98 



THE PIKE 



something in this, but I don't think it matters much, as that 

 old friend never had much better luck, and sometimes not 

 so good as I had when adopting the ordinary plan. I don't 

 recommend very large hooks unless the baits are extra big. 

 No. 3 or 4 being ample for all ordinary purposes. For ex- 

 ceptional circumstances, where you know there is a very 

 large pike, and you are trying him with a half-pound bait, or 

 even a small jack which, by the way, is often a splendid 

 bait for those large cannibal pike that inhabit a quiet cut- 

 ting or isolated pool, it will be as well to have an extra 

 large and strong snap tackle made up with some No. i 

 trebles. In snap fishing when the water is only moderately 

 cleair, it does not matter so much about the tackle ; oo cop- 

 per gimp will be quite good enough for both trace and 

 tackle, but if the water has run down very fine indeed, then 

 a good strong gut trace will be less visible to the fish. The 

 hooks themselves should be dressed on six or seven inches 

 of gimp, then a single strand of strong salmon gut with a 

 loop at each end, fixed between the gimp of the hooks and 

 the buckle swivel on end of the trace, and finally a two or 

 three feet trace of the strongest gut the angler can afford, 

 lackle for live livebaiting should always, if possible, be 

 finer than spinning tackle, because in the latter case the 

 bait revolves swiftly tlirough the water, while in the former 

 it is, comparatively speaking, stationary. The best colour 

 for a float would be green with a white top, some anglers 

 like them dark blue with a red top ; but a good deal of this 

 is only fancy. In snap fishing down a current that runs into 

 an eddy, it is the best to fix the float so that the bait is 

 some two-thirds of the distance down, that is, within 

 eighteen inches or two feet from the bottom; if this dis- 

 tance can anyhow be guessed, if not, a heavy plummet hung 

 on the buckle swivel and quietly sunk to the bottom will 

 soon tell the proper depth; this mind, is for fishing clear 

 running rivers that have pikey looking corners and eddies, 

 into which a current gurgles and glides, with a bottom, 

 comparatively speaking, clear and free from weeds, and an 

 overhanging row of bushes or sedges lining the side. In 

 this method of snap fishing, fix the small pilot float about a 

 foot above the larger one, for reasons that will be given 



