THE GORGE-BAIT. 113 



up stream after being hooked, it is a sign of a 

 large fish." 



In Mr. Stoddart's Anglers Companion is the 

 following graphic description of a pike taking the 

 gorge-bait, and it is so much to the point that 

 I have copied it for the benefit of those of my 

 readers whose misfortune it is not to have the book 

 I have mentioned. 



" None that ever felt the first attack of a pike at 

 the gorge-bait can easily forget it. It is not, as 

 might be supposed from this character of the fish, 

 a bold, eager, voracious grasp : quite the contrary ; 

 it is a slow calculating grip. There is usually 

 nothing about it dashing or at all violent ; no stirring 

 of the fins, no lashing of the tail, no expressed fury 

 or revenge. The whole is mouthwork, calm, 

 deliberate, bone-crushing, deadly mouthwork. You 

 think at the moment you hear the action the 

 clanging action of the fish's jaw-bones ; and such 

 jaw-bones, so powerful, so terrific : you think you 

 hear the compressing, the racking of the victim 

 betwixt them. The sensation is pleasurable to the 

 angler as an avenger. Who among our ' gentle 

 craft ' ever pitied a pike ? I can fancy one lament- 

 ing over a salmon, or the star-stoled trout or the 

 playful minnow ; nay, I have heard of those who, 

 being bereft of a gold fish, actually wept : but a 

 pike ! itself unpitying, unsparing, who would pity ? 

 who spare ? 



" I no sooner felt the well-known intimation than 

 drawing out line from my reel and slightly slacken- 

 ing what had already passed the top ring of my 

 rod, I stood prepared for further movements on the 

 part of the fish. After a short time he sailed 

 slowly about, confining his excursions to within a 



I 



