PIKE FISHING IN RIVERS 89 



In rivers, thanks to the flow, rough and ready 

 baits, if only they spin and glitter, are not to be 

 despised as makeshifts. The most original of im- 

 provisations I have seen in baits was by an ingenious 

 old gentleman who had learned how to adapt himself 

 to unexpected circumstances in the Maori wars. He 

 was perch fishing in a Berkshire river, where the fish 

 were supposed to be of the major size and to require 

 gimp rather than gut. Hooking a small perch, he 

 observed that the zebra-marked captive was followed 

 by a pike. What was to be done? The rod, line, 

 and winch would serve, and gimp was the very thing ; 

 but what of bait ? Determined to have the pike 

 if it could be managed, he sat down upon a willow 

 stump and filled a fresh pipe to assist cogitation, 

 playing absent-mindedly the while with the tobacco 

 reserve as he puffed his briar-root. Herein he found 

 his inspiration. The silver foil of the two-ounce 

 packet was the very thing as a leading principle. 

 The rest came easy to an old campaigner. He 

 whittled a piece of dead wood into a rude outline of 

 a gudgeon, wrapped his silver foil about it, tied the 

 taper ends fast with the thread which every good 

 fisherman will have in his book, and then whipped 

 the rough-and-ready phantom to the gimp, leaving 

 the strong single perch hook an inch or so free at 



