LIVE-BAITING. 139 



larger baits are necessary, and I have known several cases in 

 which fish of half a pound and upwards were commonly used, 

 recourse should be had to the live-bait gorge-tackle. 



Where pike are over-fed or obstinately shy of the ordinary 

 bait, it would be as well to try them with gold-fish, with which 

 I have succeeded in catching pike under circumstances that 

 gave me considerable faith in them. If gold-fish are not forth- 

 coming, a small carp will also form a variety and be found a 

 killing as well as a long-lived bait. To quote from myself if 

 it is permissible 'the principle which is so generally admitted 

 in the case of men and the higher animals, holds good also in 

 that of fish : if you want to attract them and stir their appetites, 

 offer them a novelty no matter what but something that 

 they have not been accustomed to. Thus, as a rule, were I 

 fishing a river in which there were no "ground swimmers," I 

 should try a gudgeon ; if there were no surface swimmers, a 

 dace or a bleak ; and so on. 



' How, if not upon this principle, is to be explained the 

 indisputable fact that the " spoon," at first so deadly both for 

 pike and trout, is now almost disused on many waters where it 

 was originally most successful? Indeed, so convinced am I 

 that " novelty hath charms " even for the rugged breast of the 

 pike that I have more than once been on the point of rigging 

 up a plated fork instead of a spoon, to try conclusions with ! ' 



In stew ponds, where pike are kept and regularly fed, not 

 only eels, but also frogs form a most acceptable variation of the 

 dietary. A friend of mine, when living not far from Great 

 Marlow, had in his gardens a stew pond which was kept well 

 stocked with pike by supernumerary captures out of the neigh- 

 bouring Thames. Some of these jack were of easily recog- 

 nisable size and had their own names, to which, indeed, local 

 tradition said that they were in the habit of responding when 

 called. I have often watched Thomas, the tyrant undisputed 

 of this small watery domain, and I have noticed that the 

 observation was mutual. I have watched to see whether the 

 state of domesticity, so to speak, would have any corresponding 



