without either knotting or wrapping ; 
 and this, for some lines, I like as well as any 
 other, if it is made nicely taper, neither too loose 
 nor too hard, and the ends of the hairs so bedded 
 in the line, as scarce to be felt. 
 
 Some make these lines with three small quills, 
 about two inches long, through each of which 
 they put the third part of the hairs they use, 
 and have a little bit of a feather end, or wood, to 
 keep the hairs fast in the quills : they tie a knot 
 at the end of the hairs, and twirl all the three 
 quills equally with the ball of their hand upon 
 their knees, putting in hairs at proper places and 
 distances into the three quills. Others use three 
 little sticks about four inches long, as thick as 
 one's little finger,, with rings to fit upon their 
 ends, to keep the hairs fast ; these sticks they 
 twirl about till all the three strands are equally 
 twisted, and then plait the line down to the sticks, 
 and so on. 
 
 In some places of the North, in Scotland and 
 Ireland, they twist their salmon lines in this 
 manner ; and they pretend they will run through 
 the loops on the rod very well ; though I should 
 rather choose a silk or a fine thread line for that 
 purpose, the other being far more clumsy and 
 stiff. 
 
 The next way of twisting them is with an 
 engine, such as ropers use for making small 
 cords, which I shall not describe, because so well 
 known: I generally useone of these, as the most 
 
The North Country Angler. 7 
 
 easy and best way to make snoods ; and I think 
 one might contrive it so as to make long lines 
 with it, without knots, though I never attempted 
 it, liking my own method well enough, which is 
 this : I fix the engine against the side of a post, 
 at such a height that I can sit on a chair, and 
 reach conveniently to turn the engine with my 
 right hand, and to the low end of my snood with 
 the left hand, and so twist them perpendicularly 
 in this manner : I draw from one of my links 
 as many hairs as I would twist at one time, sup- 
 pose twelve ; four of these I draw from the rest, 
 and put the small ends of them to the root end 
 of the other eight, at which end I make a knot 
 to lose as little of the length of the plait as pos- 
 sible ; then I divide the twelve hairs into three 
 parts, having one of the four that I turned in each 
 of the two strands, and two of them in the third ; 
 I make a knot at the end of every strand, and 
 put them on to the three hooks of the engine, as 
 the ropers do their threads ; then I hang on to 
 the great knot of the snood a conic piece of lead, 
 such as masons use, with a little hook fixed in the 
 small end of it; I put the thumb and two 
 fingers of the left hand between the three strands, 
 close down to the lead, and turn the engine 
 about with my right hand, till the three strands 
 are duly twisted ; then I draw up the thumb and 
 fingers of my left hand gradually from the lead, 
 which will twirl round of itself, and keep turning 
 the engine till the snood is twisted to the very top; 
 then I unhook the three strands from the engine, 
 as soon as the lead at the low end of the snood 
 has done turning, and make a knot at the upper, 
 end of the plait. 
 
8 The North Country Angler. 
 
 This makes a very strong and beautiful snood; 
 and if you choose to wrap, instead of knotting 
 them, they make as fine a line as I would desire 
 to fish with. 
 
 When I make a line of these plaits, which are 
 all of them a little taper, I put three or four of 
 twelve hairs at the top, and three or four of nine, 
 lower down, and two or three of eight or seven 
 at the small end, for strong fishing, and wrap 
 them with white silk, waxed with white shoe- 
 maker's wax, the wrapping scarce an inch long, 
 which I make thus : After I have dipped near 
 half an inch of the ends in melted wax, I divide 
 them into three, and put them together as sailors 
 splice their ropes \ then I wrap twice about the 
 line above the splice, and the same at the other 
 end of it, drawing the silk very tight and strong : 
 At each end of every line I make a loop of an 
 inch long, neatly wrapt, or a knot at the top. 
 My angler is to take notice, that I never twist 
 with my engine a less number than six hairs ; 
 all under I plait with my fingers, keeping the 
 hairs from crossing one another with the thumb 
 and fingers of my left hand ; and when I have 
 plaited it over once, before I make a knot at the 
 smaller end, I draw it all along from the knot 
 between my finger and thumb, and then plait it 
 gently over again, to make the hairs lie closer 
 and smoother ; and he must likewise remember, 
 that in a plait of five hairs, I put the small ends 
 of two hairs to the root end of the three ; and in 
 a plait of four, I either put two of them with the 
 small ends to the thick ends of the other two, 
 or, however, turn one of them to make the line 
 more taper, and do the same in a plait of three : 
 
The North Country Angler. Q 
 
 and this is one advantage we may have, by 
 drawing the hairs and cutting off the small ends, 
 and ail that are tainted or weak. 
 
 I shall, in this place, give some directions how 
 to make links with one, two or three flies, to 
 loop on to the low end of the line. How and 
 of what materials to make the flies, I have shewn 
 in another place. There is more judgment and 
 nicety required in this, than some fishers take 
 notice of. 
 
 For your finest fly line, your link must be all 
 of single hairs ; of which you must choose the 
 smallest and weakest for the end fly, and dress 
 it to the thick or root end of the hair ; it will 
 last twice as long as it would do if dressed to the 
 small end : This fly should not be a hackle fly, 
 but a dubbed one; because it will be often un- 
 der water, and will resemble the fly in a sitting 
 posture, better than a hackle would do, which 
 looks as if upon the wing. I generally dress it 
 a half fly only, with a bristle to keep on a grub 
 or maggot. 
 
 The second fly should be a hackle, dressed to 
 the small end of the second hair, at which if you 
 hook a fish that is too strong for you, it will 
 sooner break, and so you will only lose the fly. 
 When you have dressed this second fly, put the 
 small end of the first hair to the fly end of the 
 second hair; draw the fly about three inches 
 beyond the end of the other hair, and make the 
 common fisher's knot, which will make the 
 second fly hang down perpendicular from the 
 line ; dress your third fly a hackle, to the small 
 end of your third and strongest hair, and knot it 
 
1 o The North Country Angler. 
 
 to the thick end of the second hair, as you did 
 before, but let it hang an inch longer down than 
 your second fly does; so they will both touch the 
 water, as you draw your line across a stream : 
 then make a neat loop at the thick end of your 
 third hair, about a straw's breadth long, through 
 which you may put the longer loop at the end of 
 your line, and draw your three flies through it. 
 
 If your hairs are above twenty inches long, 
 you should have only two of them in the link, 
 and consequently only two flies ; for your flies, 
 if you have three, should not be above eighteen 
 inches from one another. If you have three 
 lengths of two hairs, use the same method ; but, 
 if you choose to have the uppermost plait of 
 three hairs, then dress the third fly to the thick 
 end of the second plait. 
 
 For all stronger fly fishing, as with Indian- 
 grass, silk-worm gut, swine's bristles, or three or 
 tour hairs, you should have no more than two 
 flies, the drop fly at a yard distance from the end 
 fly, and the drop fly should be a hackle. You 
 must have three fly lines to suit these three sorts 
 of links ; and have a link, proper for the season 
 and the water, looped on to every line; and then, 
 when you come to the water, you will have no 
 more to do, but to put on your line and begin 
 your diversion. 
 
 You may choose whether you will have a loop 
 at the top of your line, or a double knot only : 
 A loop is the more troublesome, because you 
 must draw your whole line through it, and the 
 knot will hold fast enough, by being put only 
 once through and knotted. 
 
The North Country Angler. \ \ 
 
 When you fish with silk- worm-gut, let it be 
 a yard long, though of two pieces, the smallest 
 next the hook, and a plait of four good hairs 
 at the top of it ; from the small end of which 
 plait you may have a drop fly, which will make 
 the whole link above a yard and a half long ; 
 the small end of your line for such a link, 
 should be six small hairs, engine-twisted ; and 
 you must remember, that the stronger your 
 tackle, the line should be the shorter, or your 
 rod the longer. These lines and links are more 
 particularly for fly fishing, yet the finest may be 
 used for brandling, grub, &c. in clear streams. 
 
 I saw, in London, a large dappled grey horse, 
 which, I was told, the owner, a brewer, valued 
 at an hundred and fifty guineas. I consulted 
 with my landlord, who dealt largely with him, 
 how to get some hairs out of his tail, which was 
 the finest and longest I ever saw. The drayman 
 loved drink; a bribe will do wonders ! 1 had 
 above two hundred brought me for two shillings 
 and a pot of beer : I would not have taken six- 
 pence for the worst of them; though 1 gave half 
 of them among my brother anglers in the North : 
 and my kind landlord procured me, by the same 
 means, two little links, of one hundred each, the 
 year following. 
 
IQ The North Country Angler. 
 
 *s o 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Of Hogs' Bristles. Their use and Excellence. 
 
 JL DO not mean of such bristles as grow upon 
 our swine, or boars in England, but such as 
 are brought from Russia, &c. where their swine 
 are much larger than ours, and the bristles in pro- 
 portion longer. They are a more considerable 
 article in our trade than most people imagine ; 
 our brush-makers in London, &c. buying great 
 quantities of them. I was once in a warehouse, 
 where I saw great bundles of them, and some 
 of them longer than I had ever seen any before. 
 A whim came into my head at that instant, that 
 I could make them serviceable in fishing, 
 
 I begged leave to choose a few from among 
 them, which was readily granted ; and I got 
 about the thickness of my wrist of the longest, 
 smallest, and roundest I could find; some of 
 them were nine, ten and eleven inches long. 
 
 When I came down into the country, 1 began 
 to try some experiments with them, and found 
 they answered beyond my expectation. If I 
 should say, I prefer them to Indian-grass and 
 silk-worm-gut, it is only because these things 
 are not ordered to the best advantage they are 
 capable of. The Indian-grass might be stretched 
 and drawn longer, streighter, smaller and less 
 taper, than most of them are. And the silk- 
 worm-gut, that is generally thickest in the mid* 
 die, flat, and too suddenly tapering to the ends, 
 
The North Country Angler. 1 3 
 
 might, by an artist, be made a yard long without 
 any of these faults, whereas now, not one in 
 twenty of them is worth a rush* 
 
 I must confess, there is a great deal of pains 
 and art requisite to make the bristles, I am now 
 recommending, very useful ; I shall tell my 
 angler how I do it : As they are the strongest of 
 all materials I ever met with yet, I made use of 
 them only where strong tackle was necessary : 
 And first, for strong fly fishing, I have made 
 links of two feet or a yard long, thus: I first choose 
 the smallest of them, to the root end of which 
 I dressed a large hackle fly on a gilse hook; the 
 other end of the bristle is generally jagged for 
 an inch or more ; that I always cut off, and as 
 much as is the least faulty ; and then split it in 
 two or three the length of half an inch, which 
 I dip in white wax, melted, and join it to the end 
 of another, divided in the same manner, as 
 sailors splice their ropes, and wrap them very 
 tight with white silk, waxed with white wax : 
 I split the root ends in the same way, till I think 
 it is long enough, always choosing the bristles 
 that the link may taper a little in strength and 
 thickness ; at the end of which I wrap a loop 
 half an inch long, through which I put the loop 
 at the end of my line, and then putting my fly 
 through that wider loop, draw it as it should be: 
 If I choose to have a drop fly, I loop it on to 
 either of these loops, which it will fit best. Five 
 bristles will make a link of a yard long, or some- 
 what more; for such a link the end of my line is 
 five good hairs ; with this I fish when the water 
 is a little discoloured after a flood $ or in strong 
 c 
 
14 The North Country Angler. 
 
 streams when it is clear ; or in the deeps in a 
 brisk wind; and never fear engaging with a 
 salmon, or salmon trout. 
 
 With such alinkl fish with minnow, in streams, 
 for great tiouts, in the mornings and evenings $ 
 and at night with two great worms, in eddies, 
 deeps, still streams, &c. or in the same places 
 with artificial flies, moths, nocturnals, owl-flies, 
 &c. in streams with creeper and natural May 
 fly. In the four hot months, when the water is 
 low, and no wind^ from nine in the forenoon, till 
 four in the afternoon^ under the shade of trees, 
 or bushes, with worms, grubs, beetles, grasshop- 
 pers, wasps, bees, &c. or with the wings and 
 head dressed, and a bristle, on the back of the 
 hook, with a grub, earth-bob, twinge, &c. 
 
 In a word, I use them for all kinds of angling, 
 where single hairs are too weak, and much 
 stronger tackle necessary. Two or three lengths 
 of these do exceedingly well, to angle with a 
 float for chub, perch or trout, under bushes, 
 and for jack or small pike, which cannot bite the 
 bristle in two, as they will hairs. 
 
 When I angle for great fish in the deeps, in a 
 bustling wind, I generally have a drop-fly dressed 
 to a bristle, and make a loop at the other end 
 half an inch long, or no longer than just to let 
 the fly be put through it upon occasion. I find, 
 by experience, that it is better to have the drop- 
 fly with a loop to it, as small as possible, to ad- 
 mit the loop of a link to be put through it, and 
 then to make a single knot on the link, to inclose 
 the loop of the drop-fly, and keep it at a proper 
 distance from the end fly \ this way the short 
 
The North Country Angler. ] 5 
 
 fly hangs the looser on the line, and, which is 
 another convenience, may be taken 6ff at plea- 
 sure, and another put on of a more suitable 
 make and colour; whereas the other way, you 
 must change your whole link. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 The Angler's Pocket-Book and Box. How to make 
 it, and furnish it wit hall Materials for present Use. 
 
 X HE book itself need be no other than a 
 letter-case, such as men of business have to 
 keep their papers in. But, if you like one of my 
 contriving, you must make it thus : Get apiece 
 of fine black calf-leather, seventeen inches long, 
 and seven inches broad \ double it so that the 
 two ends may be about an inch from each other ; 
 stitch it nicely at both sides, but leave the two 
 ends of it open ; you will then perceive how it 
 is to be used. Into the two sides you must put 
 an equal number of partitions of fine parchment, 
 six on each side, neatly stitched to the bottom of 
 the pockets. One side of this book is for fly, 
 the other for bait tackle ; which I furnish thus : 
 In the partition next the outside, I put two 
 strong lines, of twelve hairs at the top, and six 
 at the other end, with neat loops of a little more 
 than half an inch long ; a double knot at the 
 top will do well enough : to lengthen these lines, 
 
16 The North Country Angler. 
 
 I put in two links of five hairs at the one end, 
 and four at the other, with neat wrapt loops at 
 each end ; these links I make about four feet 
 long. 
 
 In the same partition I have two thin parch- 
 ment covers, square, open at one side, in which 
 I put links about a yard and a half long, some with 
 one, others with two flies at them, to change at 
 pleasure with those on the line; and in two other 
 cases, a dozen or eighteen flies dressed to silk- 
 worm gut, or to three or four hairs. . These 
 four cases, two of which are just the length of 
 the partition, with the two lines and links, 
 are the furniture of the first partition for my 
 strong fly tackle. 
 
 In the next partition I have the same number 
 of lines and links, only the lines have twelve hairs 
 at the top, and three at the bottom, with links 
 and flies suitable to them, only about double the 
 number, because more used than the larger ones ; 
 among these I have some very fine gut, the rest 
 three hairs, or two strong ones. 
 
 In the third partition I have two lines again, 
 a longer and shorter as before, butiiner, ten hairs 
 at top, and two at bottom ; I have no links to 
 lengthen these. All my links are single hairs, 
 with two or three hooks each, about a dozen of 
 these in one case, and a case of flies dubbed, and 
 another of hackles, of a wood cock's wing, &c. 
 In the fourth partition I have some folded papers, 
 near the length of the partition, with feathers, 
 some pulled from the upper side of a woodcock's 
 wing, near the joint, or the same place of a 
 moor-pout, or brown chicken, as your fancy may 
 
The North Country Angler. \ 7 
 
 suggest. In another folded paper I have cock's 
 hackles, stripped ready for use, with tewit top- 
 pings, ostrich's feathers of several colours, and a 
 few peacock's feathers. In another paper I have 
 feathers for wings, the drake, starling, and of 
 other small birds. 
 
 In the fifth partition I have folded papers, 
 with all sorts of dubbing: In one of the folds, 
 ready mixed for several flies, writ upon the fold, 
 and a feather or two, fit for the wing of the fly. 
 Among my dubbings I always have these: The 
 soft down of an urchin's belly, a young one the 
 best, black rabbit, the finest of swine's down, 
 dyed of several colours, camel's and bear's hair. 
 
 In the next partition I have some coils of single 
 hairs, fine Indian-grass, &c. silks ready waxed, and 
 wrapped about a bit of card; and in a case, oiled, 
 all my hooks of several sizes. All cumbersome 
 materials I keep in a box at home. 
 
 On the bait side of my fishing book, I observe 
 the same method almost, as on the fly side; my lines 
 made in the same manner, but shorter, with links 
 to lengthen them upon occasion. 
 
 In the first partition, are my two lines for 
 trowling with minnow, ready for use. 
 
 In the second partition, I have four lines of 
 different length and strength, for brandling, 
 creeper, cod-bait, and grub fishing. Which will 
 serve also for perch, dace, &c. 
 
 In the next partition, in two parchment cases, 
 I have links ready to loop on to the lines, with 
 hooks at them, fit for the several baits I may have 
 occasion to use. 
 
 In the fourth partition, I have two or three 
 c 3 
 
1 8 The North Country Angler. 
 
 finer lines : and in two cases, links with single 
 hairs, when the water is very fine, to fish with 
 natural flies and insects. 
 
 In another partition, I have two long and 
 strong lines to fish in eddies, and deep places of 
 pools at night, with dew worms, snails, moths, 
 beetles, &c. 
 
 In the sixth partition, I have bait hooks of 
 several sizes, in an oiled parchment ; and in a 
 folded paper, I have bits of wash leather, and 
 cork, neatly cut, to imitate cod-bait, straw-bait, 
 &c. I have also Indian grass, silk- worm gut^ 
 and links of hair unplaited. When these two 
 sides of my book are closed together, it will be 
 seven inches long, and about five broad, which an 
 angler may carry in his pocket ; and I would ad- 
 vise every angler to have such an one, and then 
 he needs not waste any of his time in dressing 
 flies, or wrapping on hooks, or plaiting hairs at 
 the water side. 
 
 But, though I like this pocket-book very well, 
 yet I have often made use of a tin box, that I 
 had made on purpose. It is about five or six 
 inches in diameter, two inches deep, and has 
 two rings of tin in the inside, fixed to the bottom, 
 and as high as the outside rim. The bigger of 
 these is an inch and a half from the outer rim : 
 the lesser is two inches over, and has a lid or 
 cover to it. 
 
 I can make this box hold all that I have occa- 
 sion for at any ordinary fishing bout. My great 
 lines, I have with flies and bait hooks at them, 
 in the bigger round ; all my links, with flies at 
 them, in the second round $ and hooks, silks, 
 
The North Country Angler. 19 
 
 wings, hackles and dubbing, in the little box. 
 There is one convenience in this box, that the 
 flies are not pressed, or any way crushed in it, 
 as they may be, perhaps, in the pocket-book. 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 Of Dubbings. 
 
 INSTEAD of a great bag full of dubbings, I 
 would rather advise the angler to get a quan- 
 tity of fine swine's down, dyed by a silk- 
 dyer, of several colours, viz. three degrees of 
 yellow, two of green, two of brown, &c. and 
 feathers for wings and hackles of the same colours. 
 No more of the feathers need be dyed than what 
 may be used ; all the rest stripped off the quill 
 before. 
 
 I have seen white ostrich's feathers, which if 
 dyed of several colours, would make the bodies 
 of larger flies exceeding well ; over which silver 
 and gold twist, and cock's hackles, would make 
 all kinds of palmers for large fish. I would not 
 however, totally disuse dubbings, because some 
 flies may be imitated by them better than any 
 other thing ; and some dubbings may be of such 
 orient colours as cannot be dyed, There are 
 such inimitable gildings in some insects, in the 
 head, the eye, and other parts, as no man can 
 conceive, who has not seen them through a mi- 
 croscope ; and the legs, horns or whisks, at their 
 
20 The North Country Angler. 
 
 head and tail, are so transparent, that very few 
 things can be got to resemble them nicely; 
 nothing that is dyed I am sure can do it. 
 
 I met with a beggar once at Durham, that 
 had a strong red curled beard ; 1 persuaded him 
 to let me get it cut off, or shaved dry. That 
 furnished me with excellent dubbing for salmon 
 and large fish ; and because I had been kind to 
 him, he brought me soon after a great quantity 
 of a more shim'ng yellow. Some of these hairs, 
 which I cut in proper lengths, I mixed with soft 
 swine's down, or other dubbing, for almost every 
 fly I dressed. And 1 made them resemble the 
 whisks and the feet of flies to a great nicety. 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 Of the Landing Net, Hook, fyc. 
 
 HEN I go a fishing fully accoutred, espe- 
 cially when I take a friend or boy with me, I 
 have a staff, of fir for lightness, about ei^ht feet 
 long, with a good ferule and hoop at the small 
 end, into which I can screw any of the trinkets 
 belonging to it ; as first a landing net, which I 
 need not describe, being so much used ; or a 
 large long-shanked hook, to strike inio the gills 
 or head of a large fish; I had another shaped like 
 a hoat hook, with which I could, if fastened on a 
 root or stone, either thrust off my hook, or pull 
 a root or branch to me 3 I had another smaller 
 
The North Country Angler. 2 1 
 
 tool, like a fork, with which, when my hook has 
 been entangled in a tree, by thrusting the fork 
 against the twig or branch, and turning it round, 
 I could break off any small branch, and recover 
 my hook along with it. And when this fork 
 would not do, I had a hook sharp in the inside 
 of the bend, to cut off a small branch, root or 
 weed. These I carried in a pocket of my apron, 
 with a neat penknife, and a small pair of scissars, 
 with large rounds to put my thumb and finger into. 
 And I had another, a mischievous thing, to screw 
 into my pole, like the point of a tuck or small 
 sword, about five inches long, with which I have, 
 sometimes, punished a noisy troublesome cur, 
 either when riding or walking. 
 
 This last, you will find, a most excellent in- 
 strument to keep off those rascally poachers called 
 game-keepers, who, sometimes, threaten to break 
 your rod. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 Of the Bag and Creel. 
 
 JL WOULD have my angler distinguished, and 
 known by having all his accoutrements neat 
 and convenient. I do not like to see an angler 
 with a piece of a stocking, or an old night-cap 
 dangling at a button, with his moss and worms 
 in it. It is far better to have something like a 
 
22 The North Country Angler. 
 
 fish woman's apron, with three or four pockets 
 in it, to hold moss and baits of several kinds, 
 and some other necessary trinkets. 
 
 I have a piece of coarse cloth, three-quarters 
 long, and the same in breadth. 1 double this 
 to within three inches at one side; which three 
 inches I double back again, and sew it all along 
 close to the other doubling, that I may put a 
 belt, which I make of a strong listing, through 
 it, with a buckle fastened to one end of it, to 
 buckle on my left side. I sew up the great 
 doubling at each side, so that the foreside of it 
 may allow room to put one's hand into the 
 pockets, which will be ten inches deep, and 
 when sewed up in three places, will make four 
 pockets, of six inches breadth each. I need 
 not tell an angler what to put in these pockets, 
 only hint to him, that I always had a flat white 
 glass bottle, that would hold near a pint, in one 
 of them ; which, upon some occasions, would be 
 useful. 
 
 My creel, I have made a little hollowed, on 
 that side next my back, or, as I rather choose to 
 carry it, under my left arm, with the belt over 
 my right shoulder. I usually have a doubled 
 cloth to cover all the hollow side of my pannier, 
 to keep the creel from f ridging my coat; and open 
 at top, upon occasion, to put a few night-lines 
 in. 
 
The North Country Angler. 23 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 Of Trouts. 
 
 WHETHER trouts, I mean the river or 
 burn trouts, are all of one species, I shall not 
 take upon me to determine. In many things they 
 all agree, and in many they differ, in the same 
 rivers, and even in the same pools ; so that if 
 the difference was owing to the water or the food, 
 I could not say any thing against their being of 
 one species. I believe they spawn promiscuously 
 together; the dark spotted scurf, and the golden 
 spotted trout; that which has only a row of 
 bright spots down the middle line on its sides, 
 and that which has also three rows of dark spots 
 on each side, above that line. They are all of 
 much the same shape, have the same number of 
 fins, and in the same places. Whether the spots 
 make any specific difference, let the curious 
 naturalists decide ; I make none, but in their 
 size and goodness. 
 
 And in my opinion, the so-much-esteemed 
 charr, hoth red and white, is only a meer or 
 marsh-trout ; and the colour, perhaps, is owing 
 to the sex. I have taken in several rivers in the 
 North of England, trouts as red, as good, and as 
 well tasted as any charr, and have potted them 
 and dissolved the bones, as those of charr are 
 when potted. 
 
 I have seen many trouts leap at dams about 
 Michaelmas, of several sizes, whose skin has 
 then been of a red or copperish colour, without 
 
24 The North Country Angler. 
 
 spots : 1 have taken some of them, the flesh like 
 bees' wax, and well tasted. I once took a very 
 large one of this sort in Coquet, above Rothbury. 
 I had laid a line at the foot of a long deep pool \ 
 and in the morning had more trouts than hooks. 
 One of these great reddish trouts had swallowed 
 a little one, of about eight inches, that had taken 
 a minnow, with its head downwards, as they all 
 generally do. I observed, that the other trouts, 
 three of which were twenty inches, the other 
 three about sixteen, were very lively and brisk 
 upon the line, but this great one came out like 
 a log of wood ; but when he had lain a while 
 upon the sand, he disgorged the trout, and then 
 leaped about as cleverly as the rest. He was 
 twenty-eight inches long, a very thick fish, and 
 when he was boiled, cut yellow, but was very well 
 tasted; it was in the middle of April. This I 
 think is the bull-trout, mentioned by several 
 authors, as an extraordinary fish, both in size and 
 goodness, and no where to be seen but in 
 Northumberland. 
 
 Mr. Walton says, this trout is of a much greater 
 length and bigness than any in the Southern 
 parts. I catched a much larger trout than this 
 in September, in the same river, near Brenkburn 
 Abbey, that was very near a yard long ; but 
 what I took most notice of, was the bright spots 
 upon the line down the middle of its sides ; by 
 which it appeared to me to be an over-grown 
 burn trout ; and neither a salmon nor salmon- 
 trout, nor the same with those two that I thought 
 were the bull-trout. 
 
 Mr. Walton mentions another trout^ that is 
 
The North Country Angler. 05 
 
 called the Fordidge trout, from a town in Kent, 
 upon the river Stour, into which it comes at a par- 
 ticular time of the year, and stays three months. 
 The townsmen boast of it as the best of fish : 
 some of them are near the size of a salmon, and 
 in their best season cut very white : none, but 
 one, ever known to be taken in angling : stay 
 nine months in the sea, and three in the river : 
 Mr. Walton does not tell us when it comes into 
 this river, nor where, nor when it spawns. The 
 large trout that I took in Coquet in September, 
 with half a fly and a grub, had two bags of roes 
 in it, as salmon and salmon trauts, &c. have* 
 
 There is another trout in Northumberland, 
 which the fishermen call a whitling, from twelve 
 to twenty inches long, shaped exactly like a sal- 
 mon : it is as red, and eats as well as charr : I 
 have taken many of them with the fly, in the 
 Tweed near Noreham, and some in a little river 
 called Wansbeck, between Morpeth and Ship* 
 wash bridge, with night lines, but no where else, 
 that J can remember. None of those that I 
 catched had any spawn in them^ which made me 
 think they were the salmon smelts, that had 
 been in the salt water, and were come up again 
 in the same summer^ and would be the next 
 spring what we call a gilse, or a year-old salmon. 
 None of them had any spots, either red or black, 
 as the burn trouts and salmon trouts have ; and 
 yet the fishermen of Tweed were very positive 
 that they never grew to be above twenty inches 
 long. 
 
 The Burn trout grows fast, if it has 
 plenty of food and good. water : several expert 
 a 
 
26 The North Country Angler. 
 
 ments have been made in fish-ponds ; some fed 
 by river water, some by clear fluent springs; into 
 which the young fry have been put at about five 
 or six months old, that is in September and Oc- 
 tober, reckoning from April, when they come 
 out of their spawning beds, at which time they 
 will be six or seven inches long. And though 
 there has been little difference in their age and 
 size when put into the pond ; yet in eighteen 
 months after there has been a surprizing change. 
 I have seen a pond drained ten months after the 
 fish were put into it, which was in July, when 
 they were about fifteen months old ; at which 
 time some of them were fifteen or sixteen inches, 
 others not above eleven or twelve. This was 
 done only to satisfy the Gentleman's curiosity : 
 but when the pond was drained eight months 
 after, in March, when they were almost two 
 years old ; some were twenty one, or twenty-two 
 inches, and weighed three pounds or more; others 
 were about sixteen inches, and a fourth part not 
 above twelve. I do not know what we can attri- 
 bute this difference to. It could not be either 
 in the food, or in the water, or the weather; they 
 faring ail alike in these. But if I may be allowed 
 my own opinion ; perhaps some of the fry may 
 have been the spawn of those that were only 
 seventeen months old, which is the soonest that 
 any of them spawn; others of parents twenty- 
 nine months, or two years and a half old; and 
 others a year older. This difference in the age 
 of the parent t routs, may, I believe, occasion the 
 difference in the size of their breed 5 otherwise 
 I cannot account for it. 
 
The North Country Angler. 27 
 
 Trouts in a good pond will grow much faster 
 than in some rivers, because they do not range so 
 much in feeding : how long they generally live 
 cannot be determined any other way so well, as 
 by an observation of those that are kept in ponds: 
 which observation I never had an opportunity of 
 making myself, and therefore shall only say what 
 a Gentleman told me: He assured me, that at 
 four or five years old, they were at their full 
 growth, which was in some about thirty inches, 
 in many much less. That they continued about 
 three years pretty near the same in size and good- 
 ness : two years after they grew big-headed and 
 smaller bodied, and died in the winter after that 
 change. 
 
 But he thought the head did not grow greater,, 
 but only seemed to be so, because the body de- 
 cayed. So that according to this Gentleman's 
 computation, nine or ten years is the term of 
 their life. And yet I think they may live longer 
 in some rivers, and grow to a greater size, where 
 they have liberty to go into the tide way, and 
 salt water. I have seen middle-sized trouts 
 spawning in the heads of springs, that come out 
 of the rocky mountains near Rothbury, and other 
 places in Northumberland ; whose water will 
 smoke and feel warm for a considerable way down 
 the hills : I have wondered how they could get 
 up so high, having perhaps six or ten leaps of 
 about a yard high, to surmount; but in rainy 
 weather, the water above joining with the springs, 
 makes #reat floods, that will continue two or 
 .three days ; and in May, June and July, 1 have 
 seen every little hole that had scarce three or four 
 
28 The North Country Angler. 
 
 pail-fulls of water in them, full of the small fry, 
 not above three or four inches long ; that, by 
 degrees, would replenish the becks, and these the 
 rivers. 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 T/ie Salmon Trout. 
 
 JLT differs from the salmon in so many particu- 
 lars, that fishermen distinguish them at first 
 sight; and all agree, that they are a distinct 
 species. They are very properly called salmon- 
 trouts, as resembling both in some things, and 
 differing from both in others. When full grown 
 it is much less than a full grown salmon, and as 
 much larger than a full grown burn trout. In 
 its greatest perfection it does not taste so deli- 
 ciously, nor cuts so red as the salmon, nor is so 
 finely shaped ; above the line on the middle of 
 its side to the top of its back, it has three rows, 
 or a great many dark coloured spots, and the rest 
 of its body is not so bright and silver coloured ; 
 but it has no red spots either on the line or above 
 it as most trouts have. It feeds in the same 
 manner, lies in the same parts of the stream or 
 pool, takes the same baits, spawns in the same 
 places, and at the same time with the salmon ; 
 and comes into, the rivers and goes down again 
 to sea with them, or a little after ; though some 
 of the lesser sort, such 1 believe as have not 
 
The North Country Angler. 29 
 
 spawned, but come up with the bigger ones, will 
 stay in the fresh water pools till June: But these 
 are not so good or so well tasted, as those that 
 have been at sea and are come up again, to recre- 
 ate themselves in the rivers. 
 
 The salmon trout is riot a peculiar or native of 
 the four Northern counties only, but is common 
 in the Southern rivers, though perhaps not in 
 such numbers. In the North our fishermen will 
 generally take six for one salmon or gilse, and 
 do not value them at half the price. 
 
 And now having mentioned the four Northern 
 counties, I challenge Mr. Walton, Mr. Cotton 
 and all the Southern writers, anglers, &c. to tell 
 us of such fish as we have to boast of. 
 
 The Fordidge trout must, I think be a fine 
 fish, but it makes the angler no sport, no more 
 than the Shelsey cockle, the Chichester lobster, 
 or the Arundel mullet : I know not what the 
 Amerly trout may do; but can any or all of these 
 compare with our Winander-meer charr; our 
 bull trout, red trout, whitling, &c. They tell us 
 of killing a brace and a half, or sometimes three 
 brace ; we reckon by scores, and of as large or 
 larger trouts than Dove, or any river in Hamp- 
 shire, &c. can afford. I have with the water 
 cricket in Coquet, at Tod Stead and Brenkburn, 
 in one night killed more than I could lift off the 
 ground. I am ashamed to tell what execution I 
 have sometimes done by other methods, though I 
 always catched them with a fair bait j but this 
 only by the by. 
 
 I have often observed when I have put in a 
 night line, that I have catched the best fish in 
 
30 The North Country Angler. 
 
 the shallows and very near the shore; which 
 has made me wonder that such trouts should 
 come there to feed; but I was soon satisfied 
 aboutit, as you will perceive bj the following story. 
 
 A little below Felton, I was sitting on the 
 bank side, baiting some hooks, and looking upon 
 the water that was very clear and shallow, at the 
 foot of the pool, I saw a great trout come down 
 from the deep ; he turned about and lay in the 
 middle of the current at the head of the stream 
 below ; he made several shoots on both sides, of 
 a yard or two at a time, in ten or twelve mi- 
 nutes ; when, as I suppose, he had got what he 
 could there, he came up the pool about ten or 
 twelve yards, where it was broader, though not 
 more than half a yard deep, and made a tour 
 first to the one side, then to the other ; making 
 oftenlittle excursions, sometimes at the top, some* 
 times at the bottom : I was highly diverted, and 
 never saw a well-trained spaniel traverse a field 
 and quest more regularly and artfully, than this 
 trout did all the lower parts of this pool ; there 
 were several less trouts, but he kept them at a 
 distance. 
 
 This was in June, when trouts are in their 
 prime : I put in two lines there with eight hooks 
 a-piece, and went up to the high end of the 
 pool where there was a broad shallow stream, 
 from which about a dozen trouts, upon seeing 
 me, came down to the deep, two or three of them 
 large ones. I laid two other lines here with eight 
 hooks a-piece; and having ten more baited,! laid 
 two short lines in a little narrow strong stream 
 above. 
 
The North Country Angler. 3 L 
 
 I went then up to the town, where two Gen- 
 tlemen had appointed to meet me, from Mor- 
 peth. We supped, and drank till twelve ; we 
 laid in the same room : I got up at four, called 
 the two, but only one would leave his bed so 
 soon ; we got a glass of wine, and went down to 
 my lines. I bad promised them to see such 
 fishing as they had never seen before. 
 
 I drew my two short lines, and at the ten hooks 
 got nine trouts, the tenth was broke, four of them 
 eighteen or twenty inches long. 
 
 My Gentleman would not be persuaded to stay 
 any longer; so we went up to the inn; he 
 awakened his friend, and shewed him the trouts, 
 telling him I could catch as many more ; he got 
 up, yawned, and swallowed a gill of mulled 
 wine ; then we went down to my other lines; he 
 said he would have given a crown to have seen 
 the nine taken, and could not imagine how it 
 could be done in half an hour's time. 
 
 When we came to the two first lines, he saw 
 the trouts struggling, but did not observe the 
 lines: I got twelve at these two; three or four 
 of which were ahout twenty inches : at the other 
 two I got but four, one a salmon trout, and 
 that great trout I had seen feeding, as I 
 supposed, by his size, which was twenty-three 
 inches. We dined on trouts; and I sent my 
 two friends, home at three o'clock, with four- 
 teen birge trouts, such as they had never seen 
 before. 
 
 1 mention this story, because, from that time 
 I formed such an idea of the trout's feeding, that 
 I can tell as soon as I see any stream or poo], 
 
32 The North Country Angler. 
 
 where the best fish will feed, and how they station 
 themselves according to their size : and I am 
 persuaded, if any angler would place himself at 
 the head or foot of a pool, and watch i wo hours, 
 he would be delighted and instructed too, as I 
 was; and might save himself many needless casts, 
 where there are no fish ; as I have often done 
 myself, and seen others do. 
 
 But though trouts will station themselves ac- 
 cording to their size, in the day time, yet, as the 
 great ones do not leave their holds till night, 
 they will then all range about, and feed as they 
 can : for I have often at the same line taken some 
 twenty inches, and others not above eight or nine. 
 And I believe, there are some very large trouts, 
 that never come into streams or shallows to feed, 
 except in floods, 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 Of the Pink, or Brandling Trout. 
 
 X HERE is a little trout in all rivers, where 
 salmon can come up to spawn, about which 
 even anglers, and other ingenious and curious 
 persons have differed in their opinions. This 
 put me upon making what observations I could, 
 to find out the true original, and breed of it. 
 
 This fish, in the spring, is very small ; differ- 
 ing little in its size from the true salmon smelt, 
 which always goes down to the sea, with the first 
 
The North Country Angler, 33 
 
 or second flood that happens in April, or begin- 
 ning of Mny: I have observed in March, when 
 the spawn heaps swell to a considerable height, 
 and the young fry make their first appearance, 
 that many of them had the bag or skin of the roe 
 hanging at the vent of them, which had nourished 
 and fed them till they could procure it for them- 
 selves ; and then they made to the shallows, close 
 to the shore, where the larger fish could not get to 
 prey upon them: As they grew, they fed greedily 
 in the shallow streams till the time I have men- 
 tioned, when these salmon smelts are all gone, and 
 the fry of salmon trouts, either along with them, 
 or soon after; between which and the salmon fry 
 I could never observe any specific difference; 
 only that it is not so finely shaped, nor its tail so 
 much forked as the salmon smelt, and its back 
 is of a darker colour: and this, indeed, is all the 
 difference between the salmon itself, and the sal- 
 mon trout, except further, that the salmon trout 
 never g^ows to such a size as the salmon will, 
 though I have taken many of them a yard long, 
 and is never, in its best season, so red as the sal* 
 mon, nor of so delicious a taste. When these 
 are all gone to sea, the pink stays in the streams 
 all the summer. 
 
 This pink differs from the salmon smelt, in its 
 having a row of dark oval spots, reaching with 
 the lower end to the line that goes down the 
 middle of each side, which I have not observed 
 in any other fish whatever. The number of these 
 spots, I think, is the same in all of them, 
 though I cannot now be certain what the 
 ber is. 
 
34 The North Country Angler. 
 
 This trout has more names than any other fish 
 I know; in some places it is called the rackrider, 
 I suppose from its frequenting such shallow 
 places as are commonly called racks. Some call 
 them smouts, a vulgar name for smelts, Some 
 call them the stone trout, from their lying by a 
 stone's side, and feeding in stony streams. Some 
 call them milters, because in the latter end of the 
 year, when the most of them are taken, they are 
 full of milt ; others call them pinks and brand- 
 ling trouts. 
 
 But although the pink and the smelt differ so 
 little in shape and size, yet in some particulars 
 they differ so much, that it is impossible they 
 should be the same fish. One of these is this, 
 that the pink is in its height of perfection and 
 maturity in six or seven months time,-being then 
 full of spawn, which was never seen in any 
 smelts ; another is, that none of them have ever 
 any roes in them, which, if they were the full 
 species of salmon, some of them would have, as 
 well as milts. 
 
 And yet, notwithstanding these distinguishing 
 characteristics, I am fully persuaded, that they 
 are the spawn or breed of a salmon, by either the 
 he or she parent, but not by both, for then in 
 time it would be a salmon : My reasons are 
 these; first, because it resembles a salmon more 
 than any other fish ; secondly, because there are 
 never any of them seen but where salmon are 
 known to spawn. 
 
 I can give one remarkable instance of this, in 
 the river Tees : About three or four miles above 
 Middleham, in Teesdale, there is such a cascade 
 
The North Country Angler. 35 
 
 or fall of water, as I never saw any where else : 
 The rock is above 20 yards high from one side of 
 the river to the other. The pool it tails into has 
 often been plumbed, and all attempts of that kind 
 have failed, to know the depth of it. Below 
 this 'Force, as they call it, there are abundance of 
 these pinks all the summer, but above it, there 
 never was one of them seen. 
 
 Three or four miles above this Force, there is 
 a lough or black pool about a mile in circum^ 
 ference, full of trouts, black backed and yellow 
 bellied, fat and firm ; the neighbouring people 
 call this place the Wheel, through which the 
 Tees runs, and is very clear, both above and 
 below, and only looks red in the lake from the 
 colour of the earth, from whence they dig their 
 peats : from this pool to the head of the river, 
 which is about four miles, there are plenty of 
 trouts, as well as below it, down to the Force, 
 but no such thing as a pink. 
 
 I could instance in some other places where 
 salmon can get no higher up a river^ and where 
 there is plenty of pinks below, but none above. 
 
 Another reason why I believe the pink is from 
 a salmon, is, because they are all miltb or he-fish; 
 and to be fully satisfied in this point, t have 
 taken all the fish, that have been in a long shal- 
 low pool, above five hundred, of which there 
 have not been above twenty spotted trouts, all 
 the rest pinks with milts in them, but not one 
 roe in any of them ; so that I concluded, it was not 
 a distinct species of trouts, that could propagate 
 its own particular kind $ but was produced by 
 some heterogeneous spawning together of two 
 different species of fish. 
 
36 The North Country Angler. 
 
 I suppose it is this pink, that Mr. Walton tells 
 us of, when he says, " There be certain waters 
 " that breed trouts, remarkable both for their 
 c * number and smallness. I know, says he, a 
 " little brook in Kent, that breeds them to a 
 " number incredible, and you may take them 
 " twenty or forty in an hour, but none greater 
 (C than about the size of a gudgeon. There are 
 ff also in rivers near the sea, as at Winchester, 
 "** or the Thames about Windsor, a little trout 
 * ( called a samlet or skegger trout, that will 
 " bite as fast and as freely as minnows; they are 
 " by some taken to be young salmons, but in 
 u those waters they never grow to be bigger than 
 K a herring.*' 
 
 How these pinks are bred is still the question; 
 my opinion of it is this : I have sometimes seen 
 a she-salmon, that had, as I supposed, lost her 
 mate, with two or three milt trouts in a hole, 
 as I thought, spawning with her ; sometimes a 
 milter that has lost his mate, and could not find 
 another in due time, has had two or three she- 
 trouts in the bed with him. I have with a net^ 
 taken them of both these sorts, to satisfy my 
 curiosity, and released them again immediately ; 
 the spawn of both kinds issuing from them : Of 
 these unnatural copulations proceeds the 
 pink; whether it outlives the winter or not I 
 cannot tell; perhaps it may go down to the 
 sea about November, when the salmon go 
 down$ when they have spawned, and may 
 never return ; for I could never see one of 
 them in the spring, above four inches long. 
 
 This little fish however affords the angler plenty 
 
The North Country Angler. 37 
 
 of diversion from Midsummer to Martinmas, at 
 which time you may kill as many as you will of 
 them, with the half fly and a grub or a maggot. 
 
 CHAP. XL 
 
 Of the Spawning of Salmon, Trouis, fyc. 
 
 H< 
 
 LOW the several species of salmon, salmon- 
 trout, burn-trout, or spotted trout, and some 
 other fish, are propagated, I have been not a 
 little inquisitive and curious in my observations. 
 I have seen fall of them spawning several times 
 with wonder and pleasure, at the surprizing in- 
 stinct which the God of nature has given them. 
 
 Salmon, and the several species of trout, spawn 
 generally in September and October, earlier or 
 later, as the season is most agreeable for that end. 
 
 Where plenty of salmon are taken in locks or 
 nets, it is easy to observe when the spawn begins 
 to grow in them, which in some may be seen in 
 the beginning of April, in others not till May, as 
 they have got up the river, and spawned, and 
 gone down again to sea the preceding year. For 
 sometimes, there not being proper floods to 
 bring them down to the tide, they will lie a 
 month or six weeks in the fresh water pools, in 
 a languid starving condition; and such fish will 
 be a month or six weeks longer in recovering, 
 when they do get to the 'salt water. From 
 their first having milts and roes in them, till 
 
 B 
 
38 The North Country Angler. 
 
 they spawn, is generally five or six months. In 
 the first four of which they are in their full per- 
 fection, as several other creatures are > whilst the 
 eggs are growing in them, as in hens, &c. 
 Where there are no dams to stop them, as in the 
 Tweed, and most of the rivers in Scotland and 
 Ireland, they will change the salt for the fresh 
 water several times in the slimmer, when they 
 taste afresh, as the fisermen call it, that is to 
 say, when a great flood and a spring-tide reach 
 a good way into the sea. And as these migra- 
 tions or changes are necessary for their health, 
 so there are some reasons that in a manner 
 force them to it. For when they have been too 
 long in the sea, and have laid among the rocks 
 and sea-weed, the sea lice get on to them, stick 
 so close, and make them so uneasy, that they 
 will rub the very skin off, where the lice bite 
 them ; and nothing cures them of these tormen- 
 tors so soon as the fresh water; and then again, 
 when they have been about a month in the river, 
 and lie under banks, roots or stones, the fresh 
 water lice creep on to them, and force them to 
 get to sea again, to be freed from them, which 
 the salt water does effectually. And here I 
 must observe, how this migration of these crea- 
 tures answers the same end of Providence, with 
 that of woodcocks, quails, &c. and several kinds 
 offish that go round our island at their proper 
 seasons, and furnish all the neighbouring inhabi- 
 tants with delicious food* 
 
 But the sea lice are more troublesome to the 
 salmon, when they grow big-bellied, at the end 
 of August, and beginning of September, for 
 
The North Country Angler 39 
 
 then they are heavier and lazier, and lie more 
 among the rocks, and get the more lice upon 
 them; and this forces them into the fresh rivers 
 upon a double account, to be eased of the ver- 
 min, and their natural burthen too. At this 
 time, their skin grows thicker than in summer, 
 and of a dusky copperish colour, to make them 
 endure the cold of the winter season the better. 
 At this time also, the milter is easily distinguished 
 from the roe ; for now, at the end of his lower 
 chop, there grows a hard boney gib, from which 
 they are then called the gib-fish, larger or less, 
 according to the age and size of the saljmon, in 
 some above an inch long, and taper. And this 
 gib, as it grows, makes for itself a socket or 
 hole in the upper jaw, which nails up his mouth 
 when it is shut ; and besides, all the fore part 
 of the head is at this , time more tough and 
 horney. 
 
 This is one of the numberless works of the 
 God of nature, by which the fish is armed and 
 prepared for the work he has to do, when they 
 come to proper places for spawing. 
 
 At what particular time they choose their mates 
 and pair like most other creatures, none of our 
 books of angling tell us ; but I suppose it must 
 be as they come up the rivers in shoals of three 
 or four hundred together. And who knows, 
 but they may keep to their own tribes, and match 
 or choose mates among their relations ; for it has 
 been observed, that salmon particularly, and sal- 
 mon-trouts will come up the same rivers, and 
 spawn in the very same places where they were 
 bred $ and I am inclined to believe the same of 
 
40 The North Country Angler. 
 
 some other fish, as we read of swallows, and 
 other birds of passage. 
 
 The lightest and strongest go the farthest up 
 the rivers, and the larger and heavier press up as 
 far as they can get, if not to the place where 
 they were bred, choosing large pools, and pretty 
 deep gravelly streams. 
 
 As they come up the river, they swim close 
 to the bottom, and generally in the middle and 
 deepest part of it, making tracks in the gravel 
 and sand like sheep tracks, by which we fishers 
 know when any salmon are in the river. And 
 It has been observed, that the pilots or guides, 
 as fishermen call them, often come to the top of 
 the water, as if to reconnoitre, if I may use a 
 modern military term, and see what coast they 
 are upon. They swim very fast, and generally 
 more at night than day; and rest when they 
 come to convenient places, under bushes, weeds, 
 banks, or stones, and then the whole shoal run 
 again : The reason, 1 suppose, of their swim- 
 ming in the middle, and at the bottom of the 
 river, is, because that part is the least disturbed 
 by a flood, and there is the safest and best 
 travelling. 
 
 They generally choose streams to spawn in, 
 at the head of great deep pools, both for their 
 own security from their mortal enemy the otter, 
 and the greater preservation of the young fry, 
 which we may observe in the spring, very near 
 the shore of those streams Vhere they were bred, 
 waiting for a flood to carry them down. 
 
 When the gib fish has found a stream that he 
 likes, he makes a hole, as a swine works in the 
 
The North Country Angler. 41 
 
 ground with his nose, his mouth heing nailed 
 close with the gib in its socket. When he has 
 made this hole, a yard and a half, or more, long, 
 and near a yard broad, he goes down to his mate, 
 under a root or stone, and in what manner he 
 makes his addresses to her, I cannot tell, but 
 I have often seen the gib fish rush at his mate, 
 as if going to bite her, jostling her sometimes on 
 one side, then on the other, chasing her from 
 place to place, as we see a cock pigeon does 
 the hen to her nest, till they come to the mar- 
 riage-bed, he has been preparing for her, where 
 they lie at the lower end of it, close by the side 
 of each other, and pressing their bellies hard to 
 the bottom, wriggle on to the top of the bed, 
 squeezing out the spawn from both of them, at 
 the same time, with emotions and signs of plea- 
 sure. All the roes that are smit or touched 
 by the milt, which is of a viscous quality, sink 
 among the little stones and gravel ; and those 
 that are not touched with it, are carried down 
 the stream, and are delicious food for the many 
 trouts that are watching the opportunity ; then 
 the she fish leaves her mate, chasing away the 
 small fish, whilst the gib fish is working at the 
 head of the bed, covering up the spawn with the 
 gravel and sand, which he throws up with his 
 head, making at the same time a new bed, and 
 filling up the other. 
 
 This he does all by himself, for I never saw 
 
 the she fish along with the he, when he was 
 
 making a new hole at the head of the other. 
 
 Sometimes I have seen him lie still in the hole, 
 
 B 3 
 
42 The North Country Angler. 
 
 as if resting himself, and then, in an hour or two, 
 brings up his mate again, and do as before. 
 
 If it is rainy or hazy weather, they will be 
 three or four nights in finishing their work, but 
 frosty weather puts them in a hurry, and they will 
 have done in two nights or less, and hasten down 
 to their holds, and take the first opportunity to 
 get to sea. 
 
 In this manner salmon, salmon-trouts, and I 
 believe all other trouts, spawn; and other fish 
 that spawn in the streams, use much the same, 
 or such like method in making beds, and cover- 
 ing up their spawn. 
 
 I have been the more particular in this article, 
 because I have seen it often done, and in many 
 places, both in the evenings and mornings, and 
 sometimes at night, with light. Sometimes a 
 salmon loses its mate before they have done 
 spawning, it being struck with a leister, &c t and 
 yet the gib fish has brought up another in two or 
 three hours time to spawn with him : Whether 
 there has been any supernumerary she's in the pool, 
 or he has taken, by violence, another's mate, I can- 
 not tell; but I have a better opinion of our noble 
 salmon, than to suspect him of such injustice. 
 
 I have sometimes known the gib fish caught 
 at spawning time, and the she has got a mate ; 
 or else two other salmon have taken possession 
 of their works, and finished, them out. 
 
 A salmon spawn heap will be three yards or 
 more in length, and two feet or near a yard 
 broad, and looks like a new made grave. 
 
The North Country Angler. 43 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 Of Fly Fishing. How to dress oil Sorts of Flies 
 for every Kind of Fish that will take a Fly. 
 
 .A.LTHO' there are a great many who make it 
 their business and livelihood to dress flies, and 
 other tackle for sale ; and any angler may be 
 furnished with what he pleases from London, 
 York, Carlisle, and many other places ; yet, I 
 think it is scandalous in a professed angler, not 
 to make the most part of his own tackle himself, 
 such as rods, lines, flies, and some other things. 
 Indeed, for hooks, engines for twisting lines, 
 wheels for salmon rods, pike tackling, and a few 
 more, they are cheaper bought than made, and 
 perhaps better. 
 
 And tho' salmon flies are more beautifully 
 drest at these places, than common anglers can 
 pretend to do them, yet I think they are more 
 easily made than a midge or small fly. 
 
 The largest fly that is drest for salmon, is in 
 imitation of one, that is vulgarly called the flying 
 adder ; and it is a vulgar notion indeed, tho' I 
 have known some afraid of being stung by them. 
 They are the pond or marsh fly, that maybe seen 
 in all the hot months, near such places, where 
 they are bred. It has a broad thick protube- 
 rant bead and shoulders, some of a golden 
 colour, some a bright brown, with long large 
 diaphanous or transparent wings, and a long 
 small body, of a shining blueish colour. They 
 exclude their eggs amongst the roots of grass, 
 
44 The North Country Angler. 
 
 &c. that grow in the mud, which in proper time 
 becomes a leech, of which there are several kinds, 
 as many as of their parent flies. The horse- 
 leech is the largest of thes-j erucas, as the fly is 
 the largest of that g^nus or tribe. 
 
 Indeed I do not know how many species there 
 are of that tribe ; I have catched six or seven of 
 them of different sizes and colours, and drest 
 them as near the life as I could. I have seen 
 them engender, the male on the hack of its mate, 
 fast at the tail ends. In imitation of which atti- 
 tude, 1 suppose it is, that our fly-makers dress 
 them with double wings. 
 
 As the bodies of these flies are long and small, 
 the hook must be long shanked. I dress it with 
 peacock's feathers, over which I wrap the hackles 
 of a black cock, for it will take three or four of 
 them, and five or six of the strains of a peacock's 
 feather. I generally make double wings for this 
 fly, the under pair only half the size, and to lie 
 not much off from the body of the fly, the dub- 
 bing between these wings and the other, I make 
 a bright brown of swine's down, dyed that 
 Colour ; the upper wings are the dark mottled 
 drake's feather, or a turkey's tail ; the head yelr 
 low, mixt with a little brown ; sometimes I have 
 beads to imitate the eyes. 
 
 But there is a much larger fly than this, tho* 
 not common in this part of the world, yet too 
 well known in some countries ; the locust I 
 niean, which resembles *this fly very much ; 
 and, 1 suppose, there may be many species 
 of that destructive insect, from the frequent 
 dismal accounts we read of the devastations 
 
2'he North Country Angler. 4*> 
 
 it makes, and of their differing in size, shape, 
 and colour. 
 
 The larger sort of these imitated, could not 
 fail of doing execution in large rivers, and the less 
 in less rivers. And yet, I think, we have flies 
 enow in our island, by imitating which a judi- 
 cious angler may succeed well enough. I shall 
 mention some of them, and how to dress them. 
 
 The green-drake, the whirling-dun, the stone 
 or May-fly, the hornet, the wasp, the owl- fly, 
 and several others. Some of these, dressed a third, 
 or, for some rivers, twice as big as the life, I am 
 sure will do in all our Northern rivers. The 
 three first of them are natural baits, being bred 
 in rivers, and where, for that reason, salmon and 
 trout will take them the better. 
 
 The green-drake is bred of the caddis or straw- 
 bait. She excludes her eggs upon bits of rushes, 
 bents, straws, sticks, &c. in still or slow-running 
 by-places in rivers, in ditches, &c. In March 
 you see them creeping about in such places, with 
 their head and shoulders out of their cases, and 
 may easily take them up, with a small stick cleft 
 at the end ; the case is composed of such things 
 as the egg, with a glutinous matter about it, first 
 touches. It lies near a whole year, growing gra- 
 dually, and its case enlarging as it grows, and 
 about the latter end of May, it creeps quite out 
 of its husk, upon the bank among the grass or 
 weeds, till its cramped wings will carry it out of 
 the reach of its enemies. It is of a bright 
 greenish colour, inclining to a pale yellow ; it 
 is above an inch long, its wings are pretty large, 
 and when it sits, they stand up close at the ends, 
 
46 The North Country Angler. 
 
 like the butterfly's ; they fly clumsily like the 
 butterfly, but far higher in the air, and turn up 
 their tails, at the end of which they have three 
 hairs near an inch long, of a brown colour; from 
 which they are called the green-drake. 
 
 To dress this fly nicely, either for salmon or 
 large trout, you must have a long shanked gilse 
 hook, for the wings a grey mallard's feat her dyed 
 yellow ; the soft down of a swine dyed the same 
 colour by a silk-dyer ; camel's and bear's hair, 
 or urchin's belly ; mix them well, and to imitate 
 the ribs or joints of the fly, use green silk, with 
 yellow wax, or rather yellow silk with green wax, 
 and for the whisks of its tail, the beard hairs 
 of a black cat, spaniel's tail, &c. 
 
 My angler is to understand me, in my direc- 
 tions how to dress these flies, as both for salmon 
 and trout; only those for salmon much larger, 
 and to six or nine hairs, according to the river ; 
 those for trout to three, four, or five. 
 
 The cod-bait fly, commonly called the whirl- 
 ling dun, from his colour and manner of flying, 
 is in size much the same as the green-drake. 
 This fly fixes her eggs to the underside of a flat 
 stone, that lies hollow, in, or by the side of a 
 stream, in little brooks or becks, about the latter 
 end of May, or beginning of June. The small 
 gravel, brought down with the stream, sticks to 
 the glutinous matter, with which the eggs are 
 fixed to the stone, and m'ake a beautiful case or 
 husk, which grows as the eruca grows, sticking to 
 the stone all the winter, and till April, and some- 
 times May ; when you may see eight or a dozen 
 of them, with their heads towards the stream in 
 
The North Country Angler. 47 
 
 a row, watching for such food as it brings down 
 to them. They turn yellow before they leave 
 the husk, and are an excellent bait for most sorts 
 of fish, either by itself on a bristled hook or 
 with a head and wings. 
 
 The whirling dun, or cod~bait fly, I dress for 
 large fish, a third or more larger than the life. 
 The body of the down of a iox-cub, or bear's or 
 camel's hair, and half as much swine's down 
 dyed yellow ; or you may have swine's down ex- 
 actly bf the colour. The wing, a wild drake's 
 feather, dyed yellow, pretty large, and to stand 
 up on the back of the fly* I dress a hackle to 
 imitate this fly, of the woodcock's feather, wrapt 
 six or seven times round for the wings, and the 
 same dubbing for the body. These two large 
 flies come in season the latter end of May, and 
 continue till the middle of June; sometimes the 
 green drake will be the more early fly, and in 
 some places the other. 
 
 B it there is another fly much larger than these 
 two, which makes her appearance about the mid- 
 dle of May, and continues till the middle of 
 June. It is called in some places the stone fly, 
 and the trout fly, and every where the May fly. 
 It is bred much in the same manner as the cod- 
 bait fly 5 only the whirling dun fixes her eggs to 
 the stone, and the May-fly lays hers among the 
 sand, under a stone; the first is bred in little 
 becks or burns, the other in rivers. The eruca 
 of the first is a ccd-bait ; the eruca of the other 
 is the creeper or water cricket, of which I shall 
 here give my reader a full account. 
 
48 2^fo North Country Angler. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 Of the Creeper^ or Water Cricket. 
 
 JL AM not so vain as to think no other anglers 
 have made such useful discoveries and improve- 
 ments in the art of angling, as I have done : 
 however, as I have not heard or read of any such, 
 I shall, tor the benefit of the society, inform my 
 reader how I came to know this bait, and how I 
 fish with it. 
 
 1 have often in the mornings catched trouts, 
 with their bellies very full, and when I had cut 
 out the maw, to see what they have fed on, have 
 observed more of these creepers than any other 
 thing; some of them half digested, some newly 
 taken, upon which I concluded, that these baits 
 might be found in the streams where I catched 
 the trouts; and turning up some stones by 
 the side of the stream, I found several of them, 
 and putting one of them on my brandling hook, 
 I got a good trout with it at the first trial. 
 You may believe that I was pleased at this dis- 
 covery, and found it the most killing bait I had 
 ever fished with before : but they were soon gone, 
 and in three weeks *after I could not see one of 
 them; only, here and there the skin sticking 
 upon a stone. 
 
 I observed, however, that under the stones 
 where I used to find them, there were great flies ; 
 some with short thick wings, some with very long 
 double wings ; I got several of these, and fished 
 with them as I had done with the creeper, and 
 
The North Country Angler, 49 
 
 with as good success, till about the middle of 
 June, when they are all gone too. 
 
 For many years after, I made further discoveries 
 and improvements relating to this bait. They 
 are not to be met with in every river, nor in 
 every stream in rivers where they are bred : nor 
 where they are in the greatest plenty, any longer 
 than five or six weeks at the most ; for about 
 the middle of May they take wing, and for 
 14 or 18 days, while their wings are growing, 
 and when they are creeping about the stones at 
 the sides of the streams, they may be got, and 
 fished with as the creeper, if you nip or clip off 
 the greatest part of their long wings. When 
 these creepers grow plentiful in the streams, the 
 trouts begin to grow good ; and I have observed 
 them the soonest red, and in their perfection, 
 where they have the greatest plenty of this food 
 in particular. 
 
 It is best to get these creepers when you are 
 going to use them, if you have a boy with you 
 to catch them for you, tho' they may be kept 
 two or three days. You are to seek for them, as 
 I said before, in any shallow stony stream, near 
 the water's edge ; and you must be very nimble 
 in catching them, for they will creep very fast 
 among the sand and gravel, and get under other 
 stones. 
 
 You must have a horn ready to put them into 
 as you get them. I make mine of a common 
 powder horn, as wide at the small end as to take 
 a quart bottle cork : I burn or bore 10 or 12 
 holes thro' it, to let them have air, but not so 
 wide that they can creep thro' them j near the 
 F 
 
50 The North Country Angler. 
 
 top of the horn I make two holes on one side, to 
 put a small cord thro', which I sometimes hang 
 at a button ; and another hole, thro' which I put 
 another small cord, with a knot in the inside 
 of the horn, and the other end of it to go thro* 
 the cork : I sometimes put a little sand into the 
 horn, and put it in water with the creepers, 
 when I am not using them. Tho* the creeper 
 does hut continue a little while, five weeks at 
 most, yet for that time and a fortnight more, 
 while the wings are growing, there is no bait 
 whatever, with which the angler may do more 
 execution, or take larger fish. 
 
 Your rod need be no other, than that you 
 use for fly or brandling : your line as long as the 
 rod, with two hairs next the hook, if you use 
 hairs, either open or gently plaited : but I would 
 rather recommend a fine Indian grass, or a clear 
 round silk worm gut, or a fine small swine's 
 bristle. Your hook must be long shanked, and 
 you may wrap it on thus: I begin to wrap on my 
 hook a little above where it begins to bend, 
 and when I have done the silk eight or nine 
 times round, I take a bit of fine bristle, or a 
 strong hair, cutting it a little sloping at the end, 
 like the splice of a rod, and put that end on the 
 back of the hook, and continue wrapping both 
 that and the line six times more round the hook ; 
 then I lift up the bristle or hair, and cut it off 
 slopewise, a strawbreadth or a little more from 
 the hook, and wrap on to within a very little of 
 the shank end, where I tie on a bit of dark red 
 dubbing, to keep the creeper from slipping up on 
 the line. I put the hook in at its mouth, and 
 
Tlie North Country Angler. 51 
 
 out at the tail, and make it lie streight on the 
 shank of the hook, and not slip down into the 
 bend of the hook, by making the point of the 
 bristle strike thro' its hack. 
 
 Fish the stream, as you find it most convenient 
 not to he seen of the fish, tho' up the water is 
 much the best upon many accounts : you must 
 have a pellet of No. 4, on your line, seven or 
 eight inches above the hook ; dont let it sink 
 lower than mid-water; and then whenever it 
 stops, strike gently, you may be sure it is a fish, 
 and draw him down the stream, and so you will 
 not disturb those above you. 
 
 This is a most killing way from day light till 
 nine o'clock, and in the evening as long as you 
 can see; keep your rod top directly above your 
 hook as it comes down the stream, and so there 
 will seldom be above half a yard of it in the 
 water. 
 
 As this bait lasts so short a time, you may use 
 it in the heat of the day, in shade or bush fishing, 
 tho' the May fly will do better at that time, and 
 also at the top of the water of any strong stream, 
 especially where it runs close to bushes that hang 
 over the water. The May fly lives but a little 
 while, after she is full winged, and leaves the 
 water, not three weeks, just to engender, which 
 they do in such a manner that the wind will 
 carry the couple a great way, whilst they fly, as it 
 were, the contrary way to each other, till both 
 fall together on some pool, where they make a 
 delicious morsel for the first fish that sees them. 
 If they escape being taken, she lays her eggs, 70 
 or 80, under or by the side of a stone, where the 
 
52 2^e North Country Angler. 
 
 the sand and gravel will soon cover them ; here 
 they grow till the spring, creeping and feeding 
 among the gravel and under stones, till they 
 change their larva, and become flies. 
 
 This fly is not so easily dressed as the green 
 drake or whirling dun, the belly being much 
 yellower thajn the back. Tho' Mr. Cotton mis- 
 takes this fly, and supposes it to be bred of the 
 codbait, and calls it the stone fly; yet his de- 
 scription of it is exactly just, and his materials for 
 dressing it may do ; yet, I think, either bright 
 bear's dun, or camel's hair, with soft swine's 
 down, dyed yellow, or yellow camblet^ will do 
 it better ; and some of this dubbing must have 
 more yellow in it, and be laid artfully on the 
 under-side of the fly, as you wrap on the other ; 
 the wings must be longer than the body; and of 
 the dark mottled drake's feather, or of one dyed 
 a dark brown ; the hairs at its head and tail are 
 easily imitated. 
 
 I have dressedthis fly twice as big as the natural 
 fly, and fish'd for salmon trouts in a great wind, 
 and have killed very large fish. 
 
 The wing feather of a pheasant will do for this 
 fly, the whirling dun, the oak fly, the cinnamon 
 coloured fly, and some other large ones, palmers, 
 &c. 
 
The North Country Angler. 53 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 Of the Palm, or Gosling- Fly. 
 
 OOME think this fly is bred in the buds of the 
 willow or palm-tree ; and I cannot say it is not, 
 though 1 have seen in the water under stones, a 
 bright small eruca, very near the colour of it ; 
 which I supposed to be that fly, and when it left 
 the water, fed upon the willows. I have catched 
 some of these erucas, and put two of them upon 
 a fine hook, but they were too small and tender 
 to do any execution with. 
 
 There are three species of flies about this sea- 
 son, that are killing flies, when the wateris fine. 
 The first has a pale yellowish wing, which may 
 be exactly suited by the wing or tail feather of 
 the green linnet, or any small bird of that colour. 
 The body you may make of gosling-down itself; 
 though I like very soft swine's down, or yellow 
 yarn better. 
 
 The second is a brighter yellow, for which you 
 shou'd have a fine feather died yellow, with 
 dubbing of the same colour. 
 
 The third is as bright a yellow as can be seen ; 
 its wings stand streight upon its shoulders; its tail 
 is forked and turns up, almost to touch its wings. 
 This, I think, is easiest and best imitated with a 
 bright yellow cock's hackle, and nothing hut the 
 unwaxed yellow silk for the body; you may cut 
 off some of the hackle on the under side of the 
 fly. These three in April and May, dressed to a 
 single hair, will be taken in a fine water and 
 
 F3 
 
54 The North Country Angler. 
 
 shallow streams, when trout and grayling will 
 not stir at a large fly. 
 
 I once met with a young Gentleman at Roth- 
 bury, who fished chiefly with one of these yel- 
 lowish flies; and was very nice in dressing them; 
 he made the wings to lean back to the shank end 
 of the hook, and always fished straight down the 
 stream ; which put the wings into their true pos- 
 ture : He got many rises, as he called them, but 
 seldom hooked a fish. I told him of his fault, 
 and fished the same stream, drawing my fly across 
 it and seldom missed a fish. This Gentleman 
 had a bag of trumpery hanging at his side, as big 
 as his creel ; and spent more than half of his 
 time in changing and dressing ; he said, it was 
 their way in the South. 
 
 I own, I do not like to fish with a single fly, 
 though, some nice anglers pretend, it is the best 
 way: and, if my observations are gooU, you will 
 be of my opinion. 
 
 When a fly lights upon the water, and the 
 stream brings it down, it is always in its natural 
 or sitting posture, with its wings close on its 
 back, or by its sides, according to its shape and 
 make; but when the same fly is flying, it looks 
 quite otherwise; and to dress one to resemble it 
 as flying, is, I think, more curious than to dress 
 the other. 
 
 And this is my reason for making the end fly 
 a dubbed one, and the upper, or drop-fly, a 
 hackle : and the best way to do this, is to 
 choose the hackle as near the colour of the wings 
 of the fly, as they appear when flying, as possible. 
 
The North Country Angler. 55 
 
 The woodcock's wing will furnish you with 
 variety enough. 
 
 When I fish with these flies, I let one of them, 
 the hackle or drop-fly, only touch the top of the 
 water ; the uppermost only sometimes ; for I 
 have observed, that the fish strike the boldest at 
 those flies, that do not touch the water ; because 
 they appear to be upon the wing, and are making 
 their escape from them. But the end fly I let 
 sink two or three inches sometimes, having ob- 
 served, that it is often better taken a little under 
 water, than on the very surface, the reason of 
 which, I suppose, is, that these flies are bred in 
 the water, under the stones and among the gra- 
 vel; and as soon as their wings are grown, they 
 come to the top of the water, before they can fly, 
 and are an easy prey to the lazy trouts, who feed 
 on them under the surface. 
 
 The best way, in my opinion, of putting one 
 or two drop-flies on your link, is to make the hair 
 you dress it to, only about four inches long, with 
 a loop neatly wrapped, no longer than just to 
 put the loop of your fly link through it ; and 
 when it is placed at a proper distance from the 
 end-fly, to make a double knot upon the fly- link, 
 in which you must inclose the loop of your bob- 
 fly; which will then hang perpendicular from the 
 line, and more loose and free, than when it is 
 dressed upon the end of a long hair, and so made 
 a part of the link. 
 
56 The North Country Angler. 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 Of the Twinge, Earwig, or Twichbell. 
 
 JL HIS is an insect that resembles the creeper, 
 or water-cricket ; well known to gardeners, 
 especially the florists, to whom it is very trouble- 
 some, creeping up the stalks of flowers, and eat- 
 ing into the very heart of them. I have often 
 gone to such places of a river, where I could get 
 no crt-epers; which has been a great disappoint- 
 ment to me, though never unprovided with other 
 baits. 
 
 As I was once seeking for grubs, I saw three 
 or four of these twinges, which I catched and 
 put into my creeper horn ; I put one of them on 
 my hook, as I used to do a creeper and catched 
 a trout with it ; which encouraged me to make 
 further trials, with pretty good success; and when 
 the creeper season was over, I have used the 
 twinge in stream and shade-fishing. I generally 
 put them on a hook with a pair of wings, and a 
 bristle to keep it up, and make it look like the 
 body of a fly, and have got good fish with them. 
 I would not, however, recommend this as an 
 extraordinary killing bait ; but only as a thing 
 that may be used upon occasion^ when better 
 baits are not to be had. 
 
The North Country Angler. 57 
 
 CHAP. XVI. 
 
 Of the Grub, or Earth-Bob. 
 
 JL HERE is a considerable part of the fishing 
 season, in which the grub is an excellent bait, 
 but I choose to use it only when trouts will take 
 nothing better, or so well; and that is after mid~ 
 summer. There are many sorts of them, as 
 many as there are species of beetles ; for they 
 are all the erucas of that tribe of insects, and 
 differ in their size and colour, according to the 
 species of their mother beetle or clock. Those 
 commonly used by anglers, are the earth-bob, 
 and the cowturd grub. 
 
 The earth-bob is bred in old pasture grounds; 
 and may be got in great plenty when such pas- 
 tures are ploughed up. You may know where 
 and when to find them by the crows following 
 the plough, and filling their throats with them 
 to carry to their young. This grub is much 
 larger than the other, and may be kept in a tub 
 or jar, with some of the earth in which they are 
 bred. 
 
 They are chiefly used in float-fishing for chub, 
 dace, &c. though a trout will take it very well, 
 if used and fished with as the cod-bait. I often 
 fish with it in the shade under bushes, with a 
 short strong line, by itself or with a pair of wings 
 on a bristled hook, on the top of the water; 
 sometimes in strong streams, and in the deeps 
 in a ruffling wind. 
 
 The lesser grub is bred on cow plats, the 
 
58 The North Country Angler. 
 
 beetle excluding her eggs on them when newly 
 dropped ; as they grow, they creep into the plat, 
 which crusts over with the heat of the sun and 
 wind, and preserves them as long as there is any 
 moisture in the plat, and then they eat their way 
 through it into the earth, and may be dug up 
 there, when the plat is quite dried and gone. It 
 is in perfection for the angler when it is white, 
 or of a cream colour, that is, when they are eating 
 holes through the plat. When you gather these, 
 you must keep them in moss, as you do worms ; 
 but do not put your line into the bag where they 
 are, as anglers often do in their brandling-bag, 
 for the grubs will eat it in pieces in a night's 
 time. 
 
 You may angle with this grub on a small 
 bristled hook, with a float, at mid-water, in 
 streams or in eddies, but you must have a fine 
 line of single hair for a yard next the hook. My 
 common way of using it, is on a half fly, with a 
 bristle to strike through its neck, and before I 
 put it on, I hold it between the thumb and fore 
 finger of my left hand, and with the point of my 
 hook put into its tail, and squeezing it gently, 
 draw out the dirt that is in it. 
 
 This is an excellent bait for small fish, especially 
 the brandling-trout in shallow streams: I gene- 
 rally have a small hackle-fly about two feet 
 above it. 
 
The North Country Dingier 59 
 
 CHAP. XVII. 
 
 O/ the Gentle or Maggot. 
 
 jVERY one knows how these mischievous 
 creatures are bred ; and they are a common bait 
 for dace, roach, chub, &e. but 1 seldom use them 
 any other way than as the grwb, on a bristled 
 hook, and a half fly. I keep them in bran till 
 full grown, within a day or two of their turning 
 to an aurelia, when they grow tough ; and I 
 generally put the point of a needle or pin in at 
 the thick end of it, and then put my hook in at 
 that hole, and quite through at the small end, 
 and thrust it on till part of it is beyond the 
 bristle, to strike through the middle of it. 
 
 With the grub or this maggot, when the 
 shallow streams are full of brandling-trouts, I 
 have often in the Coquet, catched three or four 
 hundred in four hours time. 
 
 CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 Of Salmon-Roe. 
 
 JL HE best time to get this bait is when the 
 salmon are~ full bellied, a little before they 
 spawn : There are several ways of managing and 
 keeping it ; some boil it a little, and salt it; some 
 only Jay it on a board or trencher to dry, and 
 
60 The North Country Angler. 
 
 turn it over several times to keep it sweet; 
 others, when it is a little dried, put it in a wool- 
 len bag, and hang it up where the gentle warmth 
 of the fire will preserve it : The last method is 
 the best. 
 
 The time of fishing with it is, when the salmon 
 are spawning; and as that season will continue a 
 month or more, so long it is a killing bait, when 
 the water is a little flooded, and even when it is 
 white, and a high water. 
 
 All scaled fish are to be taken with it, where 
 any of them are in trout-rivers, below the streams, 
 where the water runs gently, or in eddies ; but 
 trouts will come up to the spawning-beds, and 
 there watch its coming down the stream, and 
 feed greedily. Eels are very fond of it, and will 
 creep even into the spawn-heaps, and devour it. 
 
 I must own it is a pity to use this bait, upon 
 many accounts ; as it cannot be procured with- 
 out destroying thousands of that valuable fish ; 
 and as most fish, especially trouts, are then also 
 kipper; and though there are several gelt trouts 
 that do riot spawn at that time, which, like the 
 barren doe, are then in their perfection, yet 
 their num v er being small, not above one in ten, 
 in comparison of those that are full of spawn, 
 by taking of which, the breed of trouts is likewise 
 destroyed ; I say, therefore, no generous angler 
 should, for the sake of half a dozen good trouts, 
 kill sixty bad ones, and in them as many 
 thousand young. 
 
 I shall not, for these reasons, give any direc- 
 tions how to use this bait ; though I have often 
 killed fish with it in winter^ when they would 
 
The North Country Angler. ($ \ 
 
 take nothing else, or half so well. And it is my 
 opinion, that when scaled fish take pastes, they 
 mistake it for the spawn of other large fish ; or 
 for the grubs and erucas that drop from the banks, 
 or trees and bushes that hang over the river 
 sides. 
 
 CHAP. XIX. 
 
 Of Bush or Shade Fishing. 
 
 A.S I have been walking by the river's side in 
 clear sun shiny days, when I was tired with 
 catching the small fry in the streams, I have 
 observed large trouts run from under the shade of 
 bushes, that hang over a yard or two upon the 
 pools : 1 longed to have some of these ; and 
 after many ineffectual essays, and several trials, I 
 contrived at last to catch the best trouts that 
 were in the pool. I own, I took the hint from 
 Mr. Walton's directions how to fish for the 
 chub, but found many difficulties, that he does 
 not seem to have met with. I shall not mention 
 all these difficulties, but only tell my angler for 
 his encouragement, that if he will follow my 
 directions, he may fill his pannier with great 
 trouts, when other anglers are sleeping or smoak- 
 ing their pipes. 
 
 I generally begin fishing in the shade, or under 
 bushes, in May, and continue it all the three 
 following months, which we call the four hot 
 
62 The North Country Angler. 
 
 months: Most anglers in those months fish only 
 in the mornings and evenings, unless the sky is 
 cloudy/ and there is a brisk wind on the pools : 
 for then one may have very good sport, and kill 
 large fish. 
 
 In these months, when there is no wind, and 
 the sun is shining, from about ten o'clock in the 
 morning, till four or five in the afternoon, is the 
 best time for shade-fishing ; but before you try 
 this way, if you expect to succeed, you must be 
 furnished with such tackling as I always use. 
 
 First, you must have a rod about twelve feet 
 long, with a good stiff top, of what wood you 
 please ; hazle, I think, is as good as any for this 
 purpose. Then you must have a bag of well- 
 scoured maiden lobs, sod worms and brandlings; 
 another little bag with codbaits, earth grubs, 
 cow-plat grubs, &c. and a horn with May flies, 
 as long as they are to be found, beetles, large 
 moths, nocturnals, &c. some of these, however, 
 you should have. 
 
 Next, for your line you must provide good 
 strong Indian grass, or silk worm gut; though 
 I would rather recommend a fine silk line ; but 
 as the best of all a line made of swine's bristles. 
 
 Your line should not be above a yard long ; 
 and where there is some difficulty in getting your 
 rod-top through the bushes, not above half a yard, 
 which, when baited, you may wrap loosely seven 
 or eight times about the rod top ; and when you 
 have thrust it beyond the bush, turn your rod 
 round as many times, and let your bait drop into 
 the water. 
 
 There is a great deal of caution necessary in 
 
The North Country Angler. 63 
 
 managing your rod and line. Some pools are 
 shaded only here and there with a bush or two, 
 in such places )ou may fish with a line a yard, 
 or more, long ; hut you must be sure to make 
 your approach to such open places cautiously; 
 for the great fish lie very near the top of the 
 water, watching the fall of fiies or other insects 
 from the bushes, where they are bred or har- 
 boured : and though you do not see them, yet 
 they will see you at your first coming, and scud 
 away into the pool, and not return, perhaps, in 
 an hour's time. 
 
 I have been often agreeably amused, sitting 
 behind a bush, that has hung over the water two 
 yards or more, and observing the t routs taking 
 their rounds, and patrolling in order^ according 
 to their quality. Sometimes I have seen three 
 or four private men coming up together under 
 the shade ; and presently an officer or man of 
 quality, twice as big, comes from his country 
 seat, under a bank or great stone, and rushes 
 among them as furiously as I once saw a young 
 justice of the peace do to three poor anglers; and 
 as I cannot approve of such proceedings, I have 
 with some extraordinary pleasure revenged the 
 weaker upon the stronger, by dropping in my 
 bait half a yard before him ; with what an air of 
 authority and grandeur have I seen the qualified, 
 what shall I call him, extend his jaws and take 
 in the delicious morsel, and then marching slowly 
 off in quest of more, till stopped by a smart 
 stroke which I have given him ; though there is 
 no occasion to do so in this way of fishing, for 
 Jhe great ones always hook themselves. 
 
4 The North Country Angler. 
 
 And here I advise the bush angler never to 
 let the fish get down his head, unless he is sure 
 there are no roots near enough for him ; but to 
 keep him at the top of the water, where his fins 
 and strength are of little service to hirn \ and 
 besides, he may thrust out his rod to reach beyond 
 the bush, and there work him till he is quite tired 
 and lies still. If you have a boy or companion 
 wifii you, you may call him; when I have any 
 such, I give them a long pole, like the root of 
 a fishing rod, with a large strong hook, either to 
 screw into the small end of it, or to wrap on to 
 it ; sometimes I have a landing net to screw into 
 the same pole, which should be two yards and a 
 half long. For the more safety, I used to take 
 the landing of the fish into my own hand. 
 
 There are some other observations I have 
 made, which the angler may find the benefit of. 
 One is, that although the shade of trees and 
 bushes are much longer and greater on the south 
 or sun side of the river, than on the north, yet I 
 always found the most and the largest trouts on 
 that side ; I suppose the sun's being more intense 
 and warm on the north side, may occasion more 
 flies, erucas and insects to creep upon those 
 bushes, and consequently the more fish will 
 frequent them. 
 
 Where the trees or bushes are very close, I ad- 
 vise the bush angler to take a hedging-bill or 
 hatchet, and cut off two or three branches here 
 and there, at proper places and distances, and so 
 make little convenient openings, at which he 
 may easily put in his rod and line ; but this is to 
 be done some time before you come to fish there. 
 
The North Country dngler. 65 
 
 If you come to a woody place, where you have 
 no such conveniences, and where, perhaps, there 
 is a long pool, and no angling with the fly, or 
 throwing the rod; there ycu may be sure of many 
 and large fish. For that very reason I have 
 chosen such places, though very troublesome; 
 where 1 have been forced to creep under trees and 
 bushes, dragging my rod after me, with the very 
 top of it in my hand, to get near the water; and 
 I have been well paid for all my trouble: Whilst 
 you are getting in your rod, throw a brandling or 
 grub, or what you fish with, into the place, 
 which will make the fish take your bait the more 
 boldly. 
 
 There is one bait with which I have killed 
 greater fish than any other ; I dress my hook 
 with a brown or dark head, and with a pretty large 
 wing, of a mottled drake's feather, or a starling's 
 wing, and a bristle on the back of the hook ; I 
 usually put on a large grub or cod-bait, beetle or 
 grasshopper, &c. and have had a little bottle with 
 oil of ivy, dissolved assafoetida, or other strong 
 scented oil, and dipped the end of this bait into 
 it ; and I have never known a fish refuse it, that 
 has not seen me, or been chased away. 
 
 There are some pools, that have no bushes at 
 all, but only hollow banks in some places, under 
 which the great fish will lie in the day time; I have 
 gone softly to such places, and have dropped in a 
 suitable bait close by the bank, and have presently 
 had a good fish. When I use cork, shammy or 
 buff, instead of natural baits, I always dip them 
 in some strong scented oil, in shade fishing; 
 because the fish come slowly to the bait, and if 
 G 2 
 
66 The North Country Angler. 
 
 it does not smell something like the natural bait, 
 will not take it, though well imitated. 
 
 CHAP. XX. 
 
 Of Angling with Minnow. 
 
 ITH this bait the angler may take the best 
 trouts in a stream, if he knows when and how to 
 fish with it. I shall tell you the several ways 
 that are commonly used by our best anglers, and 
 then my own method ; that the angler may try 
 and choose which he likes best. Mr. Walton 
 directs to bait thus : 
 
 " Take a middle-sized, bright minnow, put 
 your hook in at its mouth, and out at its gill, 
 then having drawn the hook two or three inches 
 through the gill, put it again into his mouth, and 
 the point and beard out at his tail; then tie the 
 hook and his tail together neatly with a white 
 thread, which will make it turn quick in the 
 water. Then pull back that part of the line 
 which was slack, when the hook was put into 
 the minnow's mouth the second time, which 
 will fasten the head, and the minnow will be 
 almost streight on the hook. This done, try how 
 it will turn by drawing it across the water, or 
 against the stream; and if it does not turn quick 
 enough, then turn the tail a little to the right 
 or left hand and try it again, till it turns fast 
 enough." 
 
The North Country Angler. (ft 
 
 This method of Mr. Walton's may be altered, 
 by putting the hook at first in at the underside 
 of the minnow's under chap, and quite through 
 the upper chap too, then draw it two or three 
 inches on to the line, and put the hook in at the 
 mouth, &c. this will keep the minnow's mouth 
 close, which otherwise should be stitched up. 
 
 I saw a Gentleman once fishing In a deep 
 strong stream with a minnow, he struck upon a 
 trout's taking the bait, but not giving him time 
 to gorge, he lost the fish. I saw him put on a 
 fresh bait; he had two middle-sized hooks, the 
 one at the end of his line, the other an inch 
 above it ; he put the first hook in at the min- 
 now's side near the middle, and the other he 
 put in near the tail, and the point and beard of 
 it out, where he put in the first hook. Then he 
 put a swan-shot into the minnow's mouth, and 
 stitched it up with a white thread ; he threw in 
 at the top of the stream, and let it go down, 
 then pulled it up again, and let it sink as before. 
 I told him, I thought it would do better to bait 
 the contrary way ; and put the first hook in at 
 the middle of the minnow, and out at the tail; 
 and the second hook in at the mouth, and out 
 at the middle, and then stitch up the mouth as 
 before ; then draw the bait with its head fore- 
 most against or across the stream; He tried this 
 way and liked it better ; but when he saw me 
 bait with a minnow, and fish a stream, he said 
 he thought it the best, and would use it for the 
 future. 
 
 My method is this : I use a rod with a strong 
 top ; I make my line of lengths plaited with an 
 
68 The North Country Angler. 
 
 engine, and neatly wrapped with ,vhite silk, a 
 yard shorter than my rod ; the uppermost plait 
 is twelve hairs, the lowest nine : I make a neat 
 loop an inch long, at each end : to the smaller 
 end I fix a swivel, the box swivel the hest ; to 
 this I loop a link of a yard and an half long, with 
 six hairs at the lower end ; which makes the 
 whole line about half a yard longer than the 
 rod. I have a gilse hook at the end of the 
 line; but wrapped no further on the end of the 
 shank, than to make it secure, and to leave more 
 room to bait: an inch or very little more from 
 the shank end of the gilse hook, I wrap on a 
 strong hook about half the size of the other. 
 I put the point of the large hook in at the mouth 
 of the minnow and out at the tail, on the right 
 side of the minnow, bending it half round as I 
 put it on ; then I put the other hook in below the 
 under chap, and out at the upper part of the upper 
 chap, which keeps the minnow's mouth quite 
 close. When I am in no hurry, I tie the tail 
 and hook together, with a very small white thread. 
 Before I enter the little hook, I draw up the 
 minnow to its full length, and make it fit the 
 bending of the great hook, to make it twirl 
 round when it is drawn in the water. The use 
 of the swivel is, that the line may not untwist, 
 by the minnow's turning round, as it must do 
 without it. 
 
 When all is in order, I take the line in my 
 left hand, a little above the bait, and throw it 
 under hand, lifting up my right and the rod, 
 that the bait may fall gently into the water. I 
 stand at the very top of the stream, as far off as 
 
The North Country Angler. 69 
 
 my tackle will permit, and let the bait drop in a 
 yard beyond the middle of it ; I draw the minnow 
 with gentle pulls of about a yard at a time, 
 across the stream, turning my rod top up the 
 water, within half a yard of its surface, keeping 
 my eye fixed on the minnow. 
 
 When, a fish takes it, he generally hooks him- 
 self ; however, I give him a smart stroke, and if 
 he does not get off then, I am pretty sure of him. 
 In this manner I throw in three or four times at 
 the upper part of a stream, but never twice in the 
 same place, but a yard lower every cast. I al- 
 ways throw quite over the stream, and let the 
 bait cross it in a round, like a semicircle, about 
 a foot below the surface, which the two shot of 
 No. 3, or 4, that I always have upon my line, 
 nine or ten inches from the hooks, will sink it 
 to. When I am drawing the bait across the 
 stream, I keep the top of the rod within less than 
 a yard from the water, and draw it downwards, 
 that the bait may be at the greater distance from 
 me, and the first thing that the fish will see. 
 Sometimes I can see the fish before he takes the 
 bait, and then I give in the rod a little, that the 
 minnow may, as it were, meet him halfway; but 
 if I think he is shy I pull it away and do not 
 throw it in again till he has got to his feeding 
 place. The twirling of the minnow is the 
 beauty of this way of angling, the fish seeing it 
 at a greater distance, and fancying it is making 
 all the haste it can to escape from them, $md so 
 make the more haste to catch it. 
 
 You may trowl with the minnow baited, as 
 the gentleman did, with two middle-sized hocks, 
 
70 The North Country Angler. 
 
 and lead in its mouth, for trout, perch, and 
 chub, in proper places for them, as you trowl for 
 pike, in a wind or by a deep stream. 
 
 CHAP. XXL 
 
 How to get the largest Fish where you cannot use 
 a Rod. 
 
 JL have often seen great pools, with high banks, 
 rocks or woods on both sides, that I could do 
 nothing with a rod, and where there has been 
 plenty of great fish, and a strong stream. I have 
 looked at such places with no little grief and 
 vexation, till at last I contrived a way to make 
 myself easy ; which I am persuaded was never 
 used by any angler before : 
 
 Having my creel, and all my night-line ma- 
 terials, I got a dry stick, about the thickness of 
 my arm, and a yard or more long : with this I 
 waded in, to the very top of the stream, looped 
 my line on the middle of the stick, and dropped 
 it into the stream; then I looped on a baited 
 snood a yard from the stick, another a yard and 
 a half from that, and so on, till the stick would 
 go no farther down: then I cut off my line, 
 made a loop, fastened it on a stone, and laid it 
 in the stream. I have been well paid and pleased 
 in the morning, to have ten or twelve large 
 trouts struggling for their lives and liberties : I 
 continued this method five or six times, till I got 
 
The North Country Angler. 7 1 
 
 only three or four, and then let it rest till re- 
 plenished at Michaelmas^ or in the spring. 
 
 There is a very remarkable pool in Cocquet, a 
 little below Roth bury, called the Thrum, where 
 the river has made its way through, or rather 
 under a great rock, near the high end of which 
 I have frequently stepped over. The pool is 
 very deep and narrow, fifty or sixty yards long. 
 There is no good angling in it, though one may 
 get to it on both sides, because a great trout will 
 run under the rock on either side, and break a 
 strong line; so that even a landing net will not 
 be of any service. I used the abovementioned 
 method here, and the first time I put a line in it, 
 I catched two of the largest burn trouts that were 
 ever seen in these parts ; they were twenty-six 
 inches long$ and very thick: the length and 
 breadth of one of them was cut out on Mrs. 
 Parkes's table, in Rothbury^and shewn to anglers, 
 &c. as a great rarity. I had above twenty people 
 with me when I drew this line 5 and I la.d in this 
 place till I got nothing at forty hooks but a few 
 eels, and so gave it over for that year. Some call 
 this beggaring a pool, and I cannot say but it 
 is so for the present, though in half a year it will 
 be replenished. 
 
72 The North Country Angler. 
 
 CHAP. XXII. 
 
 Of angling at Night, in what Places, and with 
 what Flies and Baits. 
 
 I IGHT is certainly the best time of killing 
 the most and largest fish; those that are so 
 shy, as not to feed at all, unless under bushes, 
 or in windy weather, hunting then for their 
 prey, and feeding boldly and greedily : and yet 
 every night is not seasonable and fit for the 
 purpose. When the day has been what we call 
 a fine fishing day, and the night is either frosty 
 and clear, or the moon shines, it is better let 
 alone. The darker the night the better; though 
 even then, it it is rainy or windy, which is the 
 best season for night lines, I would not advise 
 any angler to try his constitution so far, but let 
 a few lines be fishing for him. In a. dark, calm, 
 warm night, one may have sport enough without 
 danger, especially if he clothes well, Keeps his 
 feet dry, and sometimes wets his mouth with a 
 cordial dram. 
 
 My method is this; I have a dark lanthorn, or 
 one that I can make so on one side at least. 
 This I set at a little distance from the place where 
 I angle, with the dark side towards me ; to which 
 I go upon all occasions to bait, or change my 
 tackling, [f I choose a deep pool, where the 
 river makes a turn or eddy, I fish with worms or 
 fly. I make my fly large, in imitation of a noc- 
 turnal or large moth, or the owl fly, all which 
 come abroad in the evenings ; I dress it to six 
 
The North Country Angler. 73 
 
 hairs, with light mottled large wings/ sometimes 
 double; the body of the whitish stuffing of an 
 old saddle, or such dubbing as may be got in a 
 tanner's yard, and a large white or yellow cock's 
 hackle over all. The body of the fly is at least 
 as thick as a goose's quill, and rather more than 
 an inch long, with a great rough head; my line 
 a yard longer than my rod. When I have thrown 
 it out to its full length, I draw it back by little 
 pulls of about a yard, which makes it swim as if 
 alive. When I hear a fish break the water, and 
 feel my line stop, I generally strike,, though great 
 fish hook themselves by closing their mouths and 
 turning their heads. When the night is not very 
 dark, I have a link with a fly of the same size, a little 
 darker; and when it is so clear, that I can see my 
 line, I put on another with a mottled wing, a 
 brown body, and a black hackle with red points : 
 This fly I make about half the size of the 
 first. 
 
 When I fish with worms, which is the more 
 certain bait, my line is much the same for 
 strength and length; my hook large; I put on 
 two well scoured dew-worms so,, that the four 
 ends may hang equally down : I use no lead, 
 draw it on the top as the fly, and when a fish 
 takes it, I do not strike, but give in my rod top, 
 to let him go down to the bottom with it> and 
 swallow his great mouthful. If I am weary of 
 this, and there are any fine streams, I troul with 
 a minnow, which is the best way of all. 
 
 When I fish with minnow at night, I get 
 them in the evening, choose them of a middle 
 size, bright and little bellied; I throw a little salt 
 
 H 
 
74 The North Country Angler. 
 
 on them, and keep them in a bladder, and bait 
 and fish as in the day. These are the best ways 
 of angling at night; and when I have had a 
 companion and a bottle, and been cheerful, I 
 have often filled a large pannier with fine trouts. 
 
 To this chapter I shall add, and not unseason- 
 ably, I hope, a method I used, when at Durham, 
 and in other places, which was this : 
 
 When I had a mind to divert any Gentlemen, 
 that sometimes wpuld desire to bear me company 
 in a night's fishing, I contrived it so, that they 
 might eat and drink, and catch fish at the same 
 time. For which purpose, I pitched upon a 
 warm calm evening, and upon a pool where I 
 knew there was plenty of fish, and when the 
 river was a little flooded. There, we sometimes 
 had a tent, sometimes a good shade, and such 
 provisions of eatables and drinkables as we 
 chose to bring. My province was to prepare 
 all the materials for fishing I had eighteen or 
 twenty lines, which 1 put in at proper distances, 
 yet near one another ; my baits, worms or min- 
 nows. I set every man his post, and number of 
 lines to manage. 1 had half pound leads or 
 stones for the far end of every line, on which I 
 looped five or six snoods ; when I threw in a 
 line to its length, I put the near end into a 
 nick or cleft that 1 made in the top of a stick, 
 which 1 fastened in the bank side : to this stick 
 I looped a little hell, such as children have at 
 their bell-horses. The Gentlemen would be 
 often called to their posts, and forced to ground 
 their arms, till they had drawn out the line. 
 My task was the most troublesome, to take off 
 
The North Country Angler. 75 
 
 the fish, to put oir fresh baited snoods, which I 
 had ready in a dish, and to throw in the lines 
 again ; and generally, before I could sit down 
 and drink, another bell has rung, and called us 
 to duty. Sometimes the Gentlemen would let 
 the bell ring as long as a country vicar would do, 
 who liked his tankard and friend full as well as 
 praying. But this made me more work, for the 
 eels would often make knots on the snoods, 
 which 1 could not afford time to unloose, so was 
 forced to take off the snoods, and put both 
 together into the creel. 
 
 I have often catched two hundred or more, 
 great and small, and we have got home soon in 
 the morning, before people were stirring; having 
 a trusty servant to tane care of all the appurte- 
 nances, till we have taken a morning's nap. 
 Some of my companions would now and then 
 be catching cold, which in time abated their 
 fondness for these night works, and then we 
 changed it into the more healthful day-angling. 
 
 CHAP. XXIII. 
 
 Of Eels, how they are bred, and of the several 
 Ways 0} catching them. 
 
 JL SHALL not trouble my reader with the non- 
 sensical stuff of their being bred of corruption, 
 or a dew falling in May or June, or of hairs 
 falling into the water, &c. I have catched them 
 
76 The North Country Angler. 
 
 at all times of the year, except the middle of 
 winter; and even then, when the river has been 
 frozen very hard; as I remember once at Keeper, 
 near Durham, the mill-dam being broken with 
 the weight of ice laying upon it, the key next to 
 the hospital and gardens was left dry, almost 
 to the foundation, the ice subsiding as the 
 water drained from under it; and abundance 
 of eels crawled out of the wall and lay torpid, 
 as if dead, upon the ice: I got many of them, 
 some large ones ; but neither in these, nor in 
 any that I ever took, could I observe either milt 
 or roe, or any vessel to contain the ovaries, 
 as may be seen in all fish that spawn. It is 
 therefore my opinion, nay I am positive in it, 
 that they are produced by generation, and 
 brought forth alive; for if all the arguments 
 for spontaneous generation, and equivocal pro- 
 duction were strictly examined, they would be 
 found to be vulgar errors, like the raining of 
 frogs ; and the abettors of such opinions might 
 be driven to the dilemma of ignorance or infide- 
 lity. That any animal should be produced in 
 any other way, than that of God's appointment, 
 I mean from animal parents, is a miraculous 
 production, a new creation. And though there 
 are many things in the works of nature, which 
 we cannot account for, yet we may be sure of 
 this, that they are regular and uniform ; that all 
 the species of creatures that God made in the 
 beginning are continued by generation, in conse- 
 quence of that great and universal command, 
 Increase and multiply ; to which end it was, 
 that male and female created he them; 
 
The North Country Angler. 77 
 
 and why ? unless to produce their respective 
 kinds. 
 
 It is well known to the fishermen in most of 
 our harbours, that sand eels are bred in the sands, 
 from whence tbey hook them out, with crooked 
 knives, and make excellent baits of them for 
 large fish. And there is an eel called a burrabut 
 or green-bone, that is, a viviparous fish. I have 
 often at Shields taken these in a net when their 
 bellres have been big, and have given them a nick 
 with my penknife, and there have sprawled out 
 one hundred or more into a tub of water, that 
 I had to put my fish in : they were about two 
 inches long, and very lively ; and I am per- 
 suaded that the lamprey is bred in the same 
 manner. However, that they are delicious eat- 
 ing, our epicures allow; I shall therefore tell you 
 several ways of catching them. 
 
 As eels do not commonly stir in the day-time, 
 but hide themselves in the holes of walls, dams, 
 floodgates, or in holes in the river's banks ; then 
 is the most proper time, and these most likely 
 places to take them by brogling or snigling, which 
 is thus : When the water is low and the day 
 warm, tie an eel hook, shaped as a pike hook, 
 to a strong line of what materials you please; 
 bait it with a well-scoured dew-worm; you may 
 have a stick of a convenient length, cleft at the 
 small end, and a ring to slip on to it, and another 
 small short stick, flat at the bigger end, to put 
 into the cleft of the bigger stick, and made sharp 
 at the small end, to go into the worm at the 
 shank end of the hook: this small stick you 
 may fix in the cleft of the other, so, that you 
 H 3 
 
78 The North Country Angler. 
 
 may guide the bait to any nich or hole where 
 an eel may be: you may often know where there 
 is one, by the mouth of the hole being smooth 
 and clean, with the eel's putting out her head at 
 it to seek a bait. When an eel takes the worm, 
 she will easily pull it off the point of the small 
 stick^ and not be long in swallowing it. The 
 other end may be looped about your wrist: and 
 if you keep the line at stretch, she will soon yield, 
 and come out. You may put the shank end of 
 your hook when baited, into a little nick or hole 
 at the small end of your small stick, if you think 
 it a better way. 
 
 Another way of taking eels is by bobbing 
 for them; but this should be done either in the 
 tide-way, when it is coming in, till near high- 
 water, or in fresh waters, when they are muddy. 
 Take a good quantity of well-scoured dew-worms, 
 and with a needle run them on to a very 
 strong thread, from end to end : wrap these 
 a dozen or fourteen times about a trencher or 
 board, ,tie them fast with the two ends of the 
 thread, that they may hang down in so many 
 coils or hanks : these you must make fast with 
 a loop about the place where you tied them, to 
 a strong cord, and five or six inches above 
 the worms, you must have a plumb of lead 
 more than half a pound weight, with a hole 
 through it, and make it rest upon a knot on the 
 cord; or you may have your lead at the end of 
 the cord, in the middle of the hanks. The 
 other end of the cord you must loop on to the 
 end of a pole of a convenient length; and when 
 you have let your worms touch the bottom, 
 
The North Country Anghr. 79 
 
 draw them up a hand breadth, and prop your 
 pole in such a manner, that you may see and 
 feel when the eels are tugging at the worms; 
 when you think they have swallowed some of 
 them far enough, you may draw them up easily 
 to the top of the water ; and then hoist them 
 away, and let them drop off into a basket, or 
 what else you have provided for that purpose. 
 
 In many places they make junkets or eel- 
 traps, and put small live fish into them, and 
 lay them in deeps, among stones, or close under 
 dams, and let them lie two or three nights. 
 This is a very killing way, if the baskets are 
 nicely made, and well baited with a sheep's or 
 beast's liver, guts, &c. 
 
 The millers, those base land-etters, have a 
 way to take them when they run, as they call it, 
 twice in the year, with a strong net, and some- 
 times a poke at the end of it ; which they fix 
 at the end of a sluice, and let the water run 
 through it all night ; and it were Well if they took 
 none but eels ; for when they go down, they 
 never return as salmon and trouts will, but get 
 to sea, and are what the fishermen call congers : 
 But these roguish -millers take carps, trouts, 
 salmons, salmon-fry, and whatever comes to netj 
 without offering them a bait, or letting them, 
 have any chance for their lives. 
 
80 The North Country Angler. 
 
 CHAP. XXIV, 
 How to catch Minnows. 
 
 r sn 
 
 J HIS, you will say, is child's play ; yet there 
 is some art required to catch a sufficient num- 
 ber to bait a dozen or eighteen lines. I gene- 
 rally fish for them with two or three hooks, 
 baited with a bit of brandling or any small worm, 
 or a bit of a grub or maggot. 
 
 Sometimes, I have a net hooped with a strong 
 wire, to which I fasten three small cords at 
 equal distances, like a pair of scales, tying them 
 together half a yard from the hoop ; arid half 
 a yard higher up, to the top of a long strong 
 pole; I run a thread through a few worms, 
 leaving the two ends of them unthreaded, and 
 tie the threads across from one side of the wire 
 to the other. I drop my net thus baited by the 
 side of a stream, and prop my pole conveniently 
 to be lifted up with a sudden jerk: This way I 
 have often catched enow. But a little cast-net, 
 I think, does better. I have, sometimes, used 
 a better way than either of these: I have made 
 a paste of coculus indicus, as many do to fox 
 dace, &c. and thrown in very small pills, where 
 I have seen minnows, and taken up those that 
 did not run ashore, with a little landing-net. I 
 found one advantage in foxing them, which I 
 wondered at, and do not know the reason of; 
 which is, that these minnows, when baited, are 
 much brighter, and will endure lying in the water 
 much longer than those taken any other way. 
 

 The North Country Angler. 81 
 
 CHAP. XXV. 
 
 Of Night-Lines . How to make them. When, 
 where, and how to lay them. 
 
 JL HIS practice is generally complained of, 
 and decried by all our fair anglers, as they call 
 themselves; nay, even by our Gentlemen, who 
 niake no scruple of taking ten or a dozen loose 
 hands, and with their nets sweeping as many 
 pools, and destroying all the breeding fish. Per- 
 haps this chapter will not be approved of ; and 
 several may say, I had better have written 
 nothing about it. But as I have been accused 
 of doing a great deal of mischief this way, and 
 could not have so many great fish without some 
 extraordinary judgment, I shall let my reader 
 know how I came by it; and they that like my 
 method, may take it, and they that do not, may 
 let it alone. 
 
 I have been often, at several little towns near 
 the sea, where the fishermen go off in their 
 cobles, and shoot their great lines; and when the 
 weather has not been favourable, have laid their 
 tratts or short Iines 3 near the shore, and in the 
 rivers, or where the becks run into the sea : I 
 have seen them catch a great many small fish, of 
 several sorts. I was very inquisitive, and took 
 notice how the lines were made, and the snoods 
 with hooks at them, were fastened to the lines ; 
 what baits they used, and how they put them 
 on ; how, and in what places they laid them, 
 with a stone at each end, and sometimes a buoy, 
 
82 The North Country dngler. 
 
 when they thought it needful, to find the lines 
 more readily. This method of theirs put me 
 upon doing something like it in the fresh water 
 pools. I found some parts of their method im- 
 practicable, some inconvenient; these I changed 
 for those I thought easier and better. As for my 
 lines, at first, I used three-fold packthread, with 
 loops at each end to fasten them on the stones ; 
 and instead of knotting my plaits to the line, I 
 made loops at the ends of them, and after I had 
 baited them, linked them on to the line at proper 
 distances ; and after many trials and improve- 
 ments, I came at last to this method, which I 
 think no body can alter for the better. I twist 
 my plaits with an engine, my hooks are made 
 like pike hooks, but single, and pretty long in 
 the shank : the loop at the end of every snood, I 
 make about three or four inches long, nicely and 
 strongly wrapped with white sewing silk ; I use 
 minnows, and other small fish for baits $ which 
 I put on with a needle. My needle is made of 
 steel, four or five inches long, flat, and some- 
 what sharp at the point and sides. The eye of 
 it is about a straw's breadth long, with a nick 
 filed in at one side towards the point of it, for 
 the more conveniently putting the loop of the 
 snood into the eye of it. I put the point of the 
 needle in at the mouth, and out at the 
 very end of the fish's tail, and so draw it on 
 to the phit, till the hook lies in the side of its 
 mouth. 
 
 Some may think, I am too nice in ordering 
 my baits. My method is this: When I have 
 chosen the brightest minnows, with the least 
 
The North Country Angler. 83 
 
 spawn in them, I lay them in a wooden dish or 
 earthern platter, and throw a little salt on them, 
 having first baited them; then I put the loops 
 of the snoods on the root of a fishing-rod, or a 
 long stiek, and tastes i the end of it into a wall, or 
 prop it at both ends where the sun and wind may 
 dry them a little: The benefit of salting and 
 drying them you will perceive in the morning 
 when you draw your lines ; the baits that have 
 not been touehed by the fish will be fresh, and 
 their fins will stand out as if they were alive. I 
 tie a handkerchief about the dish, or whatever I 
 have to lay the baits in, with the snoods hanging 
 all one way, and carry them carefully in my hand 
 to the water side. Sometime before 1 lay my 
 lines, I take notice of the likeliest places, and 
 get two stones, the largest about the size and 
 shape of h If a brick, that the line may not slip 
 from it, as it sometimes will, if it is not carefully 
 looped on, especially when dragged from its 
 place by great fish : the lesser stone is only half 
 as big as the other, of the same shape : these I 
 hide near the place where I design to use them, 
 that I may not have them to seek when I am in 
 haste to lay my lines. 
 
 When I come to a fit place, I set down my 
 dish, take a line out of my bag, loop it well on 
 to the bigger stone, and a snood about a yard or 
 four feet from it, and throw in the stone, two or 
 three yards, according to the place! lay in ; then 
 I loop on five, six or seven more snoods at a yard 
 and an half distance from each other, laying 
 them down orderly in a row on the sand or bank 
 side, with the heads of the baits next to the 
 
84 The ISiorth Country Angle?. 
 
 water, and the line in coils behind the baits : when 
 I have looped on the little stone, I stand with my 
 right side to the water, clear of the baits and line, 
 and throw the stone under hand to very near the 
 length of the line, which in a stream I would 
 have more slack, to give the fish room to struggle 
 but not so much that one fish or bait may reach 
 to another. I have a drag made of strong wire, 
 with three or four hooks, but not so strong but 
 that it will bend and become streight, if it should 
 by chance get hold of a stone, &e. When I 
 draw out my line, I take off the snoods and fish; 
 wash my line, wrap it up in ringlets, wring it and 
 put it in my bag, till I get home ; then I open it 
 out, dry it very well, and wrap it up again ready 
 for another opportunity. I take all the hooks 
 out of the fish, and lay them regularly in an old 
 glove, or piece of a bladder ; dry them well, and 
 wrap them up by forties -in a piece of leather or 
 bladder, against another time : I hide the stones 
 as before that no fisher may discover my places 
 of laying. 
 
 There is a great deal of judgment in choosing 
 the best places : if there is a deep part of the 
 pool, that has good holds, such as roots, stones, 
 hollow banks, &c. I never lay near them, but at 
 the first shallow, sandy or gravelly place, either 
 above or below such holds ; or on the other side, 
 opposite to such holds, if it is sandy and shallow: 
 for there the minnows and small fry will resort, to 
 be out of the way of the great ones : and there, 
 for that very reason, will the great fish come, es- 
 pecially at night, and hunt for their prey. I have 
 gone out, sometimes, with a brother angler, and 
 
The North Country Angler. 85 
 
 have let him put in his lines where he pleased 
 in every pool we came at, and yet I have killed 
 three for his one, by laying between his lines 
 and the deeps. All fording places are good in 
 floods. 
 
 I must confess that this is a very troublesome 
 and fatiguing way of fishing; but to make amends 
 for that, it is a never-failing method ; and will 
 bring you the most and best fish when you are 
 sleeping in your bed. Sometimes, the lesser 
 stone will get fast between two stones, &c. and 
 you will be forced to break the line; to prevent 
 the losing a hook, in such a case, I loop on to 
 one end of every line, about a yard of smaller 
 and weaker twine, which I loop on to the little 
 stone, that it may break, and save all my other 
 line and hooks. 
 
 CHAP. XXVI. 
 
 How to catch most of the Trouts and Eels that 
 are in little Burns or Becks. 
 
 JL HERE are few, if any, little rivulets or becks 
 that run into greater rivers, or into the sea, in 
 which there are not better fish than most people 
 imagine. 
 
 I have experienced the truth of this in many 
 places, to the surprize and wonder of those who 
 lived near them. Such little unnoticed by- 
 
86 The North Country Angle?. 
 
 places have generally plenty of minnows in them ; 
 which is one good reason why the trouts will 
 stay in such undisturbed places, and do not go 
 down to the rivers. When I have observed a 
 few little pools, with hollow banks, or bushes 
 hanging over them, I prepared tackling fit for 
 them, and the fish I expected to he in them. I 
 have got a hank of small twine, and cut it into 
 lengths of a yard, and made a little loop at each 
 end; about a hundred of these I have tied in a bunch 
 ready for use : I then took a hundred plaits of six 
 hairs in a plait, at the thick ends of which I 
 wrapped on a little strong hook, and made a 
 loop at the other end, wrapping it neatly with 
 waxed silk : I always baited with minnow, if I 
 had time to catch them, if not, I always have 
 a bag of well scoured worms. When I use 
 minnows I bait with a needle, and loop it on to 
 the loop of the twine.* The next thing I take 
 care for is, a hundred rods of about two feet, or a 
 yard long, of willow, hazle, or what grows near 
 the beck : the thick end of these I sharpen ; at 
 the small end there is a knot, or something to 
 keep the loop of the twine from slipping off it 
 when a, fish pulls : I drop in my bait in a likely 
 place, and stick the end of the rod in the bank 
 side, under water, if I can. 
 
 By laying lines in this manner, you may take 
 all the fish that are in such places, at three or 
 four times settin 
 
 I have sometimes seen a little beck, where 
 the water has run very poorly : after I have 
 made a sod dam> I set in my little rods \ and 
 
The North Country Angler. 87 
 
 when the clam has heen full, I have let the water 
 out with a rush that has flooded the little pools 
 below, in which I have caught the fish that 
 would not otherwise have taken the bait. 
 
 CHAP. XXVII. 
 
 Of Flood Fishing. What tackling is most proper, 
 Rods, Lines and Baits. 
 
 Ni 
 
 (EXT to night-lines, this, I think, is a very 
 successful method of taking the most and best 
 fish; though it seldom lasts above a day at a 
 time. A true angler, ,would not have it said of 
 him, that he could not catch a dish of fish, 
 whatever condition the water was in. I have 
 boasted in this manner, and been challenged to 
 make good my bravado, and have performed it, 
 both when the water has been what we call dead 
 little, and when it has been an high flood, and 
 a thick white water. And, I think, there is no 
 difficulty in catching a good dish in both these 
 extremes. In a great flood an angler may be 
 revenged on the great trouts, for their shyness 
 when the water is fine. 
 
 I shall tell you my method. I have ten or 
 twelve rods, about two yards long, of hazle, ge- 
 nerally each of one piece, finely taper, cut about 
 Martinmas, and well seasoned. I wrap a loop 
 about two inches long to the top, and sharpen 
 
88 The North Country Angler. 
 
 the thick end, to stick into the bank or sand. 
 
 Half of these rods are much finer than the other 
 
 half, to suit the lines I put to them. To the 
 
 stronger, I have twelve hairs next the hooks ; 
 
 to the finer only six. My lines are just the 
 
 length of my rods, with a loop at each end, 
 
 about an inch long, neatly wrapped; for the 
 
 stronger rods, my lines are eighteen hairs at the 
 
 top, and fifteen at the bottom, engine-twisted : 
 
 and for the finer rods, twelve hairs at the top, 
 
 and nine at the bottom. I lead my lines upon 
 
 the wrapping of the loop at the lower end. For 
 
 my stronger tackling, I have a long plait of 
 
 twelve hairs a little taper : I wrap on a sizeable 
 
 hook to each end ; then I double the plait at the 
 
 thicker end, and make a loop about six inches 
 
 from the hook ; this loop I put through the loop 
 
 of the line, and then put both the hooks through 
 
 it and draw it close, to make the whole line as 
 
 if all of a piece. My finer plaits of six hairs, I 
 
 make in the same manner, with less hooks. 
 
 My baits are maiden lobs or sod worms, well 
 
 scoured in moss. 
 
 This way is only for two hooks at a line, 
 which is the easiest and best way, especially, after 
 the eels begin to plague the angler. I know the 
 places where I fish, and always choose the sandy 
 side of a stream or pool, though very shallow, 
 for the fish will then draw very near the side, to 
 be more out of the strength of the current, and 
 to feed more quietly. Sometimes, I put on 
 another link, with two hooks, like that at the 
 end of my line, looping it on to the line at the 
 wrapping next above the lead; for I make all 
 
The North Country Angler. 89 
 
 these lines with an engine, and wrap the plaits 
 to one another, with well-waxed white silk. 
 Sometimes, I choose to put on a minnow, and 
 then I can but have one hook on a snood, and 
 bait it with a needle. After the river is risen to 
 its full height, the best of this way of fishing is 
 over: any time of the year, if there is not much 
 ice coming down with the flood, you may catch 
 fish, if you can but endure the cold. 
 
JUST PUBLISHED, 
 
 By Messrs. Robinson fy Co. Leeds, 
 And Messrs. Longman and Co. London; 
 
 BARKER'S ART OF ANGLING: 
 
 Wherein are discovered many rare Secrets, very neces- 
 sary to be knowne by all that delight in that recreation. 
 
 Reprinted from the Quarto Edition, of 1653,5s. 
 ONLY 12 COPIES PRINTED IN QUARTO. 
 
 The same, Royal Octavo, 3s. 6d. 
 
 ONLY 6 COPIES PRINTED. 
 
 The same, Demy Octavo, 2s* 
 
 ONLY 100 COPIES PRINTED 
 
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