THE PIKE, AND PIKE FISHING 

 when the bait is losing speed and falling down into the water, you get 

 an overrun unless you press the thumb on the line on the revolving spool 

 to stop it, simply because the free running reel goes on revolving, although 

 the line is becoming slack, and so it winds it round the spool, and a bad 

 overrun often results. The overrun is caused by the reel overtaking the pace 

 at which the line is going through the rings. Some anglers use a leather 

 thumbstall to preserve the skin of the thumb from the effect of the friction, 

 but it is not necessary with baits of a quarter or half an ounce, except 

 perhaps in tournament casting for records. When using a double-handed 

 rod with heavier baits I always feel more comfortable with a tight fitting 

 kid or cotton thumbstall, especially if the line is at all rough. Having made 

 the cast, you can wind in with the multiplier quite as fast as is at all neces- 

 sary; as long as the bait spins well, or even wobbles, it is fast enough 

 for successful fishing. I have had great fun casting a light spinning bait 

 in this way with one hand, such as a "Wagtail " or a small spoon, but I 

 generally use the side swing with the single -hand rod when fishing from 

 a boat or on a small river where long casting is unnecessary. For accuracy 

 the single or double -hand overhead cast must always beat the side swing, 

 but in practical fishing this is not often so important as in tournament 

 casting. 



SPINNING WITH THE DOUBLE-HANDED ROD 



Both with the single and double -hand spinning rod there are several 

 ways of casting and of manipulating the line. The simplest and easiest 

 is the old Thames style, in which you pull line off the reel and let it lie 

 in coils at your feet, either on the bank or, much preferably, on the flat 

 end of a punt. Unless the banks are almost like a tennis lawn, coiling the 

 line on them is liable to cause all kinds of tangles as it catches on bits of 

 weed, sticks, etc.; the style was doubtless invented for use in fishing 

 from a punt, and I have seen my old friend, the late Mr Alfred Jardine, 

 kill more heavy pike — fish from fifteen pounds to thirty pounds — ^using 

 the Thames style than in any other way. For some reason or other he was 

 prejudiced against the Nottingham style of casting from the reel; he said 

 with the Thames style you can cast more lightly, more accurately, with 

 less exertion, and that by pulling the bait in with the left hand, drawing 

 in a yard or so of line at a time, that you can vary the pace, and " work '* 

 the bait in a more natural way, than you can when winding a winch in 



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