THE PIKE. 97 



it, a very good one indeed. The end treble has the small 

 hook reversed with the shank lengthened considerably, the 

 object of this long shanked hook being so that when a 

 pike seizes the bait the hook can be drawn free from the 

 bait, allowing a much better chance of hooking your quarry. 

 The moveable single hook shown in the illustration is stuck 

 firmly under the back fin, the double hook with the long 

 shank reversed hook goes under the skin of the shoulder, 

 so that the two hooks lay on the bait exactly in the posi- 

 tion shown for baiting the ordinary "Jardine," and the 

 treble hook that hangs free, is simply put over the bait on 

 the opposite side to the other shoulder hooks and allowed 

 to hang free without being stuck in the bait at all, or the 

 point of one hook can be, if the angler likes, just hanked 

 under the skin towards the belly if he does not like to see 

 it swinging loose, but it may be a source of danger when 



Fig. 15. The Bickerdvkk Snap. 



Striking a fish if it is made fast in the bait. There are 

 many more snap tackles made for use with live bait, such 

 as saddle snaps that have two sets of hooks that straddle 

 Qver the bait, and others too numerous to mention here, 

 all more or less efficient for the work they are made to do ; 

 but taking things all round I don't think the old fashioned 

 Jardine can be beaten. The working man pike fisherman, 

 who has not got much money to spare for his tackle, may 

 rest contented very well with them. One of my friends used 

 to bait the Jardine somewhat different to the plan just 

 described, instead of putting the end hook into the root of 

 the shoulder fin, he used to put it fair on the top of the 

 back, close behind the head ; he would have it that, with a 

 pike having eyes on the top of his head he was generally 

 looking upwards, and could not see the hooks so well when 

 fixed on the top of the back of the bait. There may be 



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