TACKLE FOB THICK WATER. 57 



live-bait tackle in, because tbe bait would swim into tbe reeds 

 at once. It is impossible to keep tbe bait on an ordinary 

 paternoster at the exact depth, unless you are almost over tbe 

 spot, and bold the line taut all the time; directly the line 

 slackens, the bait fouls the weeds at the bottom, and might 

 remain there a month without attracting the notice of a j&sh. 

 With Count de Moira's invention, your bait must swim round, 

 supported (at any depth you please) by the cork, and anchored 

 in one spot. In an open water, with bottom clear of weeds, 

 we should prefer the ordinary live-snap float-tackle, or the 

 live-snap paternoster." 



The Leger is a very useful piece of tackle when rivers are 

 in flood, or bank-high and coloured. At such times numbers 



Fig. 29. Pike Leger. 



of pike will often collect in one small, shallow eddy, and feed 

 very near the bottom. The construction of the leger is shown 

 in Fig. 29. It is either composed entirely of very fine patent 

 gimp — the few inches near the hook, which should be of ordinary 

 gimp, excepted — or it should be, for the most part, of salmon- 

 gut, knotted as already described (page 37), but with the 

 bullet working on a length of gimp, and with a short piece 

 of gimp attached to the hooks. As the bait is near the bottom, 

 I think a single hook is less likely to get caught up than any 

 other arrangement ; but with good- sized baits it is almost 

 necessary to have something larger, such as the tackle shown 

 in the illustration. The end triangle should be fixed high up 



