THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 



rod and a two-cent fish there is not much room for 

 argument. Standing upon a projecting log or trunk 

 of a dead tree some ten feet above the surface of the 

 water, I have invoked high heaven to rid me of the 

 very thing I had journeyed far to capture. 



As intimated in the foregoing chapter, tackle for 

 such fishing (casting) should be of the most delicate. 

 The lightest one-piece tournament split bamboo, if you 

 are adequate to that sort of tool; if not, then a five- 

 foot six-inch steel. The latter is not likely to break, 

 even should you fall from some precarious position 

 into a "bramble bush and scratch out both your eyes." 

 The former may be broken on a ten-inch pickerel in 

 an unwary moment should you lose your head. About 

 the only reel at all adapted to such a stream as I have 

 in mind at the moment is one of the self-spooling 

 variety; the angler will have other employment for 

 his left hand than spooling a line. Where there are 

 open fishing, clear banks, and wide pools, there is 

 nothing equal to that aluminum tournament reel with 

 large spool. Use the lightest quadruple multiplier 

 possible to procure. Do not imagine because your 

 game is "nothing but a river snake" that the tackle is 

 unimportant. The smaller and less resourceful the fish, 

 the more important the question of tackle. Always re- 

 member when angling for small fish it is not strength 

 of tackle, but lightness, that makes for sport. The 

 lure should be a small surface or surface-underwater, 

 brightly colored, reds, yellows, greens and whites, 

 singly or in combination. Let the line be a small- 

 caliber soft braided silk, No. H or finer; a tournament 

 "thread" will provide thrills. 



In casting from the shore, the angler must fish the 

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