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.

Flag-worm, or Dock-worm

15. Are all one, to find them do thus: Go to an old Pond or Pit where there are store of Flags (or as some call them Sedges,) pull some up by the roots, then shake those roots in the

water, till all the mud and dirt be washed away from them, then amongst the small strings or fibres that grow to the roots, you'l sind little husks or cases of a reddish or yellowish, and some of other colours; open these carefully with a Pin, and you'l find in them a little small Worm, pale, yellow or white as a Gentle, but longer and flenderer, with rows of feet all down his belly, and a red head. This is an exceed∣ing good bait for Grayling, and likewise for Tench, Bream and Carp. If you pull the Flags in sunder, and cut open the round Stalk, you'l also find a Worm like the former in the husk, but tougher, and in that respect better: both these Worms are to be kept in bran, and baited on the bristled book as the Ash-grub, and when you Angle for Grayling with them, use a Float and the smallest Lines, and the bait to be 5 or 6 inches from ground. A Trout rarely takes either Ash-grub, or Flag-worm.