VARIETIES OF TACKLE. 305 



perhaps can enumerate instances of its successful appli- 

 cation, and bids defiance to the possibility of its being 

 excelled or outrivalled. But there is a great differ- 

 ence, mark me, betwixt the actual and the possible 

 betwixt tackle tried by experiment and contrivances 

 whose recommendatory points are only in the brain 

 of the inventor. To the former, there is due a fixed 

 degree of appreciation ; to the latter, little more than 

 the regard called forth by an object which excites our 

 curiosity. 



Of snap or spring-hooks for pike I shall say nothing, 

 holding them, as I do, quite superfluous ; neither shall 

 I venture to describe the live-bait tackle, never having 

 used it. I have no doubt, however, that angling for 

 pike with the live bait is, in certain places, a very deadly 

 mode of fishing, but there is too much of the drowsy, 

 set -line kind of work about it for my taste. Set-lines 

 themselves and trimmers I forbear touching upon. 

 They are all well enough in their way, and on many 

 occasions afford very good amusement, but I can 

 scarcely treat of them in these pages, as legitimate 

 means of angling, much more so in fact than netting 

 itself is. 



With regard to fly-fishing for pike, I used to practise 

 it, many years ago, with tolerable success in a shallow 

 loch in Fife. I have also tried it in Perthshire, but 

 the result of my several experiments with the pike-fly 

 is, that I am convinced it is not a lure at all attractive 

 to large or even middle-sized fish ; that, in fact, few of 

 a greater weight than three or four pounds are ever 

 tempted to seize it, and these do so only in shoal 

 water, and during dull, windy days. Pike-flies ought 

 to be big and gaudy, the wings formed each of the 

 eye of a peacock's tail-feather, the body plentifully 



