Yet furthermore it doth behove to know That for the most part fish do seek their food Upon the ground, or deepest bottom low, Or at the top of water, stream or flood; And so you must your hook and bait bestow, For in the midst you shall do little good:
For heavy things down to the bottom fall, And light do swim, and seldom sink at all.
All summer long aloft the fishes swim, Delighted with fair Phœbus' shining ray, And lie in wait within the waters dim For flies and gnats that on the top do play; Then half a yard beneath the upper brim, It shall be best your baited hook to lay,
With gnat or fly of any sort or kind, That every month on leaves or trees you find.
But then your line must have no lead at all, And but a slender cork or little quill To stay the bait that down it does not fall, But hang a link within the water still; Or else upon the top thereof you shall With quicker hand and with more ready skill
Let fall your fly, and now and then remove, Which soon the fish will find and better love.
And in the stream likewise they use to be At tails of floodgates, or at arches wide; Or shallow flats where as the waters free With fresher springs and swifter course do slide: And then of wasp the brood that cannot fly, Upon a tile-stone first a little dried;
Or yellow "bobs" turned up before the plough Are chiefest baits; with cork and lead enough.
- <poem>
