J06 THE PIKE. 



single moveable lip hook of a fair good size, say a No. i or 

 2. The double hook need not be very large, No. 4 or 5 

 being plenty big enough. In baiting this tackle the lip 

 hook is shifted to suit the size of bait, so that when that 

 lip hook is through both lips of the bait, the small hook at 

 the back of the double one reaches to the root of the back 

 fin, into which it is firmly stuck. This tackle enables a pike 

 to be struck as soon as he runs off with the bait, and is 

 much safer than the single hook only. In using a pater- 

 noster it is necessary to have a tight line, so as to be always 

 ready when a pike attacks the bait, and work it into all sorts 

 of eddies and corners, sometimes swinging it out like a pen- 

 dulum to the far side of the river or open water, allowing 

 the lead to rest on the bottom, and bringing it inch by inch 

 to the bank on which you stand. In fact, it is in almost an 

 endless variety of ways that a paternoster can be worked ; 

 holes can be tried where any other plan could hardly be 

 adopted, open spaces among boughs and flags, eddies at the 

 tail-end of a mill. You can hardly be wrong anywhere 

 where jack are to be found, with a paternoster; but it is a 

 question of practise and experience alone that will make a 

 successful paternosterer. I might add that under no circum- 

 stances do I like a pike paternoster to have more than one 

 set of hooks. 



Legering for pike is another plan that, like the pater- 

 noster, requires no float, but is, during certain conditions of 

 the water, a most deadly style to try. When a heavy flood 

 or a break-up of the winter's frost causes a strong flush of 

 water to come down the river, and it clears away sufficiently 

 to see the bait when sunk a yard below the surface, then is 

 the time to try the leger in the deep and quiet stretches away 

 from the main current. Indeed, in some very deep and 

 quiet rivers that have a gravelly and level bottom, the leger 

 is as good a piece of tackle as can be tried. I like a fair 

 sized bullet for my leger, one at least an ounce in weight, 

 with a hole drilled through it sufficiently large to allow the 

 line to pass easily through. This bullet is threaded on the 

 line itself, with a bit of a stop, either a split shot pinched 

 on, or a little bit of wood half an inch in length, and as 

 thick as a match half-hitched in the line below it. This pre- 



