174 THE PIKE 



CHAPTER XI 



PATERNOSTERING AND LEDGERING 

 BY JOHN BICKERDYKE 



PATERNOSTERING for pike has only come into high 

 favour of late years, though, as its monkish name 

 implies, it must be a very ancient institution. 

 Looking through one of those quaint old angling 

 books with faded pages and f-shaped s's, bound in 

 worm-eaten brown leather covers, I came upon a 

 description of a paternoster which was very different 

 to the piece of tackle now so termed, and perhaps 

 explains the origin of the name. Pike fishers were 

 recommended to place a piece of lead at the end of 

 their line, and above it some half-dozen hooks on 

 short links an angler's rosary. On each hook was 

 to be put a small dead fish, and the apparatus was 

 to be lowered into holes where pike were known 

 to abound, and worked up and down briskly, thus 

 giving the baits the semblance of life. Fish in 



