CHAPTER II. 



THE PIKE (continued). 



PIKE RODS, REELS, AND LINES. 



The pike rod— What it has to do— How it should be made— Different 

 woods and canes suitable for pike rods— Rod rings and ferrules— Pike reels 

 — The Malloch casting reel — Slater s cage guardreel — Allcock s piker^els— 

 The plain Nottingham reel— The line— How to dress or waterproof a pike 

 line — The line dryer— Landing nets and gaff hooks— Flight cases and 

 haversacks — Rod aud tackle varnish. 



There seems to be a tendency among rod makers in gene- 

 ral nowadays to sacrifice strength in a rod for the sake of 

 extra lightness and elegance, and in no rod is this more 

 apparent than in what they are pleased to call pike rods. 

 Even pike fishermen themselves are smitten with the same 

 sort of mania, and will insist in having a rod for jack fishing 

 that is totally inadequate for the work they now and again 

 call on it to do. Personally I am far from being a believer 

 in a heavy, clumsy weapon for the sport now under notice ; 

 but I like to draw the line at something like reason, and 

 start with, at any rate, a rod that is not likely to Dlay me 

 false at a critical moment. I have seen jack rods in use 

 that hardly looked stout enough for fly fishing for chub, and 

 as for throwing a bait with any degree of accuracy, why, 

 that seemed out of the question altogether. I once saw an 

 angler using a fourteen-foot grilse rod for spinning for pike, 

 and I think I never saw anything more erratic in my life, the 

 bait very often landing wide on the grassy bank on which he 

 stood, instead of sailing gracefully and gently into mid- 

 stream. I found, on trying myself, that the fault lay more 

 in the rod than the fisherman, and if he had discarded the 

 top altogether and had an end ring fitted on the second joint, 

 he would have got on a lot better. " But," says one of 



