SPINNING. 195 
the Ist of June to the end of February—that is, during the 
whole season when Pike should be taken. The only cir- 
cumstances under which the preference is to be given to 
the live bait or gorge bait, is, for the former, when the 
water is too much discoloured by flood; and, for the latter, 
when too much overgrown with weeds to make spinning 
practicable. Nor do I believe that there is any rule as 
to the state of the wind, weather, or water, by which the 
most experienced Pike fisher can really prognosticate 
what will be a good day for spinning and what for troll- 
ing, or even whether the day will prove good for Pike 
fishing at all. To this view I have been gradually led 
by a careful observation of the condition of weather and 
water existing on days on which I have had the best and 
the worst sport, and I cannot say that I have ever been 
able to make out that there was any rule or system 
whatever traceable in the result. In this opinion I am 
confirmed by Captain Warmington of Fordingbridge, a 
most experienced “spinner,” who kept for many years an 
exact register of the state of the wind, water, baro- 
meter, &c., on the days when he had been Jack fishing. 
without, as he assured me, having been able tc 
arrive at any results whatever—the results, in fact, 
were altogether contradictory and unintelligible. My 
own experience is that in very severe cold it is of 
little or no use fishing for Pike: they seem to 
become torpid or sulky from cold, and will not take 
except under extreme provocation. The only chance 
Or2 
