TROLLING. 33 



hooks. Some pike, according to their size, will 

 run out from ten to thirty or forty yards. When 

 the five minutes shall have expired, and no move- 

 ment, very gently pull your line, and feel, by that 

 means, whether the fish has left your bait or not: 

 should he still retain it, he will run off again ; and 

 if he has not already gorged it, will probably do 

 so in five minutes more, if he intends to do it at 

 all. I should therefore say that the time alto- 

 gether, allowing for circumstances, would not ex- 

 ceed a quarter of an hour between his biting and 

 your landing him, or his biting and perhaps 

 spoiling your bait, and wishing you good-day, not 

 accepting your polite invitation to dinner, or to 

 appear at your board. I have said nothing as to 

 the method of baiting your gorge-hook : it is so 

 simple, that I need perhaps hardly observe that 

 the gimp or arming wire should be drawn through 

 the bait from the mouth to the tail, till the double 

 or single hook fits in between the lips of the bait. 

 Some persons tie the tail of the bait fish to the 

 arming wire or gimp, to prevent its slipping up 

 the line. 



Try short throws first ; and let out more line 



by degrees, till you can throw your utmost limit 



without leaving the place where you stand. Cast 



up and down, and across the river, without moving 



D 



