32 A BOOK OF THE RUNNING BROOK: 



capture of the pike ; and certainly the following 



quaint instructions that she gave concerning the 



most suitable bait are composed in somewhat 



of a kinder spirit than is the recipe of Sir Hugh 



Plat: 



" Take a codlynge hoke, and take a roche or a fresh 

 heeryng, and a wyre with an hole in the ende, and put it 

 in at the mouth, and out at the taylle, down by the ridge 

 of the fresh heeryng, and thenne put the hoke in after, 

 and drawe the hoke into the cheke of the fresshe heeryng ; 

 then put a plumbe of lead upon your lyne a yarde longe 

 from your hoke, and a fiote in midwaye betwene ; and 

 cast it in a pytte where the pyke usyth, and this is the 

 best and moost surest crafte of takynge the pyke. An- 

 other manere of takynge him there is ; take a frosshe [frog] 

 and put it on your hoke, at the necke, betwene the skynne 

 and the body, on the backe half, and put on a flote a 

 yarde therefro, and caste it where the pyke hauntyth, and 

 ye shall have hym. Another manere : take the same 

 bayte, and put it in assafetida, and caste it in the water 

 wyth a corde and a corke, and ye shall not fayl of hym." 



Such an attraction as a frog dipped in as- 

 safcetida would surely be strong enough to 

 tempt even the most gorged of pikes from his 

 lair. But even this voracity, which is so unani- 

 mously dwelt upon by pike historians, and so 

 unfailingly taken advantage of by pike anglers, 

 is one of his great sporting merits. A pike is 



