PIKE FISHING IN LAKES 37 



the small fowl and minor four-legged rodents which 

 the pike is known to devour when the appetite is 

 sharp and the opportunity favourable. These, like all 

 other pike lures, should have a short length of gimp 

 looped to the casting line in remembrance of the 

 strong long teeth. One of the most successful prac- 

 titioners with this sort of bait for pike used to fish 

 in a wild pond, where pike were plentiful, but of 

 somewhat peculiar habits and degenerate quality. 

 With the more conventional usages of fishing he 

 seldom succeeded, but with constructions which, for 

 want of a better word, we may term pike flies, he 

 achieved the deserved reputation of being the master 

 pike fisher of the district. 



My young friend made his own pike flies, and 

 they ranged from the size of, say, a wren, to an object 

 eight inches long. It was in point of detail a cylin- 

 drical piece of cork, 3^ in. long by \ in. diameter, 

 furnished at the head with a fairly stout metal fan to 

 ensure spinning ; the body was concealed by a wrap- 

 ping of red and yellow wool, spirally fastened tightly 

 by a narrow brass band. An immense double hook 

 protruded from the tapered end of the cork, and there 

 were in addition, flying loose, a pair of treble triangles. 

 Behind the big hooks trailed a 4-in. plume of the 

 most showy part of a peacock's feather. As this so- 



