80 How, When, and Where to Fish for Monster. Chapt. vi. 



every one else up to date. The basket is the proper place for him, 

 you always had an idea it was, and in he slides most satisfactorily. 



There now, I have been very heavy and very long winded on 

 this subject; but if I have converted you, I know you will not 

 quarrel with me in the end, whatever the non-fisherman reader 

 may do. A fuller basket will make a friend of you. 



In Chapters II and V I have said that I prefer to spin with a 

 pliable fly rod with a fly top, just such as I would use for 

 fly-fishing for salmon ; so I suppose I ought to say just two 

 words on how to use such a rod for spinning, for there are 

 good pike fishermen who are accustomed to trolling for pike 

 with a still' rod, but whose manner of casting the bait would 

 soon break a fly rod. With a stiff rod the line is gathered in near 

 the reel by the hand after every throw, and spread at one's feet, 

 till the length between the bait and the point of the rod is less 

 than the length of the rod; then the bait, which must be heavy, is 

 swung out with some force, and the force and the weight of the 

 bait carries all the line out through the rings. The force necessary 

 for such casting would very soon break a fly top. My way is 

 therefore different. I never gather in any line with the hand. I 

 reel it up if need be for change of ground. But ordinarily I do not 

 change the length of line which I have out. I swing the bait like 

 a pendulum, and when it is at the end of the swing back a very 

 little lift, if well timed, that is, if made exactly at the end of the 

 swing back, will send the bait out to the full length of the line. I 

 ordinarily have about as much line out as a length and a half of 

 the rod. It is better to begin with less, and you will soon find that 

 you can cast in this way with a line about twice the length of the 

 rod. Say the rod is 10 feet, and the line out 32 feet, then if you 

 cast this amount of line straight out, and drop the point of the rod 

 so as to have it pretty straight in the direction of the cast, you will 

 find that you have dropped your bait -i'2 + 16 = 48 feet away 

 from you. A cast in this fashion of 45 feet to oil feet may not be 

 as much as can be managed with a stiff rod and tl dinary way 



ot throwing a heavy bait, but it is enough for sport, and covers a 



Lrood deal of water, and the loss of a lew feet in the length of the 

 east is, in my opinion, very much more than compensated for by the 

 aid which the pliable top gives you in meeting the suddenness and 

 violence of the Mahseera onslaught, as already set forth in Chapters 



