The Complete Angler
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Izaak Walton >> The Complete Angler
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There is also a little fish called a STICKLEBAG, a fish without scales,
but hath his body fenced with several prickles. I know not where he
dwells in winter; nor what he is good for in summer, but only to make
sport for boys and women-anglers, and to feed other fish that be fish of
prey, as Trouts in particular, who will bite at him as at a Penk; and
better, if your hook be rightly baited with him, for he may be so baited
as, his tail turning like the sail of a wind-mill, will make him turn more
quick than any Penk or Minnow can. For note, that the nimble turning
of that, or the Minnow is the perfection of Minnow-fishing. To which
end, if you put your hook into his mouth, and out at his tail; and then,
having first tied him with white thread a little above his tail, and placed
him after such a manner on your hook as he is like to turn then sew up
his mouth to your line, and he is like to turn quick, and tempt any
Trout: but if he does not turn quick, then turn his tail, a little more or
less, towards the inner part, or towards the side of the hook; or put the
Minnow or Sticklebag a little more crooked or more straight on your
hook, until it will turn both true and fast; and then doubt not but to
tempt any great Trout that lies in a swift stream. And the Loach that I
told you of will do the like: no bait is more tempting, provided the
Loach be not too big.
And now, scholar, with the help of this fine morning, and your patient
attention, I have said all that my present memory will afford me,
concerning most of the several fish that are usually fished for in fresh
waters.
Venator. But, master, you have by your former civility made me hope
that you will make good your promise, and say something of the several
rivers that be of most note in this nation; and also of fish-ponds, and the
ordering of them: and do it I pray, good master; for I love any discourse
of rivers, and fish and fishing; the time spent in such discourse passes
away very pleasantly
The FIFTH day-continued
Of Rivers, and some Observations of Fish
Chapter XIX
Piscator
WELL, scholar, since the ways and weather do both favour us, and that
we yet see not 'Tottenham-Cross, you shall see my willingness to satisfy
your desire. And, first, for the rivers of this nation: there be, as you may
note out of Dr. Heylin's Geography and others, in number three hundred
and twenty-five; but those of chiefest note he reckons and describes as
followeth.
The chief is THAMISIS, compounded of two rivers, Thame and Isis;
whereof the former, rising somewhat beyond Thame in
Buckinghamshire, and the latter near Cirencester in Gloucestershire,
meet together about Dorchester in Oxfordshire; the issue of which
happy conjunction is Thamisis, or Thames; hence it flieth betwixt
Berks, Buckinghamshire, Middlesex, Surrey, Kent and Essex: and so
weddeth itself to the Kentish Medway, in the very jaws of the ocean.
This glorious river feeleth the violence and benefit of the sea more than
any river in Europe; ebbing and flowing, twice a day, more than sixty
miles; about whose banks are so many fair towns and princely palaces,
that a German poet thus truly spake:
Tot campos, &c.
We saw so many woods and princely bowers,
Sweet fields, brave palaces, and stately towers;
So many gardens drest with curious care,
That Thames with royal Tiber may compare.
2. The second river of note is SABRINA or SEVERN: it hath its
beginning in Plinilimmon-hill, in Montgomeryshire; and his end seven
miles from Bristol; washing, in the mean space, the walls of
Shrewsbury, Worcester, and Gloucester, and divers other places and
palaces of note.
3. TRENT, so called from thirty kind of fishes that are found in it, or
for that it receiveth thirty lesser rivers; who having his fountain in
Staffordshire, and gliding through the counties of Nottingham, Lincoln,
Leicester, and York, augmenteth the turbulent current of Humber, the
most violent stream of all the isle This Humber is not, to say truth, a
distinct river having a spring-head of his own, but it is rather the mouth
or aestuarium of divers rivers here confluent and meeting together,
namely, your Derwent, and especially of Ouse and Trent; and, as the
Danow, having received into its channel the river Dravus, Savus,
Tibiscus, and divers others, changeth his name into this of Humberabus,
as the old geographers call it.
4. MEDWAY, a Kentish river, famous for harbouring the royal navy.
5. TWEED, the north-east bound of England; on whose northern banks
is seated the strong and impregnable town of Berwick.
6. TYNE, famous for Newcastle, and her inexhaustible coal-pits. These,
and the rest of principal note, are thus comprehended in one of Mr.
Drayton's Sonnets:
Our floods' queen, Thames, for ships and swans is crown'd
And stately Severn for her shore is prais'd;
The crystal Trent, for fords and fish renown'd;
And Avon's fame to Albion's cliffs is rais'd.
Carlegion Chester vaunts her holy Dee;
York many wonders of her Ouse can tell;
The Peak, her Dove, whose banks so fertile be,
And Kent will say her Medway doth excel:
Cotswold commends her Isis to the Tame:
Our northern borders boast of Tweed's fair flood;
Our Western parts extol their Willy's fame,
And the old Lea brags of the Danish blood.
These observations are out of learned Dr. Heylin, and my old deceased
friend, Michael Drayton; and because you say you love such discourses
as these, of rivers, and fish, and fishing, I love you the better, and love
the more to impart them to you. Nevertheless, scholar, if I should begin
but to name the several sorts of strange fish that are usually taken in
many of those rivers that run into the sea, I might beget wonder in you,
or unbelief, or both: and yet I will venture to tell you a real truth
concerning one lately dissected by Dr. Wharton, a man of great learning
and experience, and of equal freedom to communicate it; one that loves
me and my art; one to whom I have been beholden for many of the
choicest observations that I have imparted to you. This good man, that
dares do anything rather than tell an untruth, did, I say, tell me he had
lately dissected one strange fish, and he thus described it to me:
"This fish was almost a yard broad, and twice that length; his mouth
wide enough to receive, or take into it, the head of a man; his stomach,
seven or eight inches broad. He is of a slow motion; and usually lies or
lurks close in the mud; and has a moveable string on his head, about a
span or near unto a quarter of a yard long; by the moving of which,
which is his natural bait, when he lies close and unseen in the mud, he
draws other smaller fish so close to him, that he can suck them into his
mouth, and so devours and digests them."
And, scholar, do not wonder at this; for besides the credit of the relator,
you are to note, many of these, and fishes which are of the like and
more unusual shapes, are very often taken on the mouths of our sea
rivers, and on the sea shore. And this will be no wonder to any that have
travelled Egypt; where, 'tis known, the famous river Nilus does not only
breed fishes that yet want names, but, by the overflowing of that river,
and the help of the sun's heat on the fat slime which the river leaves on
the banks when it falls back into its natural channel, such strange fish
and beasts are also bred, that no man can give a name to; as Grotius in
his Sopham, and others, have observed.
But whither am I strayed in this discourse. I will end it by telling you,
that at the mouth of some of these rivers of ours, Herrings are so
plentiful, as namely, near to Yarmouth in Norfolk, and in the west
country Pilchers so very plentiful, as you will wonder to read what our
learned Camden relates of them in his Britannia.
Well, scholar, I will stop here, and tell you what by reading and
conference I have observed concerning fish-ponds.
The FIFTH day-continued
Of Fish-Ponds
Chapter XX
Piscator
DOCTOR LEBAULT, the learned Frenchman, in his large discourse of
Maison Rustique, gives this direction for making of fish-ponds. I shall
refer you to him, to read it at large: but I think I shall contract it, and yet
make it as useful.
He adviseth, that when you have drained the ground, and made the
earth firm where the head of the pond must be, that you must then, in
that place, drive in two or three rows of oak or elm piles, which should
be scorched in the fire, or half-burnt, before they be driven into the
earth; for being thus used, it preserves them much longer from rotting.
And having done so, lay faggots or bavins of smaller wood betwixt
them: and then, earth betwixt and above them: and then, having first
very well rammed them and the earth, use another pile in like manner
as the first were: and note, that the second pile is to be of or about the
height that you intend to make your sluice or floodgate, or the vent that
you intend shall convey the overflowings of your pond in any flood that
shall endanger the breaking of your pond-dam.
Then he advises, that you plant willows or owlers, about it, or both: and
then cast in bavins, in some places not far from the side, and in the
most sandy places, for fish both to spawn upon, and to defend them and
the young fry from the many fish, and also from vermin, that lie at
watch to destroy them, especially the spawn of the Carp and Tench,
when 'tis left to the mercy of ducks or vermin.
He, and Dubravius, and all others advise, that you make choice of such
a place for your pond, that it may be refreshed with a little rill, or with
rain water, running or falling into it; by which fish are more inclined
both to breed, and are also refreshed and fed the better, and do prove to
be of a much sweeter and more pleasant taste.
To which end it is observed, that such pools as be large and have most
gravel, and shallows where fish may sport themselves, do afford fish of
the purest taste. And note, that in all pools it is best for fish to have
some retiring place; as namely, hollow banks, or shelves, or roots of
trees, to keep them from danger, and, when they think fit, from the
extreme heat of summer; as also from the extremity of cold in winter.
And note, that if many trees be growing about your pond, the leaves
thereof falling into the water, make it nauseous to the fish, and the fish
to be so to the eater of it.
'Tis noted, that the Tench and Eel love mud; and the Carp loves
gravelly ground, and in the hot months to feed on grass. You are to
cleanse your pond, if you intend either profit or pleasure, once every
three or four years, especially some ponds, and then let it dry six or
twelve months, both to kill the water-weeds, as water-lilies, can-docks,
reate, and bulrushes, that breed there; and also that as these die for want
of water, so grass may grow in the pond's bottom, which Carps will eat
greedily in all the hot months, if the pond be clean. The letting your
pond dry and sowing oats in the bottom is also good, for the fish feed
the faster; and being sometimes let dry, you may observe what kind of
fish either increases or thrives best in that water; for they differ much,
both in their breeding and feeding.
Lebault also advises, that if your ponds be not very large and roomy,
that you often feed your fish, by throwing into them chippings of bread,
curds, grains, or the entrails of chickens or of any fowl or beast that you
kill to feed yourselves; for these afford fish a great relief. He says, that
frogs and ducks do much harm, and devour both the spawn and the
young fry of all fish, especially of the Carp; and I have, besides
experience, many testimonies of it. But Lebault allows water-frogs to
be good meat, especially in some months, if they be fat: but you are to
note, that he is a Frenchman; and we English will hardly believe him,
though we know frogs are usually eaten in his country: however he
advises to destroy them and king-fishers out of your ponds. And he
advises not to suffer much shooting at wild fowl; for that, he says,
affrightens, and harms, and destroys the fish.
Note, that Carps and Tench thrive and breed best when no other fish is
put with them into the same pond; for all other fish devour their spawn,
or at least the greatest part of it. And note, that clods of grass thrown
into any pond feed any Carps in summer; and that garden-earth and
parsley thrown into a pond recovers and refreshes the sick fish. And
note, that when you store your pond, you are to put into it two or three
melters for one spawner, if you put them into a breeding-pond; but if
into a nurse-pond, or feeding-pond, in which they will not breed, then
no care is to be taken whether there be most male or female Carps.
It is observed that the best ponds to breed Carps are those that be stony
or sandy, and are warm, and free from wind; and that are not deep, but
have willow-trees and grass on their sides, over which the water does
sometimes flow: and note, that Carps do more usually breed in marle-
pits, or pits that have clean clay bottoms; or in new ponds, or ponds that
lie dry a winter season, than in old ponds that be full of mud and weeds.
Well, Scholar, I have told you the substance of all that either
observation or discourse, or a diligent survey of Dubravius and Lebault
hath told me: not that they, in their long discourses, have not said more;
but the most of the rest are so common observations, as if a man should
tell a good arithmetician that twice two is four. I will therefore put an
end to this discourse; and we will here sit down and rest us.
The FIFTH day-continued
Chapter XXI
Piscator and Venator
Piscator. Well, Scholar, I have held you too long about these cadis, and
smaller fish, and rivers, and fish-ponds; and my spirits are almost spent,
and so I doubt is your patience; but being we are now almost at
Tottenham where I first met you, and where we are to part, I will lose
no time, but give you a little direction how to make and order your
lines, and to colour the hair of which you make your lines, for that is
very needful to be known of an angler; and also how to paint your rod,
especially your top; for a right-grown top is a choice commodity, and
should be preserved from the water soaking into it, which makes it in
wet weather to be heavy and fish ill-favouredly, and not true; and also it
rots quickly for want of painting: and I think a good top is worth
preserving, or I had not taken care to keep a top above twenty years.
But first for your Line. First note, that you are to take care that your hair
be round and clear, and free from galls, or scabs, or frets: for a well-
chosen, even, clear, round hair, of a kind of glass-colour, will prove as
strong as three uneven scabby hairs that are ill-chosen, and full of galls
or unevenness. You shall seldom find a black hair but it is round, but
many white are flat and uneven; therefore, if you get a lock of right,
round, clear, glass-colour hair, make much of it.
And for making your line, observe this rule: first, let your hair be clean
washed ere you go about to twist it; and then choose not only the
clearest hair for it, but hairs that be of an equal bigness, for such do
usually stretch all together, and break all together, which hairs of an
unequal bigness never do, but break singly, and so deceive the angler
that trusts to them.
When you have twisted your links, lay them in water for a quarter of an
hour at least, and then twist them over again before you tie them into a
line: for those that do not so shall usually find their line to have a hair
or two shrink, and be shorter than the rest, at the first fishing with it,
which is so much of the strength of the line lost for want of first
watering it, and then re-twisting it; and this is most visible in a seven-
hair line, one of those which hath always a black hair in the middle.
And for dyeing of your hairs, do it thus: take a pint of strong ale, half a
pound of soot, and a little quantity of the juice of walnut-tree leaves,
and an equal quantity of alum: put these together into a pot, pan, or
pipkin, and boil them half an hour; and having so done, let it cool; and
being cold, put your hair into it, and there let it lie; it will turn your hair
to be a kind of water or glass colour, or greenish; and the longer you let
it lie, the deeper coloured it will be. You might be taught to make many
other colours, but it is to little purpose; for doubtless the water-colour
or glass-coloured hair is the most choice and most useful for an angler,
but let it not be too green.
But if you desire to colour hair greener, then do it thus: take a quart of
small ale, half a pound of alum; then put these into a pan or pipkin, and
your hair into it with them; then put it upon a fire, and let it boil softly
for half an hour; and then take out your hair, and let it dry; and having
so done, then take a pottle of water, and put into it two handfuls of
marigolds, and cover it with a tile or what you think fit, and set it again
on the fire, where it is to boil again softly for half an hour, about which
time the scum will turn yellow; then put into it half a pound of
copperas, beaten small, and with it the hair that you intend to colour;
then let the hair be boiled softly till half the liquor be wasted, and then
let it cool three or four hours, with your hair in it; and you are to
observe that the more copperas you put into it, the greener it will be;
but doubtless the pale green is best. But if you desire yellow hair, which
is only good when the weeds rot, then put in more marigolds; and abate
most of the copperas, or leave it quite out, and take a little verdigris
instead of it.
This for colouring your hair.
And as for painting your Rod, which must be in oil, you must first make
a size with glue and water, boiled together until the glue be dissolved,
and the size of a lye-colour: then strike your size upon the wood with a
bristle, or a brush or pencil, whilst it is hot: that being quite dry, take
white-lead, and a little red-lead, and a little coal-black, so much as
altogether will make an ash-colour: grind these altogether with linseed-
oil; let it be thick, and lay it thin upon the wood with a brush or pencil:
this do for the ground of any colour to lie upon wood.
For a green, take pink and verdigris, and grind them together in linseed
oil, as thin as you can well grind it: then lay it smoothly on with your
brush, and drive it thin; once doing, for the most part, will serve, if you
lay it well; and if twice, be sure your first colour be thoroughly dry
before you lay on a second.
Well, Scholar, having now taught you to paint your rod, and we having
still a mile to Tottenham High-Cross, I will, as we walk towards it in
the cool shade of this sweet honeysuckle hedge, mention to you some
of the thoughts and joys that have possessed my soul since we two met
together. And these thoughts shall be told you, that you also may join
with me in thankfulness to the Giver of every good and perfect gift, for
our happiness. And that our present happiness may appear to be the
greater, and we the more thankful for it, I will beg you to consider with
me how many do, even at this very time, lie under the torment of the
stone, the gout, and tooth-ache; and this we are free from. And every
misery that I miss is a new mercy; and therefore let us be thankful.
There have been, since we met, others that have met disasters or broken
limbs; some have been blasted, others thunder-strucken: and we have
been freed from these, and all those many other miseries that threaten
human nature; let us therefore rejoice and be thankful. Nay, which is a
far greater mercy, we are free from the insupportable burthen of an
accusing tormenting conscience; a misery that none can bear: and
therefore let us praise Him for His preventing grace, and say, Every
misery that I miss is a new mercy. Nay, let me tell you, there be many
that have forty times our estates, that would give the greatest part of it
to be healthful and cheerful like us, who, with the expense of a little
money, have eat and drunk, and laughed, and angled, and sung, and
slept securely; and rose next day and cast away care, and sung, and
laughed, and angled again; which are blessings rich men cannot
purchase with all their money. Let me tell you, Scholar, I have a rich
neighbour that is always so busy that he has no leisure to laugh; the
whole business of his life is to get money, and more money, that he
may still get more and more money; he is still drudging on, and says,
that Solomon says '`The diligent hand maketh rich"; and it is true
indeed: but he considers not that it is not in the power of riches to make
a man happy; for it was wisely said, by a man of great observation, "
That there be as many miseries beyond riches as on this side of them ".
And yet God deliver us from pinching poverty; and grant, that having a
competency, we may be content and thankful. Let not us repine, or so
much as think the gifts of God unequally dealt, if we see another
abound with riches; when, as God knows, the cares that are the keys
that keep those riches hang often so heavily at the rich man's girdle, that
they clog him with weary days and restless nights, even when others
sleep quietly. We see but the outside of the rich man's happiness: few
consider him to be like the silk-worm, that, when she seems to play, is,
at the very same time, spinning her own bowels, and consuming
herself; and this many rich men do, loading themselves with corroding
cares, to keep what they have, probably, unconscionably got Let us,
therefore, be thankful for health and a competence; and above all, for a
quiet conscience.
Let me tell you, Scholar, that Diogenes walked on a day, with his
friend, to see a country fair; where he saw ribbons, and looking-glasses,
and nutcrackers, and fiddles, and hobby-horses, and many other
gimcracks; and, having observed them, and all the other finnimbruns
that make a complete country-fair, he said to his friend, " Lord, how
many things are there in this world of which Diogenes hath no need!"
And truly it is so, or might be so, with very many who vex and toil
themselves to get what they have no need of. Can any man charge God,
that He hath not given him enough to make his life happy? No,
doubtless; for nature is content with a little. And yet you shall hardly
meet with a man that complains not of some want; though he, indeed,
wants nothing but his will; it may be, nothing but his will of his poor
neighbour, for not worshipping, or not flattering him: and thus, when
we might be happy and quiet, we create trouble to ourselves. I have
heard of a man that was angry with himself because he was no taller;
and of a woman that broke her looking-glass because it would not shew
her face to be as young and handsome as her next neighbour's was. And
I knew another to whom God had given health and plenty; but a wife
that nature had made peevish, and her husband's riches had made purse-
proud; and must, because she was rich, and for no other virtue, sit in the
highest pew in the church; which being denied her, she engaged her
husband into a contention for it, and at last into a law-suit with a
dogged neighbour who was as rich as he, and had a wife as peevish and
purse-proud as the other: and this law-suit begot higher oppositions, and
actionable words, and more vexations and lawsuits; for you must
remember that both were rich, and must therefore have their wills.
Well! this wilful, purse-proud law-suit lasted during the life of the first
husband; after which his wife vext and chid, and chid and vext, till she
also chid and vext herself into her grave: and so the wealth of these
poor rich people was curst into a punishment, because they wanted
meek and thankful hearts; for those only can make us happy. I knew a
man that had health and riches; and several houses, all beautiful, and
ready furnished; and would often trouble himself and family to be
removing from one house to another: and being asked by a friend why
he removed so often from one house to another, replied, " It was to find
content in some one of them". But his friend, knowing his temper, told
him, " If he would find content in any of his houses, he must leave
himself behind him; for content will never dwell but in a meek and
quiet soul ". And this may appear, if we read and consider what our
Saviour says in St. Matthew's Gospel; for He there says—" Blessed be
the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed be the pure in heart,
for they shall see God. Blessed be the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. And, Blessed be the meek, for they shall possess
the earth." Not that the meek shall not also obtain mercy, and see God,
and be comforted, and at last come to the kingdom of heaven: but in the
meantime, he, and he only, possesses the earth, as he goes towards that
kingdom of heaven, by being humble and cheerful, and content with
what his good God had allotted him. He has no turbulent, repining,
vexatious thoughts that he deserves better; nor is vext when he see
others possess of more honour or more riches than his wise God has
allotted for his share: but he possesses what he has with a meek and
contented quietness, such a quietness as makes his very dreams
pleasing, both to God and himself.
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