128 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



but then there was a lady In- the case which makes all the 

 difference. 



To come back to pike-spinning. I have often been asked 

 when is the proper time or when are the proper occasions for 

 using the spinning bait ; my answer has been 'always,' except 

 when the water is so full of mud and weeds as to be 'impossible.' 

 Such advice is, however, seldom really required as men who 

 have once taken to spinning rarely care very much for any 

 other method of pike-fishing. Moreover the spinning-bait is, 

 with the exceptions above indicated, always killing from June 

 to the end of February that is during the whole season when 

 pike can be taken. When, however, the water is much dis- 

 coloured by a flood, a live bait, such as a roach or dace, or any- 

 thing that looks large and bright, is the best and, indeed, 

 practically the only chance. When a river or lake is so much 

 overgrown by weeds as to make either the live-bait or spinning- 

 bait impracticable, the gorge-bait should be substituted, and 

 only on such occasions should I personally ever resort to it. 



What is the best weather for spinning? I must confess my 

 inability to answer this question. I doubt if there is any rule 

 as to the state of wind and weather by which the most ex- 

 perienced pike-fisher can really prognosticate what will be a 

 good day for spinning, and what for live-bait or trolling, of 

 even whether the day will prove good for pike-fishing at all. I 

 have been led to this opinion by a careful observation of the 

 condition of weather and water existing on days on which I have 

 had the best and the worst sport, and I cannot say that I have 

 ever been able to make out that there was any rule or system 

 whatever traceable in the result. In this I am confirmed by 

 Captain Warrington, of Sandhill House, Fordingbridge, a most 

 experienced pike- fisher, who assured me that he had kept an 

 exact register of the state of the wind, water, barometer, &rc., 

 on the days when he had been jack-fishing for a great many 

 years, and had not been able to arrive at any result whatever, 

 the results, in fact, were altogether contradictory and un- 

 intelligible. 



