72 



THE PIKE. 



you Strike at once and sharply, the chances are that you 

 will snatch bait and hooks out of his mouth. He may lay 

 hold in such a manner that scarcely any of the hooks are in 

 a position to bury themselves in his jaws, and a sudden 

 stroke may pull the lot away after two or three seconds' 

 play, whereas if you waited for a second, holding tight 

 until the fish turned, the hooks have a better chance to bury 

 themselves below the barb. When I am spinning a bait 

 home and feel a sudden check deep below the surface I 

 keep on winding until a strong pull in the opposite direction 

 tells me that a fish is going off, I never slaken for a moment 

 if anyhow possible, but keep my finger tightly pressed on the 

 edge of reel and let him drag strongly for every foot of line 

 he takes out. There is no necessity to let a pike run away 

 with a lot of line if you can in any way prevent it. Of 

 course if it is a very large one the case is a bit different, but 

 moderate sized jack should be stopped before they have a 

 chance to run you into difficulties among the weeds. I 

 always play a fish heavily from the very first, and find this 

 quite sufficient to hook them securely without striking 

 sharply at all. Of course you know thereabouts what your 

 line and tackle will stand, but it is folly to allow a five or 

 six pounder to run right across the river and all over the 

 place. I have killed, or at least got, eight-pound pike out 

 of the water in three minutes after being hooked ; but as 

 an old friend put it, I always did take energetic measures 

 with my pike when hooked. I did not believe in letting 

 them run headlong into a bunch of weeds or round an old 

 post or two if a little persuasion could keep them out ; but 

 the extent of this persuasion would have to be governed by 

 the nature of the stream, the size of the fish, and the fine- 

 ness or otherwise of the tackle. 



It is not advisable under any circumstances when using 

 spinning tackle to strike suddenly and heavily. The fish 

 might be a heavy one, and the jerk might result in disaster 

 to the line or tackle. In waters that are nearly choked up 

 with weeds, where it is necessary to spin the bait near to the 

 surface, it is far the best to give a hooked fish no more law 

 than can be helped ; keep a tight line on him, and get him 

 to shore as quickly as possible. You might as well lose 



