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Chris Plumb

Anglers' Net Contributor
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Blog Entries posted by Chris Plumb

  1. Chris Plumb

    Coarse Fishing
    Marshall's Mere (aka Willows) - Thatcham
    1800 - 2230
    Bright and very breezy to start. Clear evening becoming quite cool. AT 20ºC - 12ºC
    1 Carp 12lb 6oz. 2 Bream - one circa a lb, one way smaller, 4 perch - all small.
    An evening's fishing by the light of the Sturgeon super-moon - though the angling itself was a tad on the frustrating side. Loads of knocks and liners - which I took to be carp as I bumped a couple - but no sign of my hoped for tench. The swim was briefly fizzing with bubbles - but this corresponded with the capture of both skimmers. Ended up in 'if you can't beat them join them' mode dapping a piece of bread crust in the margins and hanging on!
     

  2. Chris Plumb

    Coarse Fishing
    River Kennet - Hambridge
    0600 - 1300
    Bright and sunny. AT a cool 11ºC to start, 21ºC when I packed up. River at normal summer levels and with a tinge of colour.
    4 Chub: a couple of 2lbers (best 2lb 10oz), one of around 1¼lb and one half that. 4 Perch: 1lb 1oz, 14oz and a couple of tiddlers. 40+ (!!) Roach - most quite small with just a couple needing the net. 14 Dace - all quite chunky but nothing especially noteworthy. 2 Gudgeon. 2 Brownies both c½lb.
    Super morning's trotting - can't remember when I caught so many silvers from here - fished the length of the venue and had small roach from every swim. 
    What will you give me for this - Martin?

  3. Chris Plumb

    Coarse Fishing
    Harris Lake, Marsh Farm, Milford.
    1500 - 2315
    Warm and mainly sunny. AT 23ºC - 18ºC.
    6 Tench: various sizes, from bars of soap up to a biggest of 4lb 6oz. 3 Crucians - all over a lb, best 1lb 11oz. 8 Roach, 7 Rudd and 3 Perch - 2 tiddlers and one of nearly a lb.
    A 'sporadic' kind of session with little action during daylight - apart from the roach and rudd snaffling my float fished prawn sections on the drop and a single small tench on the feeder rod. Then had a manic 45 mins from 8.30pm when I had the rest of the tench and one of the crucians. Only 2 bites after 21:15 (when I really expected the most action!) resulted in 2 further crucians - both caught mere inches from the bank!
  4. Chris Plumb

    Coarse Fishing
    River Kennet - Newbury (Whitehouse)
    1300 - 1500
    Warm, bright and breezy. AT 21ºC. River at normal summer levels.
    1 Perch 1lb 13oz. 17 Roach - all small. 9 Dace - most quite chunky.
    Pleasant couple of hours trotting for silvers. I dropped one of the roach back in and realised I had a shoal of perch by my feet - some good-uns too by the glimpses I got! Dropped a bait in and it was snaffled immediately - and not by the biggest of the shoal by any means! Alas, it was my only chance as they all scattered when I hooked it.
  5. Chris Plumb

    Coarse Fishing
    Warwick's Water - Thatcham
    1830 - 2230
    Warm, overcast very breezy with some light drizzle at times. Perfect conditions, pity no one told the fish! AT 18ºC
    1 Tench 3lb 5oz. 2 perch - small.
    Another crepuscular session - though this was a bit of a struggle compared to my previous two trips here this summer. Bites at a premium despite the swim absolutely fizzing at times. The tench eventually took my bait just as it got dark at a little after 2130 and being a male punched way above its weight! Had planned to fish longer but the drizzle started to become thoroughly unpleasant despite my shelter!
  6. Chris Plumb

    Coarse Fishing
    Middle Kennet - Marsh Benham
    0530 - 1230
    Warm and overcast with rain at times. AT 19ºC. River at normal summer levels.
    9 Chub: 4 over a lb, best 2, 3lb 7oz & 3lb. 1 Bream: 1lb 15oz. 4 Doz Roach and Dace (more dace), roach were all small around half the dace were quite chunky. 2 Brownies c2-2½lb.
    Pleasant morning's trotting with all the fish from just 2 swims on the main river - which I fished in rotation - giving each an hour while I rested the other.
  7. Chris Plumb

    Coarse Fishing
    River Kennet - Brimpton
    1300 - 1500
    Warm and sunny. AT 25ºC. River quite low but coloured up somewhat after yesterday's thunderstorms.
    2 Chub: 4lb 5oz & 2lb 3oz. 3 Dace - all quite chunky with one good-un in the 8-10oz class. 9 Brownies; 1 'pounder' most of the others 6-10oz.
    Makes a change for a first cast trout NOT to put the kibosh on my chub chances. Fortunately the fish - which would be my biggest spottie of the afternoon kept deep and didn't thrash the surface to a foam. The 4lb chevin arrived a couple of casts later. Resting and returning worked again as I had the smaller chub straight away after a 45min hiatus followed by some very welcome dace. Picked nearly 4lb of blackberries from just the car park too!

  8. Chris Plumb

    Coarse Fishing
    Warwick's Water
    1830 - 2245
    Hot and sultry. AT 29ºC when I arrived and still 23ºC when I left.
    4 Tench: 8lb 2oz (new PB), 6lb 0oz, 4lb 7oz, 4lb 3oz. 4 Perch - all small.
    Wow - second PB of the summer (after my opening day chub) and after a rather unpromising start too. As earlier in the month I began by float fishing worm - but the small perch started depleting my meagre stock of lobs at an alarming rate so I switched to the prawn that I'd put in my bait bucket as a last minute after-thought as I'd left home. The result was almost instantaneous with the 2, 4lbers in quick succession. The 8lber came along a little after 9.30pm and in the gloom I had no clue as to its weight until it was in the net and I tried to lift it out the water! Beats my previous PB of 7-10 by ½lb - a fish I caught back in 2003! There was still time for a bit more action - it was just past 10.30pm and I was thinking I'll pack up at 11pm or next fish when the starlite disappeared one more time  resulting in the feisty 6lber - which put up a much more resolute fight than the 8!

  9. Chris Plumb

    Coarse Fishing
    River Kennet - Speen Moors
    1100 - 1500
    Warm and mainly overcast with some sunny spells - quite muggy. AT 21ºC. River quite low - normal summer levels.
    8 Perch: 5 over a lb - best 3, 1lb 11oz, 1lb 15oz & 2lb 3oz. 4 Chub: 4lb 12oz, 3lb 4oz, a 'pounder' and a chublet. 7 Roach; all fairly small save one that needed the net and was circa 10-12oz. 3 Dace - all good-uns in the 6-8oz class. 6 Gudgeon.
    Super afternoon's sport, my first trip to Speen this season - all fish from one swim on the big weirpool - which I rested for half an hour or so while I had some lunch and went for a bit of a wander. Did the trick as I had the 3lb chub and 2 more perch after the brief hiatus. Biggest chub from Speen in 4 seasons and this fish will be much heavier in the autumn - was very hollow and spawned out. 

     
  10. Chris Plumb

    Coarse Fishing
    Marshall's Mere (aka Willows) - Thatcham
    1800 - 2300
    Warm, mainly overcast with quite a stiff southerly breeze wafting in the vinegary aromas of the English Provender Company's (makers of Paul Newman salad dressings) factory at Greenham. Kept the mossies and dew at bay. AT 23º - and still 18ºC when I packed up.
    2 Tench; 5lb 10oz (a male too) & 5lb 6oz. 3 Carp: 10lb 4oz, 8lb 13oz, 6lb 0oz. 2 Roach - handsized. 1 perch - small.
    An evening playing (and largely failing) at 'Avoid the carp'! They were pretty insatiable for the first couple of hours. I also lost one after an extended fight - though 3 landed out of 4 on a size 14 is OK  - I 'spose - just not what I was after on float gear. Darkness at least brought an easing off in carpy activity allowing the tench to get a look in - though the 5lb male tinca fought as hard as any of the carp. Alternated between maggot and prawn on the hook - though both tench fell to prawn.
    Feisty 5lb male
    .
    10lb torpedo!

  11. Chris Plumb

    Coarse Fishing
    Middle Kennet weir-pool - Marsh Benham
    1230 - 1500
    Hot and sunny. AT 27º - 30ºC. River at normal summer levels.
    1 Bream: 2lb 3oz. 8 Dace: all quite chunky with 4 in the 8-10oz class. 2 Roach; small. 1 Bleak. 1 Brownie c1¼lb.
    Surprisingly decent session given the bright and hot conditions. Fished the south bank, pillbox swim which allows me to cover pretty much the whole weir-pool. All fish caught trotting (of course).
  12. Chris Plumb

    Coarse Fishing
    Alders Lake - Thatcham
    1830 - 2300
    Warm(ish) and mainly overcast - clouds clearing as it got dark. AT 19º - 15ºC
    2 Bream: 4lb 0oz, 3lb 5oz. 2 Roach - handsized. 1 Perch: small.
    It's that time of year again! The blackberries around these lakes must be an early fruiting variety - the brambles nearer home are still in flower yet I picked nearly 3 pounds in no time at all. Last summer we made over 40lb of jam - this first batch is already on the stove for the start of our 2024 bramble jelly production!

    The fishing itself was rather sluggish - with bites few and far between. Both bream came within 5 mins of each other at around 9.30pm when I shoal passed through the swim - alas they didn't return.
  13. Chris Plumb

    Coarse Fishing
    River Kennet - Hambridge
    1300 - 1530
    Warm(ish), mainly overcast with sunny spells. AT 18ºC. River at normal summer levels.
    2 Chub: 2lb 7oz & 2lb 2oz. 25 Dace - most quite chunky. 10 Roach: all small apart from one 'netter' of around 10oz.
    Pleasant afternoon's trotting. All fish (including the chub) from the faster water. Was getting buzzed by a family of Kingfishers (2 parents and 2 juveniles) all session!
  14. Chris Plumb

    Coarse Fishing
    Warwick's Water - Thatcham
    1900 - 2300
    Warm and sunny. 21º - 15ºC.
    3 Tench: 4lb 11oz, 4lb 8oz, 3lb 11oz.
    An evening float fishing worm - hoping for a tench but hedging my bets for one of the pond's fabled big perch. What I hadn't reckoned on was one of the water's rogue carp. They are not meant to be in this venue but one grabbed my bait within ½hr of starting and pulled my rod off the rests - a desperate lunge saved the day as I just about grabbed the butt in time before my rod disappeared into the drink - but the fish had already found freedom in the lilies. All went quiet until it got dark and then on the stroke of 10pm - the dinner bell must have rung as I had all three tinca's in quick succession and by 2215 it was all over! Still no sign of those perch but 3 tench is a good return from here!
  15. Chris Plumb

    Coarse Fishing
    Middle Kennet - Marsh Benham
    0500 - 1100
    Cool and overcast after a bright clear start. AT, a decidedly chilly 6ºC to start rising to 15ºC. River at normal levels with a bit of colour after the weekend's downpours.
    8 Chub: 3lb 3oz, 3lb 0oz & 6 chublets. 1 Bream 2lb 7oz. 18 Dace - nothing especially noteworthy. 11 roach - small. 1 Perch, c6-8oz. 2 Brownies 2½lb & 3lb.
    Scratchy start - not helped by my first ever sighting of an otter on this stretch - in the swim I had all my chub from last time out - so no surprises that I didn't get a bite from here. Then walked down the tow path to fish the pill box swim on the main weirpool which accounted for most fish caught apart from a few dace and roach from the carrier. 
  16. Chris Plumb

    Coarse Fishing
    River Kennet - Brimpton
    0930 - 1330
    Warm, overcast with drizzle AND sunny spells. AT 17º-20ºC. River at normal summer levels.
    2 Chub: 3lb 10oz & 2lb 13oz. 5 Brownies - one of around a lb the others 6-12oz.
    'Banker' chub swim produces a brace - the second and bigger one after resting it for 90 mins. The interim was spent exploring new swims and failing to catch anything else without an adipose fin.
  17. Chris Plumb
    Harris Lake, Marsh Farm Fisheries, Milford.
    0600 - 2315
    Warm(ish) and mainly overcast with showers after dark. AT around 17º/18ºC all day.
    5 Tench: best 4lb 9oz & 4lb 6oz. 5 Crucians: best 2lb 10oz - others barely a lb or under. 40+ roach and rudd (slightly more roach) some of the rudd were quite chunky - up to 12oz. 2 Perch - small.
    Now an annual fixture in the IAC calendar - the Marsh Farm fish-in. And this was a day when, surprise, surprise, everyone caught - with nearly everyone getting a crucian. By my estimation at least 3 dozen + crus were caught - though Rob and Merv did the heavy lifting with 20 between them. The lead, for the title of biggest crucian, changed hands quite a few times - with Merv's 1-15 leading for much of the day until a trio of 2lbers in the afternoon - with new-boy Ian's winning out at 2-03. (He'll have to come again next year to defend the title!)   I fished on into the dark - as per usual - and didn't expect the rain that came along at dusk. Action was surprisingly slow - though did end with the 5 tench - including the brace of 4lbers and added 4 more crucians to my daylight tiddler  - the highlight being an old warrior of 2lb 10oz - caught in the pouring rain at a little before 11pm. Was my last fish - as I packed up 15 mins later when the rain stopped (I hate packing up in the wet so whilst I had planned to stay till midnight I made the most of the break in the showers!).   Thanks again to everyone who came.   Ian's winning fish.   My 2lber...
  18. Chris Plumb

    Coarse Fishing
    River Kennet - Hambridge
    1330 - 1530
    Warm and overcast. AT 20ºC. River at normal levels with a slight tinge of colour.
    14 Dace & 7 Roach - nothing particularly noteworthy though some of the dace were quite chunky. 2 Gudgeon, 1 Bleak. 2 Brownies c1½lb and one half that.
    An acrobatic first cast brownie is never a good start so not surprised that no chub put in an appearance. Had to make do with some lively dace instead.
    Pic of one of the Gonk's - for Martin!
     

  19. Chris Plumb

    Coarse Fishing
    Johnsons Lake - Milford
    1600 - 2300
    Hot and sultry. AT 28ºC - and still 20ºC when I packed up.
    2 Tench: 3lb 5oz and a 'pounder'. 12 Perch - all small.
    Bit of a grueller in the heat. No bites at all with the sun on the water (apart from the nuisance perch). Dusk brought a little more activity - but not from, the hoped for, monster crucians, though I was thankful for anything by the end!
  20. Chris Plumb

    Coarse Fishing
    Middle Kennet (& carrier), Marsh Benham
    0445 - 1145
    Unbroken sunshine from the off (good thing I was in the shade, under trees all morning!). AT a chilly 6º to start, 21ºC when I left. River at normal levels with a slight tinge of colour.
    11 Chub; 7 over 1lb - best 4, 5lb 7oz, 4lb 6oz, 3lb11oz, 3lb 7oz the others all 2lbers, plus 4 chublets. 4 Bream between 1¾ - 3¾lb. 10 Roach - all small. 6 Dace, ditto bar one super specimen of 11oz.
    Super morning's chubbing on my syndicate stretch. All chub and bream from the same swim on the main river which responded well to being rested. Silvers from the carrier. Added bonus of NO trout - didn't even lose one!
    Solstice 5lber.
     

  21. Chris Plumb

    Coarse Fishing
    River Kennet - Newbury (Whitehouse stretch)
    1200 - 1500
    Warmish, cloudy with sunny spells. AT 18ºC. River at normal levels with a tinge of colour.
    1 Grayling; 1lb 14oz (!). 13 Dace mainly small apart from a couple of netters in the 8-10oz class. 10 Roach; mainly hand-sized. 1 Perch c½lb.
    Quick trotting sesh whilst Mrs P was getting her hair done! Couldn't fish my fav chub slack due to a barge moored right in it - so went off reccie-ing some new swims and caught in 4 of the 5 I dropped into. Grayling was a big surprise - the ones in Hambridge I'm sure come out of the Lambourn - but this stretch is up stream of the confluence AND above Ham weir!
  22. Chris Plumb

    Coarse Fishing
    Willows Lake - Thatcham
    1600 - 2200
    Bright with sunny spells quite breezy at times. AT 20º-12ºC.
    2 Tench: 5lb 14oz & 5lb 9oz. 1 Bream: 6lb 13oz. 2 Carp: 6lb 3oz & 7lb 11oz. 1 Perch - small.
    Summer tenching campaign gets off to a good start with a brace of 5lbers - eventually! I'd caught both carp (and pulled out of 2 more) and the bream before the tincas showed up. My biggest bream from Willows. All fish caught on the float using the lift method on prawn segments. Must remember to bring more clothes - got surprisingly chilly - prompting an earlier than planned retreat to a warm bed!
     


  23. Chris Plumb

    Coarse Fishing
    River Kennet - Brimpton
    0445 - 0645
    Sunny and cool. AT 7ºC. River still quite full for June and quite pacey.
    4 Brownies - all 6-10oz.
    2 hours trotting and home for brekkie - gotta love June! Though this was a bit of "After the Lord mayor's Show" following yesterday's extravaganza. Things didn't start well as I was greeted by an otter on arrival in my fav chub swim which then produced a splashy troot first cast. A pattern which was then repeated 3 further times in the next 3 swims I dropped into - very frustrating!
  24. Chris Plumb

    Coarse Fishing
    River Kennet - Hambridge
    0430 - 1100
    Cool with sunny spells. AT 10º - 15º. River with good flow for June and quite clear.
    7 Chub: all over a lb. Best 3; 6lb 10oz (New PB), 4lb 9oz, 4lb 2oz - the others all 1½-2½lb. 2 Perch: 3lb 4oz and a tiddler. 3 Grayling: 1lb 14oz, 1lb 6oz & 1lb 4oz (!!!). 1 Pike 3lb. 4 Roach & 3 Dace - all small. 1 Gudgeon. 7 Brownies - a couple of 'pounders' all the others 6-8oz.
    Blimey - never had a start to the season quite like that! I usually consider the 16th June as a day for just being by the river again and not worrying too much about the size of fish - providing you catch of course! Today set a couple of marks I  probably won't better all season. I haven't started my river campaign here since 2017 but plumped for it this year as it was inaccessible due to flooding for the last 2 months of last season and my fav spot on the wierpool of my syndicate stretch is untrottable as they have the 'wrong' sluice open.
    On arrival my first swim was a frenzy of jumping fry and I was hopeful of a nice perch first cast - though of course one of the schooly chub got in first and it was a full hour before the big stripey switched from chasing minnows to my maggots - though why it was still hungry is anyone's guess -  its gullet was stuffed with fry! Bites were fairly slow to start - though trotting the fastest water brought the bonus grayling, my biggest ever from Hambridge and the pike, a flukey capture - I didn't actually hook it - but it wouldn't let go of my dace and allowed itself to be guided into my landing net where - too late, it spat it out!
    After a stop for brekkie I moved downstream to the fast water - where, as in previous years, I was hopeful I'd find some more chub - they seem to like the faster water early in the summer. Pretty much first trot through I connected with and absolute lump - which at first thought was a barbel. Teasing it across the current I could see it was a decent chub but didn't realise how big until it was in the net and I could see its girth. I new instantly it had to be a PB (my previous best was 6-07) though my guess of 7lb wasn't confirmed by the scales! A flurry of chub followed this capture until clearing skies bathed the swim in bright sunshine and the action stopped - though there was still time to return to my initial spot and winkle out another 1lb+ lady. A great end to a memorable session!


  25. Chris Plumb

    Coarse Fishing
    Middle of my usual spring hiatus so I thought I'd post up my latest article for one of my club's (NAA) quarterly newsletter...

    Nothing New!

    Walk into any tackle shop or browse any bait catalogue and the variety of baits and flavours for sale can be bewildering to the novice (and the more experienced) angler. The Hinders online store, for example, offers over 500 different choices of pellet, particle, boilie, wafter, flavour or glug with the promise of more 'in store'. What to buy when they are all so reassuringly expensive? How is one to decide when they all promise so much - the amount of choice is quite simply, overwhelming!
    Some might hark back to simpler times when bait preparation meant digging in the back garden for a supply of worms or putting a few slices of bread in your bait box as you walked out the door. However, I doubt those days ever existed. Bernard Venables writing in Mr Crabtree Goes Fishing, for example, lists 16 different baits for chub including, ‘the pith from the spinal cord of a bullock'. Try asking your local butcher for that today! Even as a youngster – when gentles were beyond the means of my meagre pocket money I used to raid my mother’s kitchen for food dye and custard powder to make paste. And I once made up some parmesan boilies which I was convinced the local chub would find irresistible – alas, they didn’t!
    One unusual bait I did try very successfully was suggested to me by a 500 year old book - the very first printed book on angling (in English) no less. If Izaak Walton is the Father of Angling then Dame Juliana Berners can be said to be the Mother. Who? Well over 150 years before The Compleat Angler was published, Dame Juliana is credited by many with writing A Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle, which was published as part of the second edition of The Boke of St. Albans (a book on hunting) in 1496. Whilst some scholars dispute Berners very existence there's little doubting these are the earliest printed words on Angling, having been produced by William Caxton's apprentice, Wynkyn de Worde. What evidence there is for Berners (or Barnes or Bernes - there are numerous spellings!) existence points to her being The Lady Prioress of Sopwell, a Nunnery near St. Albans. Whatever the truth of the matter, the Treatise stood for over a century, as the definitive 'how to' manual for the Tudor angler. The work was also, undoubtedly, 'source material' for ol’ Izaak who plagiarised much of it for the Compleat Angler a century and a half later.

    At the end of the15th Century you couldn’t just pop down the local tackle shop if you wanted to take up angling, so the slim volume covers everything from building your own rod, twisting and dyeing your own lines, advice on making your own hooks and floats, shotting patterns, bait recipes, tactics for each different species, even 12 fly patterns for trout. All this described in under 9000 words. When it comes to baits in the book there are descriptions of various bugs, grubs, worms and snails etc and where to find them at what time of year – there’s a lot of looking under ‘cow turds’!
    Many years ago, when I first read the Treatise, one line in the paragraph on tench, piqued my curiosity, viz:  ‘And for the best bait take the black blood from a sheep's heart and flour and honey; moisten them with water until a little softer than paste.’ When I read that I thought that sounded an awful lot like black pudding and vowed to give it ago on my next tench trip.
    Black pudding (least the stuff I bought!) needed a bit of preparation – I sliced and fried it to give it a tough enough skin to stay on the hook. It made its debut on an early June morning in 2003. The result was instant success – my first tench on it was a 7lb 10oz specimen – still a PB over 20 years later – that’s one way to get instant confidence in a bait! As a consequence I used black pudding a LOT for my lake fishing for the next 3 or 4 seasons. I found it very discriminating in that I would catch plenty of tench and very little else – apart from the odd carp. One fantastic June morning in 2005 I caught 12 tench on it with half of those being over 6lb – my biggest that morning was 7lb 8oz – the closest I’ve come to bettering that PB of a couple of years earlier.

    I even tried it on the river a few times – thinking the Kennet barbel would like it, alas not – I didn’t catch a single one on it – I didn’t even get many chub either. It appeared that whilst tinca tinca loved black pudding other species were not so keen and I never caught a crucian on it either despite fishing waters with an abundance of them! Seems the Tudor’s knew a thing or two about tench baits!
    The proliferation in the variety of baits for the angler must have escalated further by the17th century as Izaak Walton himself commented "as for pastes, there are almost as many sorts as there are medicines for the toothache". The Compleat Angler is said to be the 2nd most published book in the English Language (the first is the bible!). First published in 1653 it was added to and re-issued several times in Izaak’s own lifetime (the 5th edition was published in 1676) and has never been out of print since.  Yet how many of today’s anglers have actually read it? I must admit the early chapters are a bit ‘flowery’ and off-putting but if you turn to the species specific chapters there is still much to intrigue the modern angler. None more so than the bait recipes!
    There are numerous paste recipes in the book – with honey featuring quite a bit as an additive. Cheese is also recommended frequently for example strips of toasted cheese attached to the hook with silk thread is advocated for barbel, which also suggests an early form of bait band or even hair-rig.

    It is no surprise that, just like it would today, a lot of the chapter on carp is taken up with a discussion on baits and flavours and this recipe for making your own paste for the species always raises a smile with me!

    "And your paste must be thus made: take the flesh of a rabbit, or cat, cut small; and bean-flour; and if that may not be easily got, get other flour; and then, mix these together, and put to them either sugar, or honey, which I think better: and then beat these together in a mortar, or sometimes work them in your hands, your hands being very clean; and then make it into a ball, or two, or three, as you like best, for your use: but you must work or pound it so long in the mortar, as to make it so tough as to hang upon your hook without washing from it, yet not too hard: or, that you may the better keep it on your hook, you may knead with your paste a little, and not too much, white or yellowish wool. And if you would have this paste keep all the year, for any other fish, then mix with it virgin-wax and clarified honey, and work them together with your hands, before the fire; then make these into balls, and they will keep all the year."

    At last a use for your cat and if not boilies perhaps they would have been called bakies!
    To finish I’d like to return to The Treatise which itself ends on two very 'modern' themes, proposing an early countryside code...

    "Also, I charge you, that you break no man's hedges in going about your sports: nor open any man's gates but that you shut them again."

    And making a plea for conservation of fish stocks...

    "Also, you must not be too greedy in catching your said game as taking too much at one time... Which could easily be the occasion of destroying your own sport and other men's also."

    Some things never change!
    The Treatise and the Compleat Angler are both available to read online for free. Finding a modern English translation of the Treatise can be a little tricky – though you can read it here (but without the woodcut illustrations): https://vault.si.com/vault/1957/05/20/the-treatise-of-fishing-with-an-angle . A facsimile of the original with illustrations (but in the old English) can be read here: https://www.luminarium.org/renascence-editions/berners/berners.html (Folks who know me from Anglersnet may recognise the woodcut on the frontispiece – I use it for my avatar!).
    The Compleat Angler is easy to find online – the 5th impression can be read here for example: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/683/pg683-images.html and a facsimile with the additional chapters on fly fishing by Charles Cotton here: https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/773/angler.pdf
     
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