CHAP. v. The Size of the Bait. 75 



astonishing how huge a bait, in comparison with its own size, a small fish 

 will sometimes go at if he happens to be more than ordinarily peckish. 

 On a spoon of 2j inches in length I have pulled out a greedy little 

 Mahseer of only a quarter of a pound in weight, whereas I have also 

 taken a i2-pounder on a spoon of only an inch and a quarter in length. 

 I measure the spoon in the spoon part only, without calculating the ring 

 and hook fore and aft. Pike, again, have been known to take other pike 

 of more than half their own size, and in one case every bit as big as itself, 

 though in the last instance it might have been more intent on fighting 

 than digesting ; anyhow it won't do it again, for it died of suffocation. 

 Of course if you go to such a length, as was recently done with success, 

 of baiting with a 7-lb. jack for an individual pike of 50 lb., known to 

 reside in a certain locality, it would trouble any small pike to take such 

 a bait, and you might fairly calculate on strong probabilities of your 

 taking the particular pike you wanted, or none at all. But you do not 

 always happen to have a personal acquaintance so intimate as to be able 

 to provide the special dish which your friend alone shall particularly 

 affect. Furthermore, I hold that as a preventive measure against 

 indifferent fish a large bait is not a necessary precaution. My belief 

 is that if there is a big fish on the feed within reach of your bait, though 

 small, and you work it naturally enough for him to desire to take 

 it, he will have it, and woe betide the cheeky little fish that pre- 

 sumes to come between him and his dinner, for "a hungry man is 

 an angry man." Again and again have I seen a large fish sail majesti- 

 cally up to his bait, and take it leisurely in, as if thoroughly conscious 

 that none of the smaller fish around dare step in before him. There is 

 a calm resolute look in his eye, and an angry little twitch of his tail, 

 that the smaller fry understand the meaning of right well. It means 

 business, and they make way for his majesty most apparently. But if 

 there is any doubt in his mind, and he shows no sign, they can read that 

 too, and in they go at the bait, as they are probably hungrier and less 

 wary than he is. And that is how it is that a good fisherman generally 

 kills finer fish in the long run than an indifferent fisherman, even though 

 both fish with precisely the same bait. The finest fish are the oldest, 

 the most experienced, most wary, and in a position to be the most 

 fastidious. The deception that satisfies them must consequently be the 

 most perfect; but if it be quite satisfactory, then they are thoroughly 

 competent to look out for themselves, and well able to prevent the 



