THE PIKE, AND PIKE FISHING 

 Another disadvantage of the overhead cast is that the bait falls with a 

 greater splash — ^with more force in fact — ^than with the side cast, or with 

 the underhand " Boyne Cast " ; this does not matter so much in sea -fishing, 

 as in pike fishing or salmon fishlng^-especially in hard-fished waters. 



CASTING FROM A TRAY 



Casting a bait can also be done with the basket or tin line carrier 

 strapped to your left side — under your left breast coat pocket I mean — ^in 

 the way that clever angler, Mr Philip Geen, uses so successfully in spinning 

 for salmon and pike and trout. He uses a single-hand rod, pitches the bait 

 out very accurately and lightly, the line being coiled in his tray with a 

 little water in the bottom of it to prevent it being blown out or about; 

 then he draws it in with his left hand and drops it, in coils, into the tray. 

 The advantage is that you carry your little smooth platform with you and 

 can stand in a bed of thistles and cast as in the old Thames style, with 

 no revolving reel to manipulate, and with the very minimum of force. 

 Mr Geen uses a special tin holder, in shape like a creel with a low front. 

 An old trout creel, cut down in front and lined with oilskin smoothly, to 

 cover all projection that might catch the line, and to hold a little water, 

 which Mr Geen finds so useful, answers very well. The tin affair seems to 

 me unnecessarily heavy, though Mr Geen does not fijid it so; he tells me 

 he does not even notice he has it on. 



Of course the more line you have out the more chance of a kink, but in 

 the ordinary fishing cast for trout, pike, and salmon, Mr Geen tells me 

 that he very rarely has any trouble. When you hook a fish you have to get 

 the line on to the reel as soon as may be; generally the fish runs out the 

 slack, and then you are ready to play him from the reel. For casting the 

 lightest of baits there is no lighter way than this, as the bait has only to 

 pull out the weight of the line. 



CASTING FROM A REEL WITH A STATIONARY DRUM 



The Malloch Casting Reel, brought out by that fine salmon and trout 

 angler, Mr P. D. Malloch, the well-known fishing tackle maker of Perth, 

 was the first, and for over twenty years or so the only reel, in which the 

 line, in casting, comes off a stationary drum or barrel, which only revolves 

 when you want to wind in after a cast or when you are playing a fish. It 



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