SPINNING. 193 
own experience, for five or six weeks, and probably for 
much longer. Before being used the Eel should be 
allowed to soak in fresh water, if possible for ten or 
fifteen hours, to restore its plumpness and pliancy. 
It will be found most convenient to make up the Eel- 
tail bait before starting for the river side, as the manipu- . 
lation is troublesome and requires some nicety. When 
once made, however, it is almost everlasting, and thus, 
in fact, effects a great saving of the angler’s time in 
baiting. The salted Eel-tail in my opinion is not only 
by far the best preserved Pike bait, but it fulfils every 
requirement that the most exacting can demand, and 
thus satisfactorily solves that vexed problem, the great 
Preserved Bait Question, which has been so longdiscussed | 
in the columns of the sporting press, and in which the 
comfort of the Pike spinner is so vitally concerned. Ina 
pickle-jar or a small bait-kettle, the troller can thus carry 
with him enough spinning baits to last him easily for 
a week, and these can be kept and used again if not 
wanted. 
Another advantage of Eel-bait is that it can be ob- 
tained at almost any pond, river, or canal by merely 
setting a night-line baited with worms on No. Io or II 
hooks. The great point in the management of Eel- 
lines consists in taking them up sufficiently early—before 
or about sunrise, say: if they are allowed to remain long 
after the sun is up, the major part of the Eels will get off 
the hooks, 
O 
