SPINNING. 73 



method of spinning should be able to drop his bait 

 on to a soup plate, at twenty yards distance. 



To do this he would withdraw the necessary 

 length of line from his reel, and by a sort of shuttle 

 movement (as the late Francis Francis described 

 it) of the fingers and thumb, gather the line in a 

 series of small coils on to the palm of his left hand 

 easy to do, when the knack is acquired and then 

 making the cast, and letting the line run through 

 the fingers, but checking it if necessary just 

 sufficiently to insure the bait falling exactly into 

 the place wished ; in fact, I have played and 

 killed jack, " on and off my hand," i.e., fish which 

 have not exceeded 5 Ibs. weight. Avoid dropping 

 the line on the ground, or the floor of a punt ; it is 

 liable to be trodden en and damaged by a grit 

 bruising or cutting it ; or trouble may ensue in 

 the shape of a tangle, or worse a breakage ; 

 endeavour to wind the loose line on to the reel as 

 quickly as is possible ; and then play the fish " on 

 and off" the reel. 



It need scarcely be said that the Thames is a 

 splendid river for spinning, varying, as it does over 



all its course in shallows, and deeps, the , 



The best 

 habit of pike being to feed on the waters 



shallows in the morning and evening, and f the 



Thames 

 to retreat to the deeps in the hotter and 



brighter part of the day, where they may be 

 caught by paternostering and livebait snap- 

 fishing ; which kinds of angling will be described 

 in my later pages. The following are some capital 

 places on the Thames for spinning in late autumn 

 and winter when frosts have decayed, and floods 

 have cleared away, the weeds ; but the angler will 

 require a punt, to be enabled to command all the 



