56 THE COMPLETE SPORTSMAN 



because a captured pike has been known to 

 contain a grandfather's clock, a pianola, seven- 

 teen yards of blue ribbon, and a small corkscrew, 

 it is therefore advisable to bait one's hook wdth 

 a set of false teeth or a harpsichord. It should, 

 however, be borne in mind that certain fish will 

 only look at certain baits. Tarpon, for instance, 

 are very particular as to the food they eat, and 

 can be caught \Adth nothing but the head of a 

 red mullet. Parrot-fish, on the other hand, 

 prefer hemp- seed to any other form of diet, while 

 dogfish express a preference for mutton-bones, 

 and it would be futile to attempt to catch the 

 smallest catfish (or kitten-fish, to be academic- 

 ally correct) with anything but bread-and-milk. 

 The most common type of live-bait is un- 

 doubtedly the ordinary earth- or lob-worm. 

 Tliis is justly considered a succulent morsel by 

 almost every species of fish, and is at once hardy 

 and easily procurable. On warm summer nights 

 lob-worms will be found in large quantities on 

 any lawn or at the edge of garden paths, lying 

 half out of their holes fanning themselves with a 

 blade of grass, or bending gracefully over to slake 

 their thirst with deep draughts of dew from the 

 close-cropped turf at their feet. It then becomes 

 a simple enough matter to creep up behind them 

 in india-rubber tennis-shoes, seize them smartly 

 round the waist with the finger and thumb of the 



