PIKE-GAGS. ii g 



jaw between the jaw-bones, and then to draw the fish 

 ashore head first ; but if any lifting is required, I 

 place my thumb and middle finger of my left hand 

 in the fish's eyes, and grasp the iron of the gaff 

 with my right, and lift the fish ashore or into my 

 punt. Landing nets are useful for fish under 8 or 

 10 Ibs. ; the net should be capacious and deep, the 

 ring large. My own pike net has a folding ring of 

 steel, 20 ins. in diameter. Large nets are not 

 necessarily cumbrous, but to prevent them holding 

 water and hooks sticking in the meshes, the nets 

 should be of oiled silk or flax cord, dressed in a 

 waterproofing varnish, and the handle 5 or 6 feet 

 long, so as to reach over the sedges and rushes 

 which usually margin the tanks of a river. When 

 by myself, with no one to carry my impedimenta, I 

 use no net, but only a gaff slung over my left 

 shoulder, where it is handy but out of the way, 

 while I am fishing alongside a river. 



Most useful additions to a pike-angler's comfort 

 (inasmuch as excoriated and bitten fingers are 

 avoided, and much time is saved in extracting 

 hooks from a fish's mouth) are pike-gags. A few 

 years ago I invented and patented one which 

 answers its purpose completely, and has been well 

 spoken of by those anglers who have used them in 

 rivers and the sea. 



The knob D is for killing the fish by knocking 

 it on .the head. The prongs E, F (which should 

 be previously closed) arc then inserted in the pike 

 or salmon's mouth ; B or D is held by the left 

 hand, and the handle A turned round, when the 

 prong F is drawn down the spiral rod c C, and the 

 mouth of the fish distended to any width required, 

 so that the hooks or salmon fly can be extracted 



