24 ROD & CREEL 



your usual length from the end of your rod. If the tide is 

 slack 2*/2 or 3 ounces of lead eight feet from the bait may be 

 sufficient if you have a quick working bait and can row very 

 slowly. As the tide increases in strength, put on more lead up 

 to six ounces, taking in and letting out line according to 

 whether you are going with or against the current. 



Traces. Four feet of piano wire is as good as anything; it 

 should have three or four strong swivels. 



How to Fish. If the fish are about in any numbers you 

 will nearly always see them once in a while. They do not 

 actually jump but break the water very much like a porpoise. 

 By watching, you know whereabouts to fish. 



Row the boat, or let it be rowed if you have a boat puller, 

 as slowly as possible, the speed must, of course, be governed by 

 the way your bait works and also by the current. In very 

 strong currents, when there are not too many other boats about 

 to prevent you doing it, it is often advisable to row so slowly 

 that the current carries you back, in which case you zig-zag 

 backwards and forwards with the boat at a slight angle to the 

 current so as to cover a stretch of water about 50 yards wide. 

 Then when you want to come up stream get into an eddy or 

 take up your line and hug the shore. 



If you are rowing yourself, let the rod lie almost flat 

 straight over the stern, holding the reel between your knees in 

 such a manner that you can control the handle which must not 

 be allowed quite free unless you have a very heavy check, 

 otherwise the hook is liable not to be driven home over the 

 barb when a fish strikes. 



If you are being rowed sit facing the stern with your rod 

 straight over the stern and held at a slight angle so that you 

 can strike a fish when he takes. Never hold your rod out side- 

 ways if you can avoid it, as it is not only too much strain on 

 the rod, but you are much less likely to hook your fish properly. 



Make a point of taking up your bait frequently, as you 

 are sure to pick up a bit of ell weed once in a while, and as 

 long as it is on you are wasting time. 



On no account ever put your rod down and let it lie loose 

 while the bait is out, in fact, you must keep hold of it all the 

 time or you are liable not only to lose a fish but your rod also. 

 This is by no means an uncommon occurrence, as the follow- 

 ing story will show. Some years ago a friend of mine was 

 fishing at Campbell River. At that time seines had not been 

 allowed to ruin the fishing and there were people there from 

 almost every part of the world not only "fishing" but hooking 

 and some of them catching fish. My friend hooked something 

 which he at first thought was a bunch of weeds, but on reeling 

 up found it was a line which was taken in and eventuallv led 



