68 THE PIKE. 



tion of how I consider a bait should be spun, and also the 

 best style of mounting that bait to give the best results. 

 When a whole host of tackles are recommended and de- 

 scribed, it makes a book look, in my idea, more like a 

 manufacturer's catalogue than a practical guide to the sport. 

 And now I must give a few words as to the best condition 

 of the water to expect sport in. Some little time ago I 

 mentioned the very best season's jack spinning I ever had, 

 and turning to my note-book to find out to what cause I 

 attribute the sport there alluded to, I find on a careful peru- 

 sal that nearly the whole of the time the water was clouded, 

 and the best fish and best days were when it reads : " Water 

 very much clouded." When I say very much clouded, I 

 don't mean a tearing pea-soup flood, nor anything like that, 

 but a fair colour in which the bait is nicely visible when 

 sunk a foot below the surface, and when sunk a couple of 

 feet or so it can still be seen, but looks to be in a decided 

 haze. This was the condition of the water when I got my 

 best bags. Ver}^ fair sport indeed was had occasionally 

 when the bait could be seen when sunk three feet below the 

 surface. Anything brighter than this was not conducive to 

 great success. Some time ago I read an article that was 

 published in one of the angling journals, in which the 

 writer boldly declared that the water could not be too clear 

 for spinning, especially spinning with a spoon. My ex- 

 perience is exactly opposite. I have thrown a spinning 

 bait thousands of casts in all sorts and conditions of waters, 

 and even when a natural bait was used success was all the 

 greater when the water was clouded, and this was even more 

 to be noted when spinning with a spoon. In 1892 I find 

 on reference to my note-book that the water in the River 

 Ouse had been for several weeks exceedingly low and clear, 

 and no sport to speak about. Then came some heavy rain, 

 and a flush of water came down the river. On one after- 

 noon when the water rose at least two feet during the time 

 I was fishing, and was " heavily charged with colour," as my 

 note-book has it, I ran no less than 18 pike, some of them 

 very good ones indeed, in not more than one and a half 

 miles of water. The same water, bear in mind, that I 

 had thrown over a dozen times previously during its extreme 



