I04 



THE PIKE 



circumstances. A live bait can be worked by it among the 

 weeds much better than with a snap. The bait can be 

 hurled much further without so much danger of throwing 

 off; and, finally, when a pike is fairly hooked, the hooks 

 are down its belly, and not hanging from its jaws to catch 

 in every weed-bed that comes handy. The pike fishermen 

 of the Welsh Harp almost always use a gorge tackle, the 

 main reason for this being that the lake is very shallow, as 

 a rule, all round the margin, and it is necessary to throw out 

 a considerable distance from the bank in order to get any 

 depth of water. The generality of these men have an addi- 

 tion to the ordinary live gorge hook, in the shape of a small 

 •wire hook about as big as a little roach hook, but without 

 either point or barb, that is brazed at the back of the other 

 two, and projecting slightly above them. After the hook 

 is threaded in its proper position this very small back hook 

 drops into the hollow under the edge of the gill cover, and 

 takes firm hold of the hard gristle just there. This pre- 

 vents the gimp from tearing away the skin when the tremen- 

 dous long casts are made. 



Patemostering is another very quiet and deadly method 

 of taking pike, particularly large pike that live in holes and 

 eddies, where tiie bottom of the river is very unequal in 

 depth. The paternoster is simply a long trace of strong gut 

 or gimp, with a fairly heavy pear-shaped lead at the extreme 

 end, and one or more sets of hooks at intervals higher up. 

 Personally, I consider one set of hooks plenty to use on a 

 paternoster, and this should be fixed at least two feet above 

 the lead. There are various methods of making a pater- 

 noster, the most common being a main line about four 

 feet long, with two single sneck bend hooks fixed by bone 

 runners about a foot from each other on the main line. 

 These single hooks are on separate bits of gimp and project 

 about seven inches from the gimp of the main trace. These 

 single hooks are just put through both lips of the live bait, 

 so that when a pike takes them, he must have time given 

 him to get the whole lot in his mouth before he can be 

 hooked. I don't think this single hook is sufficient. The 

 way I made my paternoster was to get a length of good fine 

 gimp for slightly clouded water, and a length of strong gut 



