- <poem>
But every fish loves not each bait alike, Although sometimes they feed upon the same; But some do one, and some another seek, As best unto their appetite doth frame; The roach, the bream, the carp, the chub, and bleek, With paste or corn their greedy hunger tame;
The dace, the ruff, the gudgeon and the rest, The smaller sort of crawling worms love best.
The chavender and chub do more delight [See p. 197.]* To feed on tender cheese or cherries red; Black snails, their bellies slit to show their white; Or grasshoppers that skip in every mead: The perch, the tench and eel do rather bite At great red worms, in field or garden bred;
That have been scoured in moss or fennel rough, To rid their filth, and make them hard and tough.
And with this bait hath often taken bin The salmon fair, of river fish the best; The shad that in the springtime cometh in; The suant swift, that is not set by least; The bocher sweet, the pleasant flounder thin; The peel, the tweat, the botling, and the rest,
With many more, that in the deep doth lie Of Avon, Usk, of Severn and of Wye.
Alike they bite, alike they pull down low The sinking cork that strives to rise again; And when they feel the sudden deadly blow, Alike they shun the danger and the pain; And as an arrow from the Scythian bow, All flee alike into the stream amain;
Until the angler by his wary skill, There tires them out, and brings them up at will.
- <poem>
