THE HAUNTS OF THE PIKE 23 



water with every swirl of the current. I have had as 

 many as half a dozen four- and five-pounders from these 

 streams in a couple of hours, using both natural and arti- 

 ficial baits, and the water has not been two feet deep. 



In a rather swift - running stream like the Trent we 

 only meet with pike occasionally out in the very rapid 

 midstream runs, as they prefer to hug the shore, especially 

 if that shore has a hollow clay bank, rough stones or 

 boulders, bunches of flags, or a thick cover of old sallow 

 bushes. 



A river like the Trent, that has a superabundance of 

 bends and corners which we are told by those versed in 

 the matter are necessary for the very existence of those 

 rivers, or they would run dry will provide good sport. 

 Just in these corners and bends the water as a general rule 

 is deeper, and nothing like so rapid as it is in the straight- 

 running shallows. During the early autumn good jack 

 are often picked up in these deeper corners by know- 

 ing anglers, who sink a spinning bait deep down and 

 search the whole corner well, winding the bait slowly 

 home. 



Down the Lower Trent, from the Corporation swim at 

 Win thorp to Laneham and Rampton, a distance of many 

 miles, there were holes and corners of this character in 

 plenty, and easily recognizable ; scarcely any angler could 

 miss seeing them. Some of the old anglers named in the 

 first chapter, and myself, have had many a brace of good 

 jack during the seasons we fished those noted waters. 

 I can call to mind one or two instances of heavy Trent 

 pike being had on spinning tackle iiom the very centre 

 of the heaviest runs ; but whether they followed the bait 

 and seized it when in midstream we could scarcely de- 

 termine. 



I remember once getting a brace from a very heavy run 

 of water, about a quarter of a mile below the Sentry Box 

 swim, in the deep straight run of river going down towards 

 the Meerings. We used to know the place as the South 



