136 WHERE TO FiSII FOR PIKE. 



pitched off the shore into the deepish water, and spun 

 rapidly towards the shallow, as if seeking to escape in that 

 direction, will be pretty sure to 'get a bid.' Try the 

 deeps first, and if they do not pay you may be pretty sure 

 to find the fish in the shallows. The angler should always 

 take care to pay especial attention to the neighbourhood 

 of weeds, reeds, or flags ; the last named are very favourite 

 lairs with pike, and when they exist to any extent, the 

 angler will find his account in sending a boat or a New- 

 foundland dog into them, to beat the fish out, half an 

 hour before he begins to fish. It may seem a strange 

 direction to give, but it must be evident that if the pike 

 be yards deep in a reed or weed-bed they will hardly catch 

 sight of the bait ouUide. If the weed-bed has occasional 

 holes and open spaces in it, it will be advisable, before 

 having recourse to the clearing out system recommended, 

 to try them with the dead gorge. In such a place you are 

 more safe to kill with it than with a dead snap, as you 

 can hang on to your fish with more safety ; and should he 

 make a twenty yards' run in the midst of a thick weed- 

 bed, threading innumerable rushy needles with the assis- 

 tance of your line, he will be the less likely to leave you 

 behind with nothing but half a cwt. of weed on your hook 

 and line. In lakes, try the sheltered shallow bays, where 

 the bottom is well covered with lily leaves and roots, also 

 the outeides of reed-beds, and all such places. In rivers 

 very much depends upon the time of the year. In the 

 spring the fish are spawning. In the summer they lie in 

 the open reaches, or the eddies and hcles by weirs, and under 

 boughs or mill aprons, by lock gates, &c. ; often feeding 

 in the heavier streams. With the autumn floods, they get 

 into the weed-beds or the large still spots where a back- 

 water debouches, or below an island. In such places they 

 will be often found gathered together in large numbers, 

 on some favourite spot of ground but a few yards square. 



