1 84 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



which may excite his suspicions and tempt him to eject it befo;c 

 the desired consummation is arrived at 



Here it is that Nobbes' hooks were preferable, at least in 

 principle, to the gorge- hooks of the modern tackle shops. The 

 former were short ; about i^ inch long, and finishing off in a loop 

 at the end of the lead itself at which point they were attached 

 to the trace. The modern hooks, on the contrary, prolonged, 

 so to speak, the lead by a thick twist of brass wire, making 

 the entire ' hook part ' of the business from three to four inches 

 in length which runs right through the fish from one end to the 

 other, keeping it, of course, perfectly rigid. This rigidity not only 

 impairs the elasticity and play of the bait, but as I have said, 

 frequently acts as a warning to the pike to reject rather than to 

 swallow his supposed prey. 



With a gorge-hook constructed like that of Nobbes, on the 

 contrary, the whole of the tail part of the bait has nothing run- 

 ning through it except a piece of soft gimp by which both the 

 indicated objections are overcome. 



Amongst other opinions which serve to confirm this view 

 might be quoted those of ' Ephemera ' and ' Piscator ' (author 

 of the ' Practical Angler '). Salter says, ' I usually take about 

 half the lead from the shank, as I have found when a jack has 

 struck my bait, he has sometimes left it immediately, in conse- 

 qiience of his feeling tlie lead in the baifs body. 1 He adds : 'This 

 may be prevented by leaving that part of the lead only which 

 lies in the throat of the bait ' ; from this latter opinion for 

 the reasons given already, I entirely dissent. Such a remedy 

 would be twice as bad as the disease ; and, indeed, to judge by 

 the effect produced by such an unnatural arrangement, I am 

 forced to the conclusion that Mr. Salter could never have 

 practically tried the plan he recommends which I have. 



It is a notion not unfrequently entertained that pike swallow 

 their prey literally whole. This is Blumenbach's view which 

 is thus refuted by Mr. Wright : 



With every respect to Mr. Blumenbach, I must take leave to 

 state that he is incorrect ; when fish of prey take a small bait, such 



