112 TH-E PIKE. 



and is better seen by them, as (except in gentle 

 currents) they always lie, whether in ambush or 

 not, with their heads up stream, on the look-out 

 for small fish swimming past. It is not necessary 

 to make long casts ; in fact, it is better not to do 

 so, for the bait being lifted and dropped almost 

 perpendicularly in the openings between weeds, 

 trolls, or gyrates in a much more tempting way 

 than when drawn slantwise through the water ; 

 and as the pike are usually among the weeds or in 

 deep weedy holes, from whence they cannot readily 

 see the angler, it is better to carefully fish all the 

 nearest water than to make long shots with the 

 bait. Raise the bait to the surface every two or 

 three seconds and let it sink head foremost, giving 

 a foot or so of slack line, and then it will have 

 a darting rolling movement as it drops to the 

 bottom. Keep continuing this, and if a check is 

 felt, slacken the line by paying off a few yards 

 from the reel (if none is already unwound), and see 

 that all is clear for a run, in case a fish has taken 

 the bait, which will soon be known by the fish 

 moving off, or by a few fierce little drags at the 

 line ; then allow the few minutes that are usually 

 given the- fish to pouch, wind up the slack line, 

 give a firm draw with the rod, and play the fish 

 on and off the reel, in preference to dropping the 

 line in coils on the ground. 



Not unfrequently a pike takes a bait so near to 

 his lair that there is little or no moving off with it ; 

 the fish simply remains where he is and pouches at 

 his leisure ; the only plan, then, is to gradually 

 tighten up the line, when, as old Nobbcs says, 

 " a gentle ' stroak ' will do him no harm " ; and 

 to quote the same authority, " when a pike moves 



