THE PIKE. 65 



are taken round the shank of the sliding lip hook, so as 

 to bring it to the right place and prevent the hook from 

 slipping, and it is then hooked through the lips of the 

 bait (through the lower lip first), and the bait is armed. 

 The great object is to let all the hooks lie evenly, easily, 

 and in a line, for if the line in which they lie be crooked, 

 or the space between each hook and triangle be not justly 

 apportioned, the bait will not spin properly, and the hooks 

 must be re-adjusted till it does. If the young fisherman 

 can get half-an-hour's counsel from an old Thames punts- 

 man, he will learn more from seeing it done than he will 

 by reading about it to any extent. 



At Plate 2, Figs. 1 and 2, will be seen plans of two other 

 tackles. No. 1 is Mr. Fennel's, and No. 2 is mine. The 

 method of baiting the last is shown at Fig. 3. I give the 

 preference by far to my own plan, as it spins a bait 

 admirably, particularly with small and moderate sized 

 baits ; and when once the bait does spin well it prevents 

 it from ever getting out of spinning, and it preserves the 

 bait for double or treble as long as any other tackle does, 

 and when baits are scarce that is no slight consideration. 

 I have fished a whole day for large Thames trout with two 

 baits, and they never got out of gear till they got a tug 

 from a fish. The tackle has this further advantage, that 

 it shows less than any other, and the chief triangle stands 

 out so well that it cannot easily miss the fish. For large 

 trout or moderate sized pike baits, to my mind, it is better 

 than any other. I once killed ten pike at Lord Craven's 

 with it, which averaged 131b. each, and I did not lose a 

 fish. When I need to use larger baits, I prefer Mr. Wood's 

 adaptation of the Chapman spinner, as more satisfactory 

 in every way. I shall refer to this presently. However, 

 everybody does not hold my opinion, so I have given plans 



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