said to you: and yet it is affirmed by some for a certain, that the silver
Eel is bred by generation, but not by spawning as other fish do; but that
her brood come alive from her, being then little live Eels no bigger nor
longer than a pin; and I have had too many testimonies of this, to doubt
the truth of it myself; and if I thought it needful I might prove it, but I
think it is needless.

And this Eel, of which I have said so much to you, may be caught with
divers kinds of baits: as namely, with powdered beef; with a lob or
garden worm; with a minnow; or gut of a hen, chicken, or the guts of
any fish, or with almost anything, for he is a greedy fish. But the Eel
may be caught, especially, with a little, a very little Lamprey, which
some call a Pride, and may, in the hot months, be found many of them
in the river Thames, and in many mud-heaps in other rivers; yea, almost
as usually as one finds worms in a dunghill.

Next note, that the Eel seldom stirs in the day, but then hides himself;
and therefore he is usually caught by night, with one of these baits of
which I have spoken; and may be then caught by laying hooks, which
you are to fasten to the bank, or twigs of a tree; or by throwing a string
across the stream, with many hooks at it, and those baited with the
aforesaid baits; and a clod, or plummet, or stone, thrown into the river
with this line, that so you may in the morning find it near to some fixed
place; and then take it up with a drag-hook, or otherwise. But these
things are, indeed, too common to be spoken of; and an hour's fishing
with any angler will teach you better, both for these and many other
common things in the practical part of angling, than a week's discourse.
I shall therefore conclude this direction for taking the Eel, by telling
you, that in a warm day in summer, I have taken many a good Eel by
Snigling, and have been much pleased with that sport.