326 Pike-Fishing. 



" Perhaps the day is hot, no breeze of wind 

 Is to your hope and vain endeavours kind : 

 Rise early then, or try your fortune late ; 

 Or else till more auspicious minutes wait. 

 "When keen the winds from any quarter blow, 

 The tyrant seldom waits a second throw. " 



There are many other ways of fishing for jack 

 besides those that I have named. Some of them are 

 unworthy of sportsmen, some are of doubtful re- 

 pute, and some few are illegal. The unworthy and 

 the illegal need have no notice : of the doubtful 

 methods, that known as " trimmering " is still toler- 

 ated in some quarters, and may be briefly alluded 

 to here. It is of very ancient date, easy in practice, 

 and, when all is said in its favour, childish as a 

 sport. Nevertheless, in the eyes of some fishers, 



" Age cannot wither it, nor custom stale 

 Its infinite variety. " 



Trimmering in two of its forms was known to 

 Walton. In its least objectionable fashion, it is 

 a kind of live-gorge fishing with set lines. Part 

 of the line is wound round the bifurcated part 

 of a forked stick and notched in a slit in one of 

 the arms. The stem of the fork is tied by a string 

 to a bough overhanging the water to be fished, 

 and when a pike seizes the bait, the line slips out 

 of the notch and runs off the stick without check. 

 The fish has thus line enough to reach its lair, 



