THE PIKE. 63 



creek or ditch wherein to deposit their spawn. In lakes or 

 ponds they will resort to the neck or shallow parts of the 

 water, amongst weeds. They are in season all the \ear, 

 except February, March and April ; and the best time to 

 angle for them is from the end of May to December ; the 

 best baits are the young roach, dace, minnow, gudgeon, 

 loach, salmon-smelt, bleak, and yellow frogs ; when the 

 latter is used, put your hook in at its mouth and out at its 

 gills, and then with a fine thread tie it above the upper 

 joint of its leg. But the best way to angle for it is with 

 some fish, larger or smaller, according to the size of pike 

 you expect to meet with. 



There is a method called " snap-fishing," in which 

 some use a double spring hook, which may be had at the 

 tacke shops ; you bait it thus : with a penknife you make 

 a hole in the side of your bait -fish, then put the gimp which 

 is fastened to the hook into it, and bring it out at the 

 mouth till the spring hooks come to the place where the 

 incision is made, put them into the belly of the fish ; then 

 have a piece of lead (the same as I have laid down in 

 toaces for trowling), put it in the fish's mouth, and sew it 

 up. When your hook is thus baited, throw into the most 

 likely place for a pike ; let it sink near the bottom, then 

 raise it to near the top, then let it sink again, and so on ; 

 still keep drawing your line down the rod with your left 

 hand till the bait is near the side ; if a pike should take 

 the bait, strike immediately the contrary way. This kind of 

 angling is practised in March and April, when the fish are 

 spawning, or soon after they have spawned. 



But the best way to angle for the pike is with the traces, 



