56 



THE PIKE 



case may be, during its passage back to the angler after 

 being thrown out. Spinning is hard work if stuck to all day- 

 long, for it is absolutely necessary to be on the move throw- 

 ing out and winding home again time after time. It won't 

 do to let the bait sink to the bottom and stay there for any 

 length of time. Spinning is working the bait all over the 

 place, anyhow and anywhere, wherever there is a bit of clear 

 water into which it can be thrown. A friend who had never 

 done any fishing except a little bit of roaching once or twice 

 with a tight line, had a curious idea about spinning. He 

 was staying with a farmer friend who had a bit of very fair 

 pike water running through his grounds. The farmer rigged 

 him up on the second morning of his stay with a strong 

 rod, reel, line, trace, and a spoon bait, all fitted up and 

 ready, and told him he could amuse himself spinning for an 

 hour or two, till he had time to join him. Some two or 

 three hours later the farmer went down to see how he was 

 getting on, and was considerably astonished to find him with 

 the rod laid across a bed of weeds, the line in the water, 

 and blowing a cloud of tobacco smoke into the air as con- 

 tentedly as possible. He had actually thrown the sooon 

 bait into the water, allowed it to sink to the bottom, laid the 

 rod across the weeds, and had been waiting all that time for 

 a bite. 



A glance through a wholesale manufacturer's illustrated 

 catalogue would be enough to convince the veriest novice 

 that the making of artificial baits and spinning tackles for 

 pike fishing had brought out the ingenuity of the maker to a 

 remarkable degree. The almost endless variety there dis- 

 played would be to the tyro, as our old friend Dick Swiveller 

 used to say, " a staggerer." Of the merits and demerits of 

 the various forms of artificial baits, from the old-fashioned 

 spoon to the elaborately gilded and fish-shaped article that 

 spins through the water like one line of glittering silver, I 

 will not just now touch upon, but reserve that subject for 

 another chapter. My business now is to briefly look at 

 those tackles that are used for spinning a natural or dead 

 bait, and see wherein and under what conditions of shape 

 and spinning powers the most sport is likely to be had. 



I am old enough to remember one of the old school of 



