214 ELEMENTS OF ANGLING. 



which will make it float, at any rate for a time. If 

 it has sunk, one must gather it in before striking a 

 fish until one can practically feel him. Casting 

 with a live bait must be done with a steady swing, 

 or the bait will inevitably fly off the hooks. 



Trolling* is an excellent way of fishing deep 

 water close under the bank. The bait, a dead dace 

 or gudgeon, is so disposed that it shoots down head 

 first to the bottom, being drawn up before it quite 

 touches to within a foot of the surface, then being 

 allowed to shoot down again, and so on da capo. 

 The tackle consists of a lead inside the bait, pushed 



* Akin to trolling is the " drop-minnow," a thing which it 

 is permissible to mention here, though the method is more 

 employed for perch and trout than for pike. North-country 

 anglers often use a single hook with a leaded shank for this. 

 The gut to which it is attached is threaded right through the 

 bait from mouth to tail with a baiting-needle like that em- 

 ployed for threading a potato in carp fishing, only somewhat 

 bigger. The leaded hook is then in the bait's mouth with its 

 point projecting from one corner. I prefer to use a minia- 

 ture copy of the pike-tackle with one triangle instead of two. 

 It obviates the risk of a small fish swallowing the bait, 

 because one can strike at once. I regard this as one of the 

 most artistic methods of taking perch, and it is at times one 

 of the most effective. It is also very killing for trout, but 

 only to be employed in waters where bait-fishing is a reputa- 

 ble practice. The manner of workingjone's minnow or other 

 small fish is identical with trolling ; in fact, drop-minnow 

 fishing is trolling on a smaller scale. 



