TROLLING WITH DEAD GORGE-BAIT. 179 



snap, but the " gorge " kills all. We prefer spinning for pike 

 from the reel far and away better than any other plan ; but in 

 many waters spinning is out of the question.' 



Trolling cannot be considered either so exciting or so artistic 

 a method of fishing as spinning, for example, although it has 

 not been without its enthusiastic admirers and its poets also. 



I stood by a river in the wet, 

 Where the trout and the pickerel met 

 And waters were rushing and rolling ; 

 And I said : ' O Fish, a dainty dish, 

 Is there aught that is worth the trolling ?' 



Scott, writing in 1758, says : 



The pike, my joy of all the scaly shoal, 



And of all fishing instruments the trovvl. 



My bounding heart against my bosom beats 



Now while my tongue the glorious strife repeats. 



Oh ! when he feels my jerking hook, with power 



And rage he bounces from his weedy bower. 



He traverses the stream with strong career, 



With straightened string his maddened course to steer. 



He springs above the wave at length, o'ercome ; 



This evening shall he feast my cheerful home. 



Though, however, no doubt quite as good a ' feast ' in the 

 'angler's cheerful home' (when he has got him there), the 

 pike taken by trolling does not give one the same satisfaction as 

 one taken by spinning. One feels somehow as if he had not 

 had a fair chance. It is like hunting a three-legged fox. More- 

 over, the pain or inconvenience inflicted upon the pike, what- 

 ever they may be, and, speaking ichthyologically, I am not 

 inclined to overrate them, are an additional argument, to say 

 nothing of the subsequent disagreeable operation of disengaging 

 the hooks from the entrails or gullet of the pike. 



The best method of extracting the hooks, which may be 

 mentioned in this connection, is, having first killed the pike, to 

 make a small slit in the belly at the point where the gorge-hook 



N 2 



