TROLLING FOR GREAT PIKE 



feed," will prove remunerative if we but troll slow. 

 Troll slow, just as slow as you can, and keep the spoon 

 above the weeds and free of the bottom. 



When the angler uses loo feet of line or more, very 

 little extra weight will be needed; the weight of the 

 line and lure will be sufficient. The reader can readily 

 see that when the boat slows up the lure is bound to 

 sink, too deeply if much weight in the way of "sinkers" 

 is added. Of course the character of the water fished 

 must be taken into consideration. When it is snaggy 

 or very weedy, one cannot handle so long a line. But 

 always use as long a line as possible, so the hook will 

 be well behind the boat and its disturbance. 



Which brings me to another matter that has been 

 discussed in a preceding chapter — the shyness of fish. 

 The better I become acquainted with great pike, the 

 more certain I am that they are more shy than most 

 anglers think them. The shadow of a boat is sufficient 

 to make them suspicious, and the splash of an oar 

 will send them to shelter. What fisherman has not 

 seen a great pike follow a lure up to the boat and then 

 turn and glide away, a ghostly specter, without strik- 

 ing? Shy. Now it is a safe bet that if the fisherman 

 were to stand off from the weed-bed or lair of the fixsh 

 and cast in, or pass slowly by, the lure 1 50 or 200 feet 

 behind the boat, the fish would strike, and strike hard. 

 I have proven it in numberless cases. As I have said 

 several times in this work already, I am learning to 

 treat all members of the pike family as though they 

 were credited with being as shy as brook trout on a 

 .bright day. The net results have been truly surpris- 

 ing. I can go out alone where the other fellows say 

 there are no fish and take a mess almost any day. 



109 



