down the
back, and a broad tail) which are noted to be the best, because they
are the toughest, and most lively, and live longest in the water: for
you are to know, that a dead worm is but a dead bait, and like to catch
nothing, compared to a lively, quick, stirring worm: And for a
_Brandling_, hee is usually found in an old dunghil, or some very
rotten place neer to it; but most usually in cow dung, or hogs dung,
rather then horse dung, which is somewhat too hot and dry for that
worm.

There are also divers other kindes of worms, which for colour and
shape alter even as the ground out of which they are got: as the
_marsh-worm_, the _tag-tail_, the _flag-worm_, the _dock-worm_, the
_oake-worm_, the _gilt-tail_, and too many to name, even as many sorts,
as some think there be of severall kinds of birds in the air: of which
I shall say no more, but tell you, that what worms soever you fish
with, are the better for being long kept before they be used; and in
case you have not been so provident, then the way to cleanse and
scoure them quickly, is to put them all night in water, if they be
Lob-worms, and then put them into your bag with fennel: but you must
not put your Brandling above an hour in water, and then put them into
fennel for sudden use: but if you have time, and purpose to keep them
long, then they be best preserved in an earthen pot with good store of
_mosse_, which is to be fresh every week or eight dayes; or at least
taken from them, and clean wash'd, and wrung betwixt your hands till it
be dry, and then put it to them again: And for Moss you are to note,
that there be divers kindes of it which I could name to you, but wil
onely tel you, that that which is likest a _Bucks horn_ is the best;
except it be _white_ Moss, which grows on some heaths, and is hard to
be found.

For the _Minnow_ or _Penke_, he is easily found and caught in April,
for then hee appears in the Rivers: but Nature hath taught him to
shelter and hide himself in the Winter in ditches that be neer to the
River, and there both to hide and keep himself warm in the weeds, which
rot not so soon as in a running River in which place if hee were in
Winter, the distempered Floods that are usually in that season, would
suffer him to have no rest, but carry him headlong to Mils and Weires
to his confusion. And of these _Minnows_, first you are to know, that
the biggest size is not the best; and next, that the middle size and
the whitest are the best