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THE ANGLERS SOUVENIR. 



with the bait across it a sure sign that it was not 

 hooked. Then as the gaff was outstretched, it 

 opened its mouth, gave a wriggle, and was off. The 

 reader will say that we did not strike hard enough. 

 Now I had a powerful rod and a strong line, and 1 

 struck as hard as I could particularly after one 

 or two misses. I struck and held on, quite regard- 

 less of the state of the tackle ; but still it was no 

 good. Those five fish escaped, and so did many 

 more in exactly the same way. I was using Pennell's 

 tackle ; it was a suitable size for the baits ; and the 

 hooks were fairly sharp. In two hours we missed 

 twelve fish, and then a small one was caught by my 

 brother, and that, without any striking at all, for 

 his top had given. One fair-sized pike which my 

 brother played for some time, and then lost, still 

 followed the bait ; and while I examined it to see 

 if it had sustained damage, the pike came within 

 a yard of the boat, waiting for the bait, with its 

 eyes glaring and fins quivering. I tried to throw 

 it to him, but the hooks caught in my sleeve, and 

 after a vain attempt to free them, I seized the gaff 

 and made a lunge at the pike, but missed him, and 

 we saw him no more. 



In desperation I tried live-bait, which I strongly 

 object to, but the fish went suddenly off the feed, 

 and we caught nothing. 



The next day we went to Whitemere, and there 

 it was the "same old game." We only caught 

 two where we should have caught many more. I 



