MODERN METHODS OF SPINNING 159 



the shallows near the edges, where their food, in 

 the shape of small rudd, roach, and perch, is to be 

 found. 



There is a peculiar class of small pike-waters 

 which often swarm with fish and are extremely difficult 

 to work with spinning tackle. These are either very 

 shallow or, if deep, have a growth all over them of 

 weeds coming within a foot of the surface. For such 

 places we must make our tackle as light as possible. 

 If the Chapman spinner is used there should be no 

 lead on the spike, and the lead on the trace should be 

 reduced to a minimum size, but flattened out a little 

 with a hammer to prevent the trace revolving above 

 the swivels and kinking the line. The spinning will 

 have to be done rather rapidly to prevent the bait 

 sinking among the weeds. 



An old friend of mine, who fished Strathfieldsaye 

 many years ago, astonished the Duke of Wellington 

 by using on his trace a slender float, which effectually 

 kept the bait from sinking, though no doubt it con- 

 siderably surprised the pike of those classic but weedy 

 waters. As a matter of fact, in many lakes, if such 

 tackle were used, the pike would be as likely to 

 seize the float as the bait. A Shannon fisherman told 

 me how he was once working an otter-board and a set 

 of pike-flies, when a huge fish seized the board, carried 



