172 WA TERSIDE SKETCHES. 



It may appear strange after this but what is there in 

 this inconsistent world more inconsistent than human 

 nature? to sing the praises of trolling with the dead 

 gorge, and to confess that in eight expeditions out of a 

 dozen it is the mode to which I give preference. In this I 

 am dealing only with rivers governed by no such rules as 

 the above. If the gorge hook were prohibited no one 

 would more cheerfully adhere to the regulations than my- 

 self, but where the majority of anglers use it in one of its 

 two possible forms, it would be an unnecessary self-denial 

 to place oneself at a disadvantage with one's fellows. It can 

 scarcely be gainsaid that trolling is the pleasantcst and 

 surest fashion in pike-fishing. It is pleasantest because 

 it offers the advantage of perpetual motion with the mini- 

 mum of toil ; it is surest because you can cover all ground 

 and go to the fish instead of leaving the fish to come to 

 you. 



Many experienced men maintain that more fish are taken 

 by spinning ; on the whole, however, and taking one day 

 with another, this I have not found to be the case. There 

 are times when the fish lie close and lazy in holes and 

 nooks where the spinning flight passes above them, or at 

 too great a distance to tempt them, in their then state of 

 mind, from their shelter. They are like Mr. Gladstone 

 with the House of Lords ; they will think over the busi- 

 ness, and by that time, lo ! the bait has been whisked out of 

 reach and sight. 



The dead fish dropped carefully, and worked in an 

 artistically up and down movement, to their own level and 

 immediately before them, leaves no time for reflection. 

 Their sharklike instincts prompt an instantaneous dart, and 



