70 THE PIKE. 



it is not advisable by any means to use too fine tackle for 

 spinning, No. o size copper gimp being plenty fine enough, 

 while if the water is clear perhaps it will be better to have 

 the last two feet of the tackle a size, or even two sizes, 

 finer gimp. In spinning for jack on a large lake or broad, 

 where the water is deep and the fish very sluggish, and 

 moreover where you are as likely to get hold of a twenty- 

 pounder as a three, it is not a bit of good spinning near the 

 surface, those large and lazy jack are not going to be at the 

 trouble or rising all that distance. If the water is free from 

 sunken trees or other large obstructions, you must use a 

 heavier lead and larger bait, and let it sink deep down, 

 spinning it home very slowly, and chance hooking on to a 

 stray weed bed now and again. For this sort of spinning 

 it will be as well to have a stronger and heavier set of 

 tackle, with hooks of a fair good size, say No. I's, at the very 

 least, so that a 5 or 6 oz. dace or roach can be mounted 

 comfortably on them. It is the only way to get the large 

 ones spinning that live deep down in the sluggish denths of 

 quiet deep water. Of course they can be got at by live- 

 baiting with a paternoster tackle, but just now, remember, 

 I am treating of spinning with a dead bait. On the 

 other hand, in spinning over a canal or small stream, or 

 even a backwater, where a five-nound fish is a rarity not 

 often met with, and the fishermen themselves are nearly as 

 numerous as the fish, the tackle can scarcely be too fine nor 

 the bait too neatly mounted; five inches of the best 000 

 copper gimp on which the hooks are dressed, then i8in. of 

 strong single barbel gut, then the drop-lead and two swivels, 

 and finally two more feet of very strong single gut. This is 

 about the best arrangement that can be tried under the 

 circumstances just alluded to, and for bait an ounce dace or 

 a four-inch sprat. In spinning over well-fished water when 

 it has run down very clear, sometimes you stir a fish, you 

 see a good jack move, probably only just notice a swirl 

 under the water, Mr. Jack came and went again, refusing the 

 bait. It is a good plan to keep pegging away for ten 

 minutes or more over the same place with the same bait, 

 although you feel that he does not mean to have it ; but I 

 believe you are aggravating the fish, and after a time slip 



