find when resuming the slow winding process that your bait is 

 brought to a dead stop, which of course you must answer with 

 a jerk of your rod. If you feel you have got a fish give him 

 one or two more as quick as lightning, for you can seldom put 

 the hook firmly in at the first strike. When you have got a run 

 you will sometimes feel a sharp tug, but you will invariably be ap- 

 prised of.it by your line coming to a sudden stop, as if you had 

 hooked a clump of wood. When you do hook a fish give him 

 line, but keep one finger on the reel so as to preserve the line 

 taut, and play him artfully. Do not use brute force as I once 

 saw an Angler do. He had hooked a Pike which, from the 

 rushes it made, I judged to be about twelve or fourteen pounds. 

 I said, " Do not let him get away." " Why, it's only a fish," 

 says he, " and I think I can pull as hard as he can." So at it 

 they went pell-mell, now fish now fisherman, but only for a 

 short time, for crack went the line and off went the fish, leaving 

 the defeated Angler to exclaim, with an astonished air, " who 

 would have thought it ? " When spinning in rivers where there 

 is a strong current, take care to wind very slow, otherwise your 

 bait will be always on the surface of the water. You may kill 

 more fish with the live bait than with the spinner in ponds 

 and lakes at all times from July till February, but you cannot 

 in rivers. Prom October till February, when the fish have left 

 the streams, and are in the still waters, the live bait is then, no 

 doubt, the best. I consider November the best month in the 

 year for Pike fishing ; the Pike are then in better condition 

 than at any other time of the year. On the 13th of November, 

 1856, I accompanied two gentlemen to a back-water on the 

 Trent, and with two rods we succeeded in taking, with the live 

 bait, in five hours, twenty-three Pike, weighing together one 

 hundred and fourteen pounds the largest being lOlbs weight. 

 To preserve your live bait, you will require to keep them in 

 a good sized bait tin, changing the water frequently, or what 

 is better, put the bait tin into the water while you are 

 fishing. They will keep stronger and more lively in this 

 way than in any other. When you wish to fish with the 



