SMALL WATERS AND TYPICAL DAYS 69 



continuously, but the hook tore out just as the prize 

 was within an inch of the steel. 



Shortly afterwards I landed a respectable fish of 

 7 lb., illustrating the strange things that will happen 

 in fishing. As previously, there had been futile 

 runs ; the rule in using a small bait on a single hook 

 through the lip is to strike when the pike, after 

 taking, has moved away to the distance of, say, 

 a yard ; but this now failed. The fish having been 

 already missed once and twice, at the third essay 

 I gave myself a longer margin of time. I let him 

 take his morsel away at least three or four yards. 

 Even then the hook came back without the bait, proof 

 positive that the pike were in no really taking humour, 

 but were out of sheer ' cussedness ' seizing the small 

 fish as they struggled at the end of the line, holding 

 them in their prickly jaws athwart the middle, and 

 probably never intending to turn them into the mouth 

 as per regulation. Next time I decided to play the 

 game and abide the issue. 



Casting in a new bait I put down the rod, and 

 moved on to where my friend was fishing, gossiping 

 for ten minutes with him, all the time with an eye on 

 my own float. Once I fancied there was that pre- 

 liminary skim of the cork which indicates an intention 

 to attack ; but the painted object kept above water. 



