132 THE PIKE. 



so discoloured that a spinning-bait or snap-bait 

 would not be seen : but the leger-bait drops right 

 amongst the pike if any are in the eddy. 



The rod should be stiff, so affix the short top, 

 for legering is heavy work. The reel may con- 

 tain sixty or eighty yards of No. 3 line ; to the 

 line fix the leger-trace, which consists of three feet 

 of gimp or twisted gut, on which a perforated 

 flattened bullet of one ounce is placed ; at the end 

 of the trace is a swanshot and swivel ; to the latter 

 eighteen inches of stout salmon gut is looped ; to 

 this is attached the snap, or single hook, which- 

 ever is preferred, baited in the same way as 

 described for paternoster-fishing ; or a pectoral- 

 spring paternoster-tackle may be used, the bait 

 (for either kind of fishing) should be four or five 

 inches long. In floods, dace and roach frequent 

 eddies, to rest from the stress of stream, and to 

 find the food which is washed into and deposited 

 in slack water by the currents, and to such places 

 pike naturally come after their 

 food the dace and roach. There- 

 fore, into eddies cast the leger 

 and keep a taut line ; the bullet 

 rests on the bottom, while the 

 bait pirouettes round about in 



FLAT LEGER BULLET. a circle of tWO Or three feet, 



according to the length of the 

 tether, until it is appropriated by some hungry 

 pike. 



With the leger there is no reasonable limit to 

 the depth of water that can be fished. Supposing 

 you throw thirty or more yards from where you 

 are, when the bait drops in the water immediately 

 pay out more line (say three or four yards), and. 



