58 BEST'S ART OF ANGLING. 



kept alive in a tin kettle : take one and stick the 

 hook either through his upper lip or back fin, 

 and throw him into the likely haunts before- 

 mentioned, swimming at mid-water. When the 

 pike take it, let him run a little, as at the snap, 

 and then strike him. In this method of pike 

 fishing, you may take three kinds of fish, viz. 

 pikes, perches, and chubs. 



These fishes are to be met with in most of the 

 Jakes of Europe, but the largest are those taken 

 in Laplandj which, according to Schoeffer, are 

 sometimes eight feet long : the largest fish of 

 this kind which I ever heard of and saw a draw- 

 ing of, weighed, to the best of my memory, 

 thirty-five pounds. This I saw in the kitchen, 

 of Sir Richard Hill, of Hawkest one, Salop. 



At the Marquis of Trentham's canal, at Tren- 

 tham, a pike seized the head of a swan, as she 

 was feeding under water, and gorged so much of 

 it as killed them both. 



Small fishes shew the same uneasiness and de- 

 testation at the presence of this tyrant, as the 

 little birds do at the sight of the hawk or owl. 



Rules to be observed in trowlitig. September 

 and October are the best months for trowttng, 

 because the weeds are then rotten, and the fishes 

 are fat with the summer's feed. March is the 

 best for the snap, because, as I have said before, 

 they then spawn, and are sick, and therefore 

 never bite freely. 



A large bait intices the pike to take it the 

 most, but a small one takes him with greater 

 certainty. 



Always, both at trowl and snap, cut away one 

 of the fins, close at the gills of the bait fish, and 

 another at the vent on the contrary side, which 

 makes it play better. 



