ANGLING FOR PIKE. 125 



without attending for a moment to any of them : why 

 you should use the ' Live Bait/ make a good gudgeon 

 fish for you, while you look on and take the credit of 

 his exertions : that's the way ! Now this is to me your 

 real style of fishing, when fishing is worth having ; 

 that is, when the water is just half bright, just grey, 

 just the colour of a quaker girl's frock, and on a quiet, 

 half frosty morning." 



Live bait fixed on a hook . 



The bait may be, for clear water, either a dace or a 

 tolerable sized gudgeon ; but, when the water is rather 

 coloured, a roach with its silvery gloss is most attrac- 

 tive. When a single hook is used, and one is enough, 

 either pass the point and barb of the hook through the 

 lips of the bait, toward the side of the mouth, or 

 through beneath the base of the fore portion of the 

 back-fin. When a double hook is used take a baiting 

 needle, hook its curved end into the loop of the gimp, 

 and pass its point beneath the skin of the bait from 

 behind the gills upwards in a sloping direction, bring- 

 ing it out behind the extremity of the back-fin ; then 

 draw the gimp till the bends of the hooks are brought 

 to the place where the needle entered, and attach the 

 loop to the trolling line. 



