THE PIKE. 99 



presently. In live-baiting a quiet lake or similar still water, 

 the pilot is principally used to keep the line on the surface. 

 In stream fishing this does not matter as the line is gener- 

 ally played out from the reel tight, but still a pilot is use- 

 ful in detecting a proper run from a pike, or only an extra 

 spurt from the bait when he pulls the first float under. In 

 fishing a comer or eddy such as just described, the angler 

 should stand right at the head of the swim, and just drop 

 his bait on the outer edge of the stream, and let it work 

 down the current at the further side of the eddy, letting it 

 go just fast enough to prevent it from being swept too near 

 the bank on which he stands. When the floats reach the 

 eddy proper, by being slightly held back, the bait will 

 work in a semicircular direction round the edge of the eddy 

 towards the bank, and perhaps again take an outward 

 direction towards the centre of the curl, if that eddy is of the 

 shape known to Trent men as an umbrella ; pike very often 

 lay on the outer edge of these eddies, just between the 

 sharp current and the curling water. The quieter parts of 

 a streamy river, where a nice little current glides into an 

 eddy and then seems to divide into two, with a wedge 

 shaped pool between, should always be well tried, even if 

 the bait has to be twenty-five or thirty yards away from 

 where you stand. A little careful obsen^ation and manipu- 

 lation of the floats and bait, by being dropped on one of 

 the streams that glides down and across into these wedge 

 shaped eddies, will result in reaching them without much 

 trouble. In live-baiting distant places like that, it is rather 

 difficult to hit the exact depth, and to be right, in my 

 opinion, the bait should be about eighteen inches from 

 the bottom ; but the worst of these streams and eddies is 

 the fact that the depth might vary. The best way to try 

 the place is to put the float at what you consider to be the 

 right depth with only the leaded trace, and throw it as near 

 as you can to the spot you wish to fish, if the lead is on the 

 bottom the float will bob about, and you want to be a lot 

 shallower ; if, on the other hand, the float rides quietly, you 

 are not deep enough. If after a careful trial you find there 

 is, say, an uniform depth of eight feet, the bait will want 

 to be about six and a half feet from the float, and so on, 



