SPINNING. 197 



the 1st of June to the end of February — that is, during the 

 whole season when Pike should be taken. The only cir- 

 cumstances under which the preference is to be given to 

 the live bait or gorge bait, is, for the former, when the 

 water is too much discoloured by flood ; and, for the latter, 

 when too much overgrown with weeds to make spinning 

 practicable. Nor do I believe that there is any rule as 

 to the state of the wind, weather, or water, by which the 

 most experienced Pike fisher can really prognosticate 

 what will be a good day for spinning and what for troll- 

 ing, or even whether the day will prove good for Pike 

 ! fishing at all. To this view I have been gradually led 

 by a careful observation of the condition of weather and 

 water existing on days on which I have had the best and 

 the worst sport, and I cannot say that I have ever been 

 able to make out that there was any rule or system 

 whatever traceable in the result. In this opinion I am 

 confirmed by Captain Warmington of Fordingbridge, a 

 most experienced " spinner," who kept for many years an 

 exact register of the state of the wind, water, baro- 

 meter, &c., on the days when he had been Jack fishinsf. 

 without, as he assured me, having been able to 

 arrive at any results whatever — the results, in fact, 

 were altogether contradictory and unintelligible. My 

 own experience is that in very severe cold it is of 

 little or no use fishing for Pike : they seem to 

 become torpid or sulky from cold, and will not take 

 except under extreme provocation. The only chance 



