66 ANGLING. 



and the single hook hangs loose behind. If the pike venture to 

 touch this bait so armed, he must get the hooks into his mouth, 

 and a smart jerk will fix them immoveably. 



This is unquestionably a killing affair; and, in the hands of a 

 keeper, or an unfair fisher, is a powerful and valuable weapon ; but 

 the genuine angler will be somewhat reluctant to adopt methods 

 like these. They destroy the great charm of the art. He may 

 assuredly obtain fish; but where are the suspense, uncertainty, 

 dexterity, skill, and patience, which constitute the purest luxuries 

 of the fisherman's amusement ? 



Some people spin the minnow for pike. This is but a sorry 

 business; but those who are disposed to practise it, will find it 

 fully described under the instructions for catching trout. In this 

 mode, as with the snap, the casts are made much in the same 

 manner as in trolling. 



The pike is sometimes shot by those who have a fancy for such 

 sport. A light charge is put into the gun; and all the art dis- 

 played in the performance, consists in making due allowance for 

 the refraction of the water, according to the depth and distance 

 of the fish. It often happens that the fish is very much mutilated 

 by this process. 



September and October are fine months for pike-fishing ; but if 

 the angler can stand the weather, the winter months are decidedly 

 the best for large fish. Thorough pike-fishers always insist that 

 they catch the finest fish on sharp frosty days, when there is a thin 

 film of ice spread over the surface ol the water ; and we have 

 ourselves taken good fish, after having had to break, ice an inch 

 thick to get our bait into the water. 



CHAPTER VL 



THE GRETLING. 



THE Greyling is a fish bearing considerable resemblance to the 

 trout, and chiefly abounds in the rivers of Derbyshire and York- 

 shire; in the Teme, near Ludlow; and in the liugg, and other 

 streams in the vicinity of Leominster. Its general shape is rather 

 longer, and more slender than the trout, particularly towards the 

 tail the head is small, and the eyes very protuberant. The sides 

 of the fish are of a beautiful silvery gray, with numerous dark 

 stripes of a longitudinal shape. He is a keen and ready feeder, 

 and rises readily at the fly, and is partial to worms and maggots. 

 Indeed, all kinds of water insects afford him sustenance, as well as 



