The trout, because he is a right dainty fish and also a right fervent biter, we shall speak of next. He is in season from March until Michaelmas. He is on clean gravel bottom and in a stream. You can angle for him at all times with a lying or running ground-line: except in leaping time and then with a dubbed hook; and early with a running ground-line, and later in the day with a float line. You shall angle for him in March with a minnow hung on your hook by the lower nose, without float or sinker: drawing it up and down in the stream till you feel him take. In the same time, angle for him with a ground-line with an red worm as the most sure. In April, take the same baits, and also the lamprey, otherwise named "seven eyes," also the cankerworm that grows in a great tree, and the red snail. In May take the stone fly and the grub under the cow turd, and the silkworm, and the bait that grows on a fern leaf. In June, take a red worm and nip off the head, and put a codworm on your hook before it. In July, take the great red worm and the codworm together. In August, take a flesh fly and the big red worm and bacon fat, and bind them on your hook. In September, take the red worm and the minnow. In October, take the same, for they are special for the trout at all times of the year. From April to September the trout leaps; then angle for him with dubbed hook appropriate to the month these dubbed hooks you will find at the end of this treatise; and the months with them.

The grayling by another name called umber is a delicious fish to man's mouth. And you can catch him just as you can the trout. And these are his baits. In March and in April, the red worm. In May, the green worm: a little ringed worm, the dock canker, and the hawthorn worm. In June, the bait that grows between the tree and the bark of an oak. In July, a bait that grows on a fern leaf and the big red worm. And nip off the head and put a codworm on your hook before it. In August, the red worm, and a dock worm. And all the year afterward, a red worm.

The barbel is a sweet fish, but it is a queasy food and a dangerous one for man's body. For commonly, he introduces the fevers. And if he is eaten raw, he may be the cause of a man's death: which often has been seen. These are his baits. In March and in April, take fair fresh cheese: lay it on a board and cut it in small square pieces the length of your hook. Then take a candle and burn it on the end at the point of your hook until it is yellow. And then bind it on your hook with arrow maker's silk, and make it rough like a welbede. This bait is good for all the summer season. In May and June, take the hawthorn worm and the big red worm and nip off the head and put a codworm on your hook before them and that is a good bait. In July, take the red worm chiefly and the hawthorn worm together. Also the water-dock leaf worm and the hornet worm together. In August and for all the year, take mutton fat and soft cheese, of each the same amount, and a little honey and grind or beat them together a long time, and work it until it is tough. Add to it a little flour and make it into small pellets. And that is a good bait to angle with at the bottom. And see that it sinks in the water, or else it is not good for this purpose.

The carp is a dainty fish, but there are only a few in England, and therefore I will write the less of him. He is an evil fish to take. For he is so strongly armoured in the mouth that no light tackle may hold him. And as regards his baits, I have but little knowledge of it, and I am reluctant to write more than I know and have tried. But well I know that the red worm and the minnow are good baits for him at all times as I have heard reliable persons tell and also found written in books of credence.

The chub is a stately fish and his head is a dainty morsel. There is no fish so greatly armoured with scales on the body. And because be is a strong biter he has the more baits, which are these. In March, the red worm at the bottom for commonly he will bite these and at all times of the year if he is at all hungry. In April the ditch canker that grows in the tree. A worm that grows between the bark and the wood of an oak. The red worm: and the young frogs when the feet are cut off. Also, the stone fly, the grub under the cow turd: the red snail. In May, the bait that grows on the osier leaf and the dock canker together on your hook. Also a bait that grows on a fern leaf: the codworm, and a bait that grows on a hawthorn. And a bait that grows on an oak leaf and a silkworm and a codworm together. In June, take the cricket and the dor; and also a red worm: the head cut off and a codworm before it: and put them on the hook. Also a bait on the osier leaf: young frogs with three feet cut off at the body: and the fourth at the knee. The bait on the hawthorn and the codworm together; and a grub that breeds in a dunghill: and a large grasshopper. In July, the grasshopper and the bumblebee on the meadow. Also young bees and young hornets. Also a great, brindled fly that grows in paths of meadows, and the fly that is among anthills. In August, take caterpillars and maggots until Michaelmas. In September, the red worm: and also take these baits when you can get them: that is to say: cherries: young mice without hair: and the honeycomb.

The bream is a noble fish and a dainty one. And you shall angle for him from March until August with an red worm: and then with a butterfly and a green fly. And with a bait that grows among green reeds: and a bait that grows in the bark of a dead tree. And for young bream, take maggots. And from that time forth for all the year afterward, take the red worm: and in the river, brown bread. There are more baits than these, but they are not easy, and I let them pass over.

A tench is a good fish: and heals all sorts of other fish that are hurt if they can come to him. He is the most part of the year in the mud. And he stirs most in June and July: and in other seasons but little. He is a poor biter. His baits are these. For all the year brown bread toasted with honey in the likeness of a buttered loaf: and the great red worm. And for the best bait take the black blood in the heart of a sheep and flour and honey. Work them all together somewhat softer than paste, and anoint therewith the red worm: both for this fish and for others. And they will bite much better thereat at all times.

The perch is a dainty fish and passing wholesome, and a free biter. These are his baits. In March, the red worm. In April, the grub under the cow turd. In May, the sloe-thorn worm and the codworm. In June the bait that grows in an old fallen oak, and the green canker. In July, the bait that grows on the osier leaf and the grub that grows on the dunghill: and the hawthorn worm, and the codworm. In August, the red worm and maggots. All the year after, the red worm is best.

The roach is an easy fish to catch. And if he is fat and penned up, then he is good food, and these are his baits. In March, the readiest bait is the red worm. In April, the grub under the cow turd. In May, the bait that grows on the oak leaf and the grub in the dunghill. In June, the bait that grows on the osier and the codworm. In July, houseflies and the bait that grows on all oak; and the nutworm and mathewes and maggots till Michaelmas. And after that, the fat of bacon.