140 THE PIKE. 



prepared, roach, dace, gudgeon, and small jack, the 

 latter beirg an excellent lure, for jack eat jack as 

 dog eats dog. 



" Various trimmers were brought into requisition, 

 there were the ' tell-tale ' or the ' man-o'-war ' ; 

 and trimmers in the shape of claret-bottles for 

 floats (not any kind of bottle but claret-bottles, 

 for these will float longitudinally when properly 

 ' trimmed ' with water, and with the spare line of 

 the trimmer wound round their necks will unreel 

 when a jack runs the bait) ; also trimmers with 

 bullock's bladders. A few ' bank-runners,' which 

 arc a kind of trimmer, especially when a leger lead 

 and cork beyond it are used, making the fishing a 

 cross between night-lining and ordinary gorge live- 

 baiting, were also set. 



" So, too, were a few bough trimmers that is 

 trimmers in the shape of a letter Y, without any 

 horizontal finishing lines. These are simple, but 

 clever contrivances. The letter Y is formed by any 

 ordinary bit of wood that is bifurcated. Round the 

 bifurcated part the line is wound, and nicked in a 

 slit in one of the arms. The stem of the Y is tied 

 by a separate piece of string to a bough over- 

 hanging the water, and when a jack runs the bait, 

 the line slips out of the split arm and runs off the 

 bifurcation quickly enough not to check the fish. 



"About fifty or sixty trimmers in all were left 

 to the consideration of the jack, who are certainly 

 more nocturnal in their habits than most fish. In 

 the early morning the bank and bough-trimmers 

 were first visited and found to have done their 

 duty well, but the others required some finding. 

 Some of the bladders had evidently collapsed ; 

 but on one was certainly a good fish, for as the 



