20 ANGLING FOR PIKE. 



this). Clearly, the thing to do is to drop a paternoster in 

 various comers of the pool, or to work a snap troUing-bait care- 

 fully over it. 



Change the scene to an immense Irish lake, some fifteen or 

 twenty miles in length. We know nothing of the best parts for 

 jack-fishing, but we notice that here and there are clumps of 

 weeds coming to the surface. We can also see a few reed-beds ; 

 but the water round them is too shallow to contain pike. 

 Clearly, the weeds are the things to fish, and as in such a large 

 expanse of water we have to cover as much ground as possible 

 (an expression pardonable in Ireland), we neither fish with float- 

 tackle nor paternoster, but let out spinning baits behind our 

 boat, and row along the shore, and whenever we find an island of 

 weeds, row round it two or three times' as close as we possibly 

 can manage it, patiently removing the weeds which catch our 

 baits every few minutes. By this means we in time learn the 

 best spots in the lake, and a day or two later, having been able 

 to get some live bait, paternoster round the most likely weed- 

 beds with much success. 



Scene 3 is a mill-pond, about an acre in extent. The pike 

 are mostly found on one side, which is skirted by a small bed of 

 rushes. If we have ample time, we cast a live bait on float- 

 tackle near these rushes, and wait patiently, leaving the bait to 

 work about; or we carefully paternoster every inch of likely 

 pike- water. If we have only an hour to devote to fishing, we 

 spin the water, and so cover every yard of it in a very short 

 time. 



Scene 4 — a pond surrounded by trees, the bottom of which 

 is covered with old branches and snags. Clearly, we cannot 

 paternoster, and as it is a small place, it is not advisable to 

 spin it over. No; the best thing to do is to live-bait it, so 

 arranging the float that the bait is suspended well above the 



Scene 5 — a disused canal, stagnant, and closely covered with 

 weeds. Here, if we fish at all, gorge trolling tackle must be 

 used, for no other tackle could be got through the weeds. 



I could give many more instances to illustrate the necessity 

 of the pike-fisher adapting his tackle to circumstances, and not 



