64 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



PIKE FISHING. 

 SPINNING. 



Adjusting, swift, a tendon to the line, 

 They throw, then drag it glistening through the brine. 



GlANNETAZZIO. 



THE most popular as well as the most 'sporting' form of pike 

 fishing is spinning. Taking the average of waters and weathers 

 throughout the year it is probably also the most killing. It may, 

 no doubt, happen that in particular waters, or states of water, 

 the live-bait will kill more fish or possibly bigger fish, or that 

 the growth of weeds may be such as to make the pond or river 

 literally and physically impenetrable to anything but a gorge- 

 hook. These conditions are, of course, a law unto themselves, 

 and, however great the preference that may be given to 

 spinning, no troller in possession of his senses needs to be 

 warned against casting his bait deliberately into a well-matted 

 bed of water-lilies. Such contingencies are, however, the 

 exception rather than the rule, and, as I before observed, 

 taking the average of waters and weathers throughout the year, 

 it may be safely assumed that the spinning-bait will bring to 

 basket three fish for every two taken by any other of the 

 ordinary systems with rod and line. 



I have pointed out in the ' Modern Practical Angler ' the 

 causes which probably combine to produce this result : ' The 

 piquant effect of an apparently wounded fish upon a pike's 

 appetite ; the concealment of the hooks by the bait's rotary 

 motion ; and last, not least, the great extent of water which 

 may be fished in a given time.' Add to this the almost uni- 



