THE PIKE, AND PIKE FISHING 

 let it sink a little, and then wind it in slowly so it spins deep just over 

 the heads of the salmon lying close to the bottom (preferably when, by 

 wading, he can pull it straight up stream over their noses). To do this, 

 the angler stands with his left shoulder pointing towards the place where 

 he wants the bait to fall at the end of the cast, and facing up stream. 

 So he stands sideways, the bait being wound up so it hangs from two 

 to three feet from the point of the rod. The right hand holds the butt 

 above the reel, with the left hand below it to check it; the rod is held almost 

 straight up, so that the bait can be sv^nung almost exactly as a pendulum 

 swings, with a short U-shape motion to get swing on it, and then with 

 longer U sharp sweep by which the bait is pulled sharply down, then lifted 

 up with an underhand side swing, just as the bowler swings the cricket 

 ball in the old underhand style, his hand holding it is swung back behind 

 him, then down past his side, and released in the upward swing, which 

 lifts it, at the same time giving it the straightforward motion. In the 

 same way the angler lets the reel go during the upward lift of the swing, 

 and the bait flies straight and drops lightly. Some of the best Scarborough 

 Rock anglers use a somewhat similar underhand swing and lift, though 

 not quite the same. The great advantages are that you get all the distance 

 you want for ordinary salmon pike or trout fishing, and can cast very 

 straight, and, above all, very lightly. At the end of the cast, when the reel 

 is checked, and the bait falls gently into the water, the rod is passed from 

 the right hand to the left, the button pressed against the left side, and the 

 right hand slowly winds in; so long as the bait spins and does not catch 

 in the bottom, one can hardly wind too slowly, especially for salmon. 

 Any good spinning reel that you can use to kill salmon and pike and good 

 trout on, and which suits you, is the one to use. 



SPINNING FOR PIKE 



There can be no doubt that spinning a dead, natural, or artificial bait 

 is the most artistic and sportsmanlike way of angling for pike, but it 

 cannot be said to be the most deadly way, because its use is limited to 

 comparatively open water, free from weeds which foul the hooks. Mr 

 Jardine was a very clever hand with the spinning bait, but he often told 

 me that his experience of over sixty years of pike fishing, in some of the 

 finest pike waters in England and Ireland, had taught him that, for fish 

 over ten or twelve pounds, either float fishing or paternostering with a 

 EE 209 



