FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD 

 But in order to cast a fly with a salmon rod as you cast a fly for a salmon 

 it is necessary and perfectly easy to make, or get your fishing tackle maker 

 to make you, a big fly with a cylindrical body of good cork or hollow 

 celluloid, well varnished, then painted a bright red or yellow, with swan 

 breast feathers dyed red and blue for wings, and any big hackles at the 

 tail to mask an ordinary strong single, double, or triangle hook at the 

 tail, attached to a wire running through the body, and another flying hook, 

 if you like, to hang from the swivel at the head; which can have big blue 

 beads for eyes. This would float like a cork and be light enough to cast 

 with an ordinary salmon rod. 



With a fly constructed on these lines I have had good sport on a shallow 

 lake with weeds near the surface, where spinning was useless, and I can 

 strongly recommend it to salmon and other anglers as a most interesting 

 and sporting way of pike -fishing. As the " fly " — ^which need not be more 

 than two or three inches in length of body — ^the feathers make it seem 

 much longer, as it is pulled in by the left hand drawing in the line ready 

 for another cast — ^floats on the surface it looks exactly like a young bird 

 of some sort moving along the surface. When a pike comes at it his head 

 often comes partly out of the water, and I must say I do like to see the savage 

 rush of a pike, and his ugly jaws close on the bait. Often a pike will rise 

 at it the moment it touches the water; and you can cast it into little spaces 

 and openings between the weeds without fear of its sinking and getting 

 caught in them. 



A big "Halcyon " spinner — ^which is merely a bundle of peacock feathers, 

 with a few bits of swan feathers dyed red tied in with it, and a hook at the 

 end and a light spinner at the head — is a fairly good substitute for the more 

 elaborate pike fly I have described, but the drawback is that you must 

 keep it moving pretty fast, or it sinks and catches in the weeds. As made, 

 the metal fans are unnecessarily heavy, the invisible transparent celluloid 

 fans or blades, such as Mr Wadham puts on his admirable "Nature" 

 spinning baits, are a great advance on the stout metal blades, i.e., of the 

 spinner. 



SPINNING FOR PIKE ' 



Spinning for pike, either with natural dead bait on some form of spinner, 

 such as the " Chapman " or its many derivatives, or with an artificial 

 fish or spoon, is the most sportsmanlike and interesting method of pike 

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