126 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



than I had intended, and so I must refer the reader to the 

 tackle makers. The baits mentioned above are plenty good 

 enough for me, and any one of them will kill when the pike 

 are inclined to feed, but I suppose I need not say that 

 natural fish baits are the best, if you can get them. 



Pike will sometimes take a very large artificial fly, if fly 

 it can be called. Its body is as thick as a man's finger, and 

 the wings are two peacock's feathers, and it is as big as one 

 of the stuffed humming-birds that you see in glass cases. 

 It is worked over weeds and open places, with a series of 

 jumps and bobs. The late Frank Buckland gives such a funny 

 method of making an artificial pike bait, that I really must 

 reproduce it here. He says, " Procure the tip of the tail of a 

 brown calf ; remove the bone, and substitute a slip of cork ; 

 make a head with a champagne cork ; put into it boot buttons 

 for eyes, attach a piece of leather boot-lace for a tail, and 

 dress with ordinary hooks. These big lake pike, who are 

 very artful fellows, will not be up to this calf's-tail bait 

 they will take it for a swimming water-rat, and the chances 

 are that they will snap at it, especially on a windy day." 



One word, and I have done. The angler should always 

 pay very great attention to weed-beds, reeds, and flags, or a 

 sheltered shallow corner, in the immediate vicinity of a deep 

 hole, or just below an island, where the stream is, as it were, 

 broken in two, and a quiet eddy formed in the middle. 

 These are all favourite places, and some good pike are often 

 found therein. 



