THE PIKE. 63. 



aiiy way with colour it does not matter so much about using 

 gut, gimp will do then very well. 



The best natural baits for spinning are small dace, say 

 of about five inches long ; large bleak, or whitlings as they 

 are known on the Trent, and toughened sprats ; these last 

 two are rather tender and require mounting on the hooks 

 in a very careful manner ; but all three of them are splen- 

 did bright and glittering spinning baits to use in a clouded 

 water. Small roach, gudgeon, or the tail-end of an eel are 

 also pretty fair spinning baits, the two latter the most use- 

 ful perhaps when the water is very clear. In using small 

 dace or roach I suppose I need not say that the fresher they 

 are the better ; indeed, I fancy it is the best if possible to 

 carry them down to the riverside in a bait can alive, and 

 knock them on the head before using, and use them fresh, 

 and bleeding. In baiting this two-hook flight that I have 

 just described, you detach the hook part of the tackle from 

 the buckle swivel of the trace, and with the aid of the 

 baiting needle pass the loop in at the vent of the bait, and 

 bring it out of the mouth, pulling it through till the shank 

 of the top treble is in the vent of the bait ; you then stick one 

 hook of the end treble in the root of the tail about the centre, 

 or perhaps a little nearer the back. This causes the bait, 

 when the hooks are pulled tight, to bend slightly down- 

 wards and sideways, giving it that attractive wobbling spin 

 that I have found so deadly. This tackle, threaded through 

 the bait like that, is very neat, and does not show the 

 small hooks anything like so plainly as the ordinary side- 

 hooked flight does. I found after a very long and careful 

 trial of this flight in quiet, or nearly quiet, waters that with 

 the two trebles being close together and near the tail-end 

 of bait, it was possible to miss your fish if the pike seized 

 it by the head end. So to counteract this somewhat I made 

 a small addition in the shape of another very small treble, 

 which is dressed or firmly whipped on a loop of fine gimp 

 one inch in length from the end of the shank. After the 

 bait is put on as already described, this small looped treble 

 is dropped over the gut or gimp of the flight, and brought 

 down to the nose of the bait, and one of the hooks is then 

 stuck in the side towards the back, on the same side of the 



