54 Spinning for Maimer. Ciiapt. v. 



inches in length. The use of a large bait may perhaps serve the 

 purpose of choking off the smaller fish, and allowing the bigger 

 ones to have it all to themselves, but I very much doubt it, for 

 it is astonishing how huge a bait, in comparison with its own size, 

 a small fish will sometimes go at if he happens to be more than 

 ordinarily peckish. On a spoon of 2f inches in length I have 

 pulled out a greedy little Mahseer of only a quarter of a pound in 

 weight, whereas I have also taken a twelve pounder on a spoon of 

 only an inch and a quarter in length. I measure the spoon in the 

 spoon part only without calculating the ring and hook fore and aft. 

 I 'ike, again, have been known to take other pike of more than 

 half their own size, and in one case every hit as big as itself, 

 though in the last instance it might have been more intent on 

 lighting than digesting; anyhow it won't do it again, for it died of 

 suffocation. Of course if you go to such a length, as was recently 

 done with success, of baiting with a 7 lb. jack for an individual 

 pike of 50 lb., known to reside in a certain locality, it would 

 trouble any small pike to take such a bait, and you might fairly 

 calculate on strong pro! abilities of your taking the particular pike 

 you wanted, or none at all. But you do not always happen to 

 have a personal acquaintance so intimate as to be able to provide 

 the special dish which your friend alone shall particularly affect. 

 Furthermore, I hold that as a preventative measure against in- 

 different lish a large bait is not a necessary precaution. My belief 

 is that if there is a big fish on the feed within reach of your bait, 

 though small, and you work it naturally enough for him to desire 

 to take it, he will have it, and woe betide the cheeky little lish 

 that presumes to come between him ami his dinner, for "a hungry 

 man is an angrj man." Again and again have I seen a large fish 

 sail majestically up to his hail, and take it leisurely in, as if 

 thoroughly conscious that none of the smaller lish around dare 

 step in before him. There is a calm resolute look in his eye, and 

 an angry little twitch of his tail, that the smaller fry understand 

 the meaning of right well. It means business, and they make 

 way for his majesty most apparently. But if there is any doubt 

 in his mind, and he shows no sign, they can read that too, and in 

 they go at the bait, as they are probably hungrier and Less wary 



than he is. And thai is how it is that a good lishcPiian generally 



kills liner lish in the long run than an indifferent fisherman, even 



