The angler's vade mecum, or, A compendious, yet full, discourse of angling discovering the aptest methods and ways ... for the catching all manner of fresh-water fish ... : together with a brief discourse of fish ponds, and not only the easiest but most palatable ways of dressing all sorts of fish ... / by a lover of angling.

How to lay Night Hooks.

2. Let him that would lay night hooks, pro∣cure a small Cord 16 yards long, and there∣unto at equal distances tye 5 or 6 Hemp lines of the thickness of a trowling line, 2 foot long a piece, (but tye them so to the Cord, as you may easily remove or put them to again;) to each of which whip a hook, and bait the same with a Menow, Loach or Bulhead, his Gill-sins cut off, or for want of them a small Gudgeon, small Roch or seven eyes, and put the point of the hook in at the tail and out at the mouth, the head of the Fish resting in the hooks bent, and cover the point of the hook with a small worm, and then to one end of the Cord fasten a stone or lead weight, and throw it cross the River in some still deep, or at the tail of a Stream that's deep, and the other end fasten to some Bough or stick on the water bank you stand on, and in the morning you'l not fail to find Fish caught.

This way you'l take Eels, Chubs, large Trouts and Pike, but if you lay for Pike, let not your bait go to the bottom, but with a

float keep it from the bottom about a foot; for the other Fish let the bait touch the bottom, which Lead will cause. Your great Lob-worm is as good a bait as any for night-hooks, only if you lay them in Rivers, perhaps the small Fish may pull your bait off, and miss being taken.