THE PIKE. 63 



Tip with weeds, and then it may be excusable. Th-e arming-wire 

 attached to the hook should never protrude beyond the tail, but 

 remain concealed in the bait. 



When all is ready, throw your bait lightly into the water, and 

 let it sink very nearly to the bottom. Draw it up again at a mo- 

 derate pace, in any direction you choose, taking care to give it a 

 slight curving motion. Practice will soon make perfect in this 

 respect. Experience alone can guide the angler to the most i'a- 

 vourable spots for his casts. The water in likely places cannot be 

 fished too Closely and carefully. Eish are very easily missed ; and 

 therefore, in favourable water, almost every square inch should be 

 worked over. Weeds will give the tr oiler but little trouble, if he be 

 careful to lay the barbs of the hook close to the cheeks of his bait, 

 and to turn the points downwards. Keep your bait clean, and 

 preserve it from being bruised, if possible, as the pike, with all his 

 voracity, is occasionally very particular. If fishing in a pond or 

 lake, you may make your casts as far and wide as you please ; 

 although we do not believe your chance of success will be 

 greater on that account. Take care that the bait falls gently 

 on the water, except in windy weather, and then it does not 

 ' signify how great a splash you make perhaps the greater the 

 better. But if you are fishing in a navigable river, up and 

 down which boats are perpetually passing, you cannot fish too 

 close to the side. Eighteen inches or two feet from the bank, pro- 

 vided the water be not too shallow, is quite far enough out in such 

 waters. We have seen this proved to demonstration over and over 

 again. A Erench officer, quartered in Calais in the summer of 

 1844, a very skilful troller an accomplishment, by the way, some- 

 what- unusual^ in a Frenchman never fished more than two feet 

 from the side in navigable waters, however broad, and he was gene- 

 rally very successful. His tackle was peculiar : his lines and hooks 

 were remarkably small ; and his rod was very light indeed, very 

 little removed from the make and pliancy of a fly rod, bending and 

 springing when he hooked a large fish like a switch. Notwith- 

 standing this tackle, which we would not take upon us to recom- 

 mend, Captain Guilluame understood the art of trolling right well, 

 and was a most skilful brother of the craft. 



When you feel a run, which the pike generally takes care shall 

 be no doubtful matter, pay out your line and let him rove where he 

 likes.. Do not let him run it off the winch himself, but slack it out 

 for him, for if he feel the slightest resistance, he will suspect all is 

 not right, and perhaps refuse to gorge. If, when he has taken the 

 bait, he merely intends to play with it, he will keep swimming 

 about from place to place, and your chance of getting him is in 

 such a case very small but if he be in earnest, he will move off to 

 his haunt at once ; and when he has remained there perfectly still 

 precisely ten minutes more time is often necessary you may 

 draw in your line with the left hand, and begin your contest. 

 Striking him smartly under these circumstances, as some anglers 



