146 THE COMPLETE ANGLER 



made of well-seasoned ash, its two middle pieces of hickory, and its top 

 of bamhoo cane, tipped with about six inches of whalebone. The winch, 

 capable of holding eighty yards of line, should be a London-made check 

 one. Fairservice is the best maker. For salmon and trout fly-fishing, 

 I always use one of his check winches, varying its size according to the 

 size of the rod 1 use, and the fish I angle for. In a " Handbook of 

 Angling," I have briefly described how the trolling-rod is to be handled. 

 I say in it : " To cast your gorge-bait, your must unroll oft* your winch 

 as much line as you want to reach the distance you intend to cast to. 

 The line must fall in free coils by your feet on the left side. Take the 

 upper part of the coiled line in your left hand, drawing the bait within 

 a yard or a little less of the point of your rod, which lifting with your 

 right hand, the butt being propped against your right flank, throw up- 

 wards and forwards to your right or left if you are pond or lake fishing, 

 and across and down stream if you are river fishing ; and, simultaneously 

 with the throw or cast, letting free the line in your left hand, the bait 

 will be carried, if well and boldly projected, all the coiled portion of the 

 line running through the rings freely, to that spot of the river you wish 

 to reach, provided always that you have accurately calculated the length 

 of line required, and uncoiled it off your winch, and coiled it at your feet 

 accordingly. The bait having entered the water, keep it at about a dis- 

 tance of one-third the whole depth, if the water be deep, from the bottom, 

 but generally speaking at mid- water in moderately deep places, and 

 drawing in your line with the left hand by short and gentle pulls, and 

 moving your rod's point in the same direction, try and give to the bait 

 an attractive, if not natural motion. Do not, unless in case of emergency, 

 lift your bait out of the water until you have worked it close to you. 

 A pike very frequently follows the bait and seizes it almost at your feet. 

 Repeat your cast, and go on casting, moving with each cast, until you 

 have left no portion of the water untried. Your first cast should be into 

 those parts of the water nearest to you, then further out, and lastly, as 

 far to the other side of the water as you can throw. When you have a 

 run, let the fish move off with your bait, giving time to gorge it, and 

 strike, and act as directed in my remarks on " sinking and roving" for 

 pike. There is one more fair and sportsman-like mode of capturing pike, 

 viz., with a large artificial fly a gigantic imitation of the dragon-fly. 

 Mr. Blacker, of Dean-street, Soho, makes it to perfection. It is to be 

 worked through the water like the salmon-fly, and should be used in pools, 

 ponds and lakes, in mild, sombre windy weather. It answers better in 

 Ireland and Scotland than in the waters of England. 



The haunts of pike are the deep, still pools of rivers, bordered with 

 willow trees, and having beds of bulrushes, flags, water-lilies, and other 

 aquatic plants. In fine weather they lie just outside these beds, or a 

 little within them, so the bait should be worked close by. In winter, 

 they lie on these rotten plants, and in sheltered deeps. Nearly all the 

 large lakes in Ireland abound with pike, as do the rivers that have their 

 sources in bogs. Many of the lochs of Scotland teem with them, and 

 they are plentiful in the meres of Norfolk and Suffolk. They are never 

 absent from the sluggish rivers that run through our fiat counties, such 



