264 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



his prey that the pike has, and if the bait is moving fast 

 through the water, he is not unlikely to fail in his attempts to 

 seize it. 



This tackle, of which for the sake of convenience I repeat 

 the diagram, is equally applicable to a very small gudgeon, 

 loach, or large stickleback. Perhaps, as I have repeated the 

 diagram, it may be convenient to repeat also the directions for 

 baiting it : 



Fig. I is the flight of hooks, with a leaden sinker run on to the 

 trace, but, of course, in baiting the minnow this has in the first 

 instance to be slipped off altogether, by detaching the flight from 

 the rest of the trace. Having attached a baiting-needle to the loop 

 of the strand of gut on which the flight is tied, pass it in at the vent 

 of the bait and out at its mouth. The baiting-needle is now taken 

 off, and the leaden cap slipped over the gut into the position indi- 

 cated in fig. I, and pushed down the bait's throat until it occupies 

 the position shown in fig. 2. The whole bait is then pressed, or 

 pushed, downwards on to the triangle sufficiently to curve it, by a 

 bending of the back, in the manner represented in the diagram 

 (fig. 2). The 'nicks' or slices on the bottom part of the lead are 

 made with a penknife for the purpose of keeping the lead in its 

 place in the bait's throat and belly, but many spinners prefer it 

 smooth, and it slips more easily down the bait's throat when ' un- 

 nicked.' 



The trace consists of two or three yards of moderately fine 

 salmon-gut, with a good sprinkling of swivels at convenient 

 intervals (N.B. double swivels best) and attached to a very light 

 dressed silk plaited running line. 



The following is another good perch minnow-spinning 

 tackle in streams, where the mode of employing it is by 'in 

 and out,' or, more correctly, ' sink and raise ' casts. In order 

 to bait it, all that is necessary is to push the lead (fig. i) down 

 through the minnow's mouth into the belly, pass the lip-book 

 through both lips of the bait to close its mouth, and then 

 insert one hook of the first triangle just below the back fin, 

 so as, by aid of the lead inside, to crook the body of the bait 

 as shown in fig. 2. 



