THE ANCIENT ART OF TROLLING 109 



necessity of carrying clearing gear, miniature grapnels, 

 and so forth, which one seldom requires now. It 

 would be very amusing to watch some old-fashioned 

 rustic troller, when a fish was found, carefully put 

 down his rod and take out a turnip-shaped watch 

 from an antique fob, believing, as the masters used 

 to enjoin, that ten minutes was the minimum time to 

 be allowed for pouching. That was the true rule, 

 however, which I have indicated viz. that after a fish 

 had paused to pouch, it was safe to conclude that 

 the transaction was done the moment he began to 

 move again. 



The chief objection to trolling, as has been already 

 pointed out, was that there would be no opportunity 

 of returning an undersized fish. In rivers where pike 

 fishing was valued, if not cultivated as a sport, such a 

 method should be sternly prohibited, for it is nothing 

 less than wanton murder to kill pike of i lb., if lb., 

 or 2 lb. 



There was so much pleasure in this method of 

 trolling for pike that when it became necessary to 

 discountenance it in public waters, although they 

 accepted the inevitable, old practitioners did it with 

 grievous reluctance. Was it possible to invent a 

 substitute ? A few years ago an answer came in that 

 special tackle by which the pleasure of trolling might 



