36 THE PIKE 



dressed full with gaudy feathers, in which white and 

 red predominate with bold bands of silver or gold 

 tinsel down the long body. Such flies maybe sent 

 forth with an ordinary salmon rod and tackle. There 

 is no necessity in these hard times, when good hanks 

 are so expensive, to use single gut, though in bright 

 weather, when the water is clear, it should never be 

 forgotten that, even in angling for pike, to fish fine 

 and far off remains a golden rule. The fly should be 

 made, if possible, to alight between banks of weed, 

 and whenever there is a semblance of clearing it 

 should be worked briskly, even rather violently. The 

 experience of Irish and Scotch rivers, where pike are 

 often hooked by salmon fishers, teaches us that weeds 

 are not altogether a necessity. It is sometimes said 

 in a spirit of scorn that the pike is a poor fish for sport. 

 By comparison with the salmon it may be so ; yet if 

 you can manage to do battle on a single-hook salmon 

 fly with a pike of reasonable size you will admit that 

 his fighting powers are not to be despised. 



Such a fly as that which I have just indicated is 

 of course understood to be taken by the pike for a 

 minnow, gudgeon, or other small fish ; but there are 

 baits, like humming-birds, which are built up on a 

 knowledge of its omnivorous tastes. It is all in the 

 nature of things, therefore, to produce imitations of 



