PIKE, PERCH, BREAM, AND ROACH 137 



As the water is, so is the play of the fish 

 when he is hooked. Find out if you can for 

 yourself, and not from other people, where a 

 good fish lies, by the side of some flag-fringed, 

 tumbling bay, just clear of the force of water 

 from the sluices. The water leaps and sparkles 

 on its way down-stream, until it meets a bend 

 in the bank of the pool, which causes it to 

 swerve round and follow the line of flags at 

 the side of it. Slowly then it comes along, 

 bearing with it light foam bells, and bits of 

 broken sedge wrack, to pass once more into 

 the main current from the sluice. Now get 

 your tackle ready ; the simpler it is the better 

 it will be. Let your hook be a good single 

 one ; whip on the finest and strongest gimp 

 you can procure. See that the joints of your 

 pike-rod are firmly fixed, and that your ring- 

 joints are true. From your bait-kettle take a 

 bright silvery dace, eight or nine inches long, 

 fresh from off the shallows below r the mill, 

 insert the hook at the root of the bait's back 

 fin, and all is now ready for action. Drop it 

 in, a few yards below your standing-place 

 behind the fringe of flags, and let the sweep 

 of the back-current bring your silvery lure 

 past you. On it travels, until your olive-green 



