HOW AND WHERE TO SPIN. 127 



only one that can be adopted ; if once the fish passes under 

 the weeds without the line cutting through, the latter forms an 

 angle at the point where it strikes the obstacle, and all power 

 over the fish is instantly lost. Not one large fish in twenty will 

 be brought to basket under such circumstances. 



LANDING. 



For landing a pike with the gaff I have already given what 

 hints occur to me at page 33. If neither landing net nor gaff 

 is accessible the best plan is to grasp the fish as tightly as pos- 

 sible just behind the head and either lift or jerk him on to the 

 bank. 



In regard to the landing of pike, as on most other matters 

 piscatorial, there are, of course, many varieties of opinion. One 

 warning I would give, however, do not follow Nobbes' suggestion 

 to land him by ' putting your fingers in his eyes,' nor by his gills, 

 though we have the authority of the father of trolling for the 

 fact that ' some will adventure to take him thereby,' although, 

 as he quaintly observes, ' the hold is neither so secure nor so 

 safe for the fisher, because the fish in the heat of passion may 

 accidentally take revenge upon his adversary by letting him blood 

 in the fingers, which way of phlebotomy is not esteemed so 

 good.' Probably no very elaborate argument is required to 

 recommend this latter remark to the judgment of pike-fishers. 



Of late years I never go out pike-fishing without a gaff, but 

 in former years I disdained the use of anything longer or 

 stronger than my own fingers, and it is curious how seldom I 

 lost a fish in consequence. On one of the few occasions on 

 which I hooked so large a pike (23 Ibs.) that I could not manage 

 him myself, the late Mr. Frank Buckland was luckily close at 

 hand, and wading heroically into the water carried the fish out 

 in his arms. 



I once performed a similar operation for the benefit of a 

 pike my wife had hooked below the Flax Mills at Fordingbridge. 

 This troublesome individual weighed only 9 Ibs. or 10 Ibs. 



