BAITS AND BAIT-CATCHING. 53 



Many plans have been tried, and, indeed, I have tried many 

 myself such as brine, dry salt, oxalic acid, &c. to preserve 

 fish-bait in a perfect state for use, and so as to keep for 

 at least a few weeks. I have also tried having them packed 

 (soldered up) in sardine boxes with methylated spirits of wine ; 

 but even that was only a partial success, and with this excep- 

 tion none of my own experiences, nor, so far as I am aware, 

 those of other experimenters, have been entirely satisfactory. 

 Some of them, however, will be found in the 'Book of the 

 Pike' (5th edition). 



The sardine box experiment did certainly produce bait 

 which would kill pike, not by any means so well as when fresh, 

 but well enough probably to make a basket in most waters the 

 occupants of which are not over-pampered or fastidious. There 

 is another exception to the non-success of preserving baits, in 

 the case of the eel-tail before alluded to, which, probably owing 

 to the nature of the skin, instead of becoming soft and flabby 

 as other baits do when 'pickled,' becomes, on the contrary, 

 additionally tough, and if packed in plenty of coarse dry salt, 

 either in a jar or other receptacle, will keep, in my own expe- 

 rience, for four or five weeks and probably much longer. The 

 salted eel, before being used, should be allowed to soak in 

 fresh water for ten or fifteen hours to restore its plumpness and 

 elasticity. In fact, so admirably does the salted eel-tail fulfil 

 every requirement which the most exacting could demand that 

 it may be said to partially solve that vexata qnizstio, the Great 

 Preserved Bait Problem, which has occupied so often and so 

 long the attention of writers on fishing and of the sporting 

 papers, and in which the comfort of the pike-spinner is so 

 materially concerned. I must repeat, however, that it solves 

 it only partially. It only solves it in regard to those waters in 

 which the eel-tail bait can be used successfully, and they are by 

 no means all or nearly all. Indeed, I have known some rivers, 

 like the Avon in Hampshire, in which, when first tried, it suc- 

 ceeded admirably, but where, from some unexplained reason 

 it is now no longer a killing bait, whether salted or fresh. 



