.90 THE PIKE. 



■operation, he might swallow it within two minutes, or he 

 might be a quarter of an hour. When he runs off with it, 

 •ease the line and let him go, don't check him in the slight- 

 est, and when he stops allow him five minutes, or maybe 

 ■eight would be safer, to get it down. If he has swallowed 

 it all right you need not strike, but simply wind him out the 

 best way you can, weeds and all. 



I have seen all sorts of hooks and tackle recommended 

 for this job, some of them without the twisted wire, and 

 insteaa of the stiff and rigid lead they are fitted up with a 

 flexible or jointed lead, so that the bait can move about in 

 any direction. I don't recommend any of these, believing 

 that the stiff wire is a protection to the bait when it is 

 dragged through the weeds. It seems to be the usual plan 

 to mount a gorge hook so that when the bait is worked 

 upwards towards the surface the points of those hooks faces 

 the same way, and are liable to catch the weeds during its 

 upward journey. One man who used to do a lot of dead- 

 gorging always used to let his bait plump downwards, tail 

 first, bringing it up again towards the surface, head fore- 

 most; that is, exactly reversing the position of the bait from 

 what it would be if worked in the ordinary way. To accom- 

 plish this he used to have the twisted wire on his hook veiy 

 stiff and strong, and exactly long enough to reach from the 

 bottom edge of the gill covers of his bait down to about 

 half an inch from the fork of the tail. In baiting this, in- 

 stead of running the baiting needle in at the mouth, he 

 used to drive it in close under the gill covers, bringing it 

 out about half an inch or a little less from the root of the 

 tail. After drawing the leaded hook and wire completely 

 through the bait until the points of the hook, or rather the 

 bends of the hook laid on the bottom edge of the gill 

 covers with the points free. He used to again push ^he 

 needle straight through the root of the tail, and bring it 

 out on the opposite side to where the hooks laid, and again 

 pass it through the bait lengthways, but this time carefully 

 bringing it out of the mouth and drawing the gimp after it. 

 Now, you see by the gimp going in at the gill covers, right 

 down to the tail, and up again to the mouth, the position is 

 reversed, the tail of the bait goes downwards through the 



