THE SPINNING BAIT AND ITS TACKLE 133 



most of them to the water, just measuring them along 

 the gunwale of the punt before I did so. At the end 

 of the day I found that I had caught thirty-five feet 

 of pike. A friend with me who was live- baiting ran 

 very few fish. 



One particular advantage I had in using spinning 

 tackle was that I showed my bait to at least ten 

 times as many fish as if I had been paternostering. If 

 the pike had been sulky and more or less off the feed, 

 then possibly the paternoster might have been the 

 better tackle, assuming I could have been certain of 

 the position of a few fish. In that case I might also 

 have obtained some results by suspending a live- 

 bait over their heads by means of a float, and wait- 

 ing patiently until the temptation became too strong 

 for them to resist. For the waiting game, the float, 

 paternoster, or ledger must be used; but for the 

 capture of feeding fish there is nothing like a spinning 

 bait, particularly if there is a ripple on the surface or 

 some colour in the water. 



The largest pike I ever caught in my life was in 

 Lough Derg, on spinning tackle, the bait being one 

 of some bleak which I had caught in the Thames 

 years before, preserved in spirits of wine, and brought 

 over with me in a pickle bottle. 



Two out of three of the largest fish I ever hooked 



