THE PIKE 



purchase the brass needle about seven inches long 

 into the eye of which the loop of the gimp is to be 

 fastened for threading the tackle through the bait. 

 The repulsive suggestion is thrown out, however, 

 that in those days living fish were treated in this 

 fashion, for in giving instructions as to putting the 

 lead into the mouth of the bait and sewing it up, Best 

 says : ' The fish will live some time, and though the 

 weight of the lead will keep his head downwards he will 

 swim with nearly the same ease as if at liberty.' One 

 may be inclined to fancy that Mr. Thomas Best seldom 

 practised this method himself; most assuredly there 

 would be very little kick left in the strongest bait 

 with a couple of inches cube of lead in his stomach, 

 and gimp passing through the body and out at the tail. 

 The whole art of trolling, however, is described fairly 

 and fully, and in a manner to represent the process, 

 in reasonably few words. 



THE DECLINE OF TROLLING 



Coming to comparatively modern times, we may 

 assume from this story of evolution, and the assump- 

 tions and statements of all writers on angling until 

 the school of ' Ephemera ' and Francis Francis in- 

 augurated a new era, that trolling was a fashionable 



