82 THE PIKE. 



hold, although the water might be as clear as gin, and every- 

 thing unfavourable for the sport. It is only by acting 

 dodges like the one I gave in the previous chapter, that is 

 after throwing some considerable time over a place that you 

 know holds a good jack, without success, or at most which 

 only mQves him, with one kind of artificial, slip another 

 one on as much opposed to the one you have been using 

 as you have got, and he may come the very next throw. 

 You can never tell your luck ; you can only keep pegging 

 away, chopping and changing about, first one artificial and 

 then another, sometimes spinning quickly then again more 

 slowly ; sometimes deep down in the water, and then again 

 nearer the surface. It is only by this that a jack will repose 

 in the bag at close of day, that is, bear in mind, when the 

 water is extremely clear and everything unfavourable, remem- 

 berins; always what a well-known angler once said when 

 writing to one of the angling journals : " That you cannot 

 exnect to catch many fish if your rod is all the time reared 

 up against a tree." I cannot hold with the remarks that 

 the writer I previously quoted used in one of his articles, 

 that the water could not be too clear for spinning with an 

 artificial, especially a spoon. It appeared to me to be a 

 necessity that in certain waters, particularly in well-fished 

 public rivers, that a certain amount of colour should be in 

 the water ; but see what I say on this subject in the previous 

 chapter on spinning with a dead bait. Those remarks hold 

 good in discussing the use of an artificial. 



In rivers like the Trent, that are subject after heavy rains 

 to sudden and thick water floods, that come tearing down 

 with terrific force, it is very little good to throw an arti- 

 ficial of any kind while the water is in that state, rather 

 wait a little until it has somewhat fined down ; in fact so 

 much that when your bait is sunk two or three feet down 

 below the surface you can see it gleam, as it were, in a 

 haze. Try then all the quieter comers and lay-byes, letting 

 it sink deep down and spinning home no faster than is 

 really necessary. Taking it all round the Trent fishes very 

 well indeed when it is moderately clear, that is as far as 

 pike spinning is concerned ; but I should suppose this is 

 because it is a very wide river with a good volume of water 

 generally running. 



