PIKE. 209 



has a habit of giving one last plunge at the bank or 

 boat side, and it is then that weak gimp is found 

 out. 



Great improvements have, however, been effected 

 of late years by experiments with wire, both single 

 and twisted, and one can now get traces which are 

 far less visible than gimp, and at the same time 

 very much stronger. A yard of well-tempered 

 steel wire with a swivel at each end makes an ideal 

 trace, except for a tendency to kink and rust. The 

 first disadvantage is not a great matter, for one can 

 buy a reel containing a good many yards of wire 

 for a small sum, and it takes but a few minutes to 

 make up a new trace ; the second can to some 

 extent be avoided by keeping the coiled trace be- 

 tween small pads of blotting-paper on which a 

 little vaseline has been s-meared. To apply this 

 single wire to flights of hooks is a harder matter, 

 and I generally now have my flights tied on a short 

 length of twisted wire, which is not quite so liable 

 to kink, and is slightly more supple. One thing 

 should be borne in mind with a wire trace its end 

 should always be a swivel to whose eye the reel- 

 line can be attached. A loop, as in a gut trace, 

 would very soon cut the line. If the novice cannot 

 get hooks already tied on wire (tackle-makers are 

 rather a conservative race), fine gimp will, of 



