58 best's art of angling. 



' -. . „ .. - - , , , — - 



kept alive in a tin kctile : take one and stick the 

 hook either through his upper lip or hack fin, and 

 throw him into the iikelv haunts be to re-mention- 

 ed, swimming at mid-water. When the pike 

 takes it, let him run a little, as at the sriapj and 

 then strike him. In this method of pike lis!iing, 

 you may take three kinds of" fish, viz. pikes, 

 perches, and chubs. 



These fishes are to be met with in most oF the 

 lakes of Europe^, but the largest are those taken 

 in Lapland, which, according to Schoeffer, are 

 sometimes eight feet long : the largest fish of 

 this kind which I ever heard of and saw a draw- 

 ing of, weighed to the best of my memory, thirty- 

 five pounds. This [ saw in the kitclien of Sir 

 Richard Hill, of Hazckestone, Salop. 



At the Marquis of Trentham's canal, at Tren- 

 tham, a pike seized the head of a swan, as she 

 v/as feeding under v/ater, and gorged so much of 

 it as killed them both. 



Small fishes shew the same uneasiness and de- 

 testation at the presence of this tyrant, as the 

 little birds do at the sight of the hawk or o\^,\. 



Hides to be observed in trowling. September 

 and October are the best montlis for trozo/it'g, 

 because the weeds are then rotten, and the tislies 

 are fat with the summer's feed. March is the 

 best for the snap, because, as I have said before, 

 they then spawn, and are sick, and therefore never 

 bite freely. 



A large bait intices the pike to take it the 

 most, but a small one takes him w-iih grer.ter 

 certainty. 



Always, both at troct'l and snap, cut away one 

 of tlie (ins, close at the gills of the bait fish, and 

 another at the vent on the contrarv side, which 

 makes it play better. 



