TROLLING WITH DEAD GORGE-BAIT. 193 



should be gradually tightened (not struck, although Nobbes 

 says a 'gentle stroak will do him no harm'), and the fish 

 landed. 



It will, of course, not very unfrequently happen that a pike 

 takes a bait in or close to his favourite gite when no moving off 

 (or ' on,' as the police have it) can be expected. In this case 

 the troller must be guided by circumstances and his own 

 judgment. 



Should a number of small bubbles rise from the spot where, 

 from the direction of the line, it is evident that the pike is 

 lying, it is, according to Captain Williamson, a certain sign that 

 he has not yet pouched. As a rule, however, it is a mistake to 

 suppose that bubbles are occasioned by fish ; and when they 

 are so caused, Captain Williamson considers that they may be 

 regarded as a symptom that the fish will not bite, being already 

 satiated, and the bubbles arising from the digestive process. 

 'The bubblers,' he says, 'will always refuse the bait. Wounded 

 fishes, especially jacks, evince their pain in this manner, as they 

 do also their disquietude when unable to swallow their prey.' 

 I must confess it appears to me more probable, and it is more 

 in accordance with my experience, that the bubbles in this case 

 arise either from the uneasiness of the fish at being unable to 

 get rid of the bait already pouched and the hooks of which 

 have begun perhaps to be felt or from the tickling of the line 

 in the throat and jaws. 



The Trent has always had the credit of producing good 

 trollers. One of them, author of ' Practical Observations on 

 Angling on the River Trent,' propounds a theory on the subject 

 of trolling, which, as I do not remember to have met with it 

 elsewhere, I shall quote for the benefit of those who may be 

 inclined to verify the fact. 



After the pike, he says, has had your bait five minutes, take up 

 your rod, and draw your line in gently till you see him (which he 

 will permit though he has not gorged). If you find the bait across 

 his mouth give him more line, but if he has gorged govern him 

 with a gentle hand. 



II. O 



