BAITS FOR SNAPPING. 23 



with a dead gudgeon, we will say, or any other 

 small fish, equal, if not surpass the success of the 

 merciless angler who impales when alive the poor 

 defenceless little bait, and keeps him writhing on 

 the hook, to entice the ravenous pike, or passes 

 a wire down his back, and thus spits him alive, 

 that he may live the longer on his hook. To 

 avoid this cruelty, for I can call it by no milder 

 name, let your snap-hook be properly baited with 

 a dead gudgeon, or dace, or roach, or with a little 

 trout, this last being the best of all baits. I have 

 said properly baited, for there are two ways of 

 putting on your bait, as there are two ways of 

 doing most things, viz. a good and a bad way. 

 Provide yourself with a set of hooks,* size No. 

 2 or 3, whipped on the gimp (minnow-tackle 

 fashion), three placed back to back, at the ex- 

 tremity of the gimp, three more about an inch 

 or so higher up the gimp, three more about the 

 same distance from the last (all placed back to 

 back) ; and above all these, a small sliding hook, 

 about No. 6, which you are to put through 

 the lips of the bait ; then, with one of the three 



* I recommend different sized hooks should your baits be 

 smaller than a gudgeon say, No. 4 or 5. So you should be 

 provided with different sized snap-hooks, some nearly as small 

 as minnow-tackle, or quite so ; for many a good pike has been 

 caught with small hooks. 



