THE PIKE, AND PIKE FISHING 

 its tail seized by a pike just as it liad reached the opposite side of a pond 

 and was about to scramble out on to the bank, and so safely landed the fish 

 at its master's feet. 



METHODS OF ANGLING FOR PIKE 



Fly-fishing for Pike. — The great seventy-two pound Kenmure pike, 

 previously referred to, is said to have been captured on a pike -fly — and 

 in many old works on angling illustrations of pike -flies are given. I have 

 one of these old flies on the table before me as I write, which might well 

 have been the original "fly " which killed the Kenmure monster. ... It is 

 over flve and a half inches in length, about as big as a blackbird, the body 

 is of wood covered with a sort of red baize (red is a good colour to 

 attract a pike); for eyes, there are two big blue beads; to the head and 

 along the back is fastened a strip of skin of some animal with long, rough, 

 dark brown hairs, which give a lively movement in the water; along each 

 side is a broad strip of gold braid, and on each side for wings are " eye '* 

 feathers of the peacock. There is a double hook, each as big as a small 

 gaff, the wire is three -sixteenths of an inch in diameter, and the *' gape '* 

 of each hook is nearly two inches; it weighs about three ounces when wet.* 

 Obviously such a " fly " as this was never intended to be cast with a fly-rod 

 as a fly is cast. At any rate, I should be very sorry to have to stand near 

 the angler so using it. In spite of the heavy hooks the plump bird-shaped 

 wood body almost floats it, and the proper and only way to cast it would 

 be to cast it as a spinning bait is cast; using a strong sea -casting rod 

 I could easily cast it fifty yards in that way, from the reel, or in the Thames 

 style, i.e., with the line drawn off the reel and coiled in the boat or on the 

 bank. It could also be used, as it was doubtless intended to be used, 

 by dropping it over from a boat and letting it trail behind as you row 

 slowly along, so as to bring it to the sight of any pike lurking in the weeds, 

 or near the reeds fringing a lake. Used in that way, pulling it in a foot or 

 two at a time, and then letting it stop a second or two for the hairs and 

 feathers to expand, it would be irresistible to any hungry pike big enough 

 to tackle it. So to dismiss this old cumbersome *' fly " as an impossible 

 lure would be quite a mistake. 



'Although, as they are so generally used I bare mentioned triangle hooks, I am conTineed good single hooks are 

 quite as useful, far more sportsmanlike, and far more comfortable to use. AU the best and biggest game fish are 

 killed on single hooks.— R. B. M. 



195 



