164 THE PIKE. 



bait as the tail-end hook is, as far beyond the gill covers 

 as the small loop will allow it to go. This is a valuable 

 Addition to that tackle ; since I adopted it I have hooked a 

 fair percentage of my pike on that top loose treble. I once 

 saw an illustration of a Nottingham spinning flight, and the 

 method there said to be adopted by the Trent men in 

 mounting a bait on that tackle. The two treble hooks were 

 there, but rather further apart than usual, and instead of 

 the gimp being threaded completely through the bait from 

 the vent to the nose, the two hooks were simply stuck in the 

 ^ide about middle way, and the loop of the gimp passed 

 under the gill covers and out at the mouth. For years I 

 fished the Trent in company with some of the very best 

 men who lived on its banks, and I never once saw a bait 

 mounted in that manner ; indeed, I greatly question if one 

 -could be used there with any chance of success. Heavy 

 currents are very prevalent in that river, and pretty long 

 casting has also to be the order of the day in a very many 

 places. The bait would soon be thrown loose or weaj 

 away from the hooks by the action of the current, and very 

 soon be hanging by only the little bit of gimp under the 

 gill covers. It hardly mattered how many or how few hooks 

 were used on a Trent flight, the main principle of mounting 

 'was alike in nearly every case, the gimp being threaded 

 through the centre of the bait and the hook or hooks close 

 to the tail. Of course I saw strangers at times using dif- 

 ferent kinds of flights, sometimes having one treble, some- 

 times two, and sometimes three trebles, and a lip hook fixed 

 outside the bait; but the old-experienced anglers, who had 

 had a lifetime's experience, always considered the gimp 

 should go through the centre of the bait to have the best 

 results. An old saw runs, that "the proof of the pudding 

 is in the eating," and my strong recommendation of this 

 tackle is based very much on the same lines. In the first 

 place I have done well with it in all sorts and conditions 

 of waters, down the heavy streams of the Trent, on the deep 

 and sluggish waters of the Ouse, across the weedy shallows 

 of the same river, and among the reedy fastnesses of broads, 

 lakes, and backwaters. 



During the season 1889-90 I was out on public waters 



