138 THE PIKE 



a doctor once why he did not try a certain medicine 

 which I knew to be an excellent remedy. He replied 

 that he did not question the beneficial effects to be 

 obtained from the use of the drug, but that most 

 doctors made it their rule to give only the medicines 

 with which they were well acquainted and the effects 

 of which they had watched on many patients. Thus 

 one doctor might be giving one set of drugs and 

 another treating his patients in an entirely different 

 way, and in both cases the result might be the same. 

 So it is with those who spin for pike. Each has his 

 own little fads and fancies in fishing tackle, and by 

 constantly using certain methods he becomes expert 

 in them. The result is that at the end of the season 

 those two good pike fishers, Jones and Smith, find 

 that they have been equally successful, though one 

 invariably uses a Chapman spinner and the other 

 detests anything in the shape of fans at the head of a 

 bait and swears by the Bromley-Pennell flight. 



The tackle which I personally prefer to all others, 

 though I am not so bigoted as to say it is the best, 

 consists of a Chapman spinner with silver-plated 

 fans, and the hooks mounted on white gimp ; above 

 the spinner some six inches of fine stained gimp, 

 and above this a trace of not-too-stout salmon-gut 

 tied with buffer knots. The lead is to be slung on 



