THE PIKE, AND PIKE FISHING 

 fishing in all kinds of water where spinning is practicable. Where the pike 

 are fairly numerous, and one does not expect to get fish over from seven 

 to ten pounds, the most fascinating way I know is to use a short, single - 

 hand, American split cane spinning rod, and an American multiplier 

 reel holding sixty or seventy yards of fine undressed plaited silk line. 

 Once you have mastered the manner of casting and using this tackle 

 you are not likely to return to the older methods. 



In this style of single -hand casting with the very light rod, our American 

 friends had the field to themselves for many years. Now a good many 

 of our anglers, who have learned its advantages at casting tournaments 

 — which, by the way, although pooh-poohed by many old-style anglers, 

 have done more than anything else to improve rods and reels and lines, 

 and make methods of angling known — and probably a much larger 

 number in France, are ardent admirers and users of the American 

 style of single-hand light bait casting.* In the black bass Americans 

 have a fish which is very widely distributed, a fine bold game fish 

 which, so to speak, lends itself to encourage fishing for it with a 

 surface bait — spinner or artificial frog, etc. — cast lightly a score or two 

 score of yards from the bank or boat. Having obtained from some firm 

 of fishing tackle makers a good split-cane bait-casting rod, from five to 

 seven feet in length — some anglers prefer a longer than five, some a shorter 

 than seven, foot rod, with some good American multiplier bait-casting 

 reel or British reel made for the same kind of work — ^the best thing to do 

 is to get some expert friend to show you how to use it. The chief points 

 to remember are to wind the line as evenly as possible on the reel, and 

 to touch the line, on the barrel of the reel when it is revolving in the cast out, 

 with the right thumb all the time the bait is in the air; the touch must be 

 very gentle at first, but it should be continuous, and just as the bait is 

 falling into the water, at the end of the cast, you press the thumb down on 

 the line and stop the reel, thus preventing the overrunning of the line. 

 The cast can be made either with the side swing, as in the old well-known 

 style of casting from the Nottingham reel, with the double-handed 

 spinning rod, or overhead, the more usual style in America. The reel 

 is put on the rod with the handle to the left when the reel is under the rod, 

 and you use it with the reel turned up on the rod, so that you wind in with 



* A year after th!s was written, in 1912, a very charming little French work on angling has been published at 

 3 fr. SO. It is entitled La Piche Sportive, and is written by that keen angler the Vicomte Henry du France, and has an 

 Introduction by Prince Pierre d'Arenberg, another keen angler, and both express their appreciation of casting 

 tournaments and their good efifects. — R. B. M. 



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