24 DAYS AMONG THE PIKE AND PERCH 



Rack. Those two fish were the largest brace I ever got 

 in one day on spinning tackle, and they both took the 

 bait almost the very instant it dropped in the water. 

 It was the selfsame Clipper bait that accounted for the 

 pair of fish under the weir hole mentioned a few pages 

 back. 



I remember once my old friend Sunman spinning the 

 Corporation swim ; he stood on a projecting knoll of bank 

 that was undermined, and was using tremendous force 

 to hurl his bait under the slacks and willows on the opposite 

 side. After nearly exhausting himself with his prolonged 

 efforts, and just as he was about to lift his bait from the 

 water for a fresh cast, the very jack that he had been after 

 shot right from under the very knoll on which he stood and 

 seized the bait with such right good will that he stood no 

 chance of escaping ; that fish leaped three times like a 

 salmon, and scaled exactly nine pounds. In this instance 

 the fish lay right under the bank. 



Another capital place for jack on the Trent was the slack 

 corner some distance above the old wooden bridge that 

 carries the Great North Road over the river. I once helped 

 the late Harry Norledge of Newark to land fourteen fish 

 from that corner, the biggest exactly fourteen pounds ; 

 I fancy that was the best bag of Trent pike that ever I could 

 personally vouch for. I once got nine from that stretch 

 of water running from the Midland railway bridge down 

 to Kelham Hall ; six of them, I remember, without moving 

 a yard. This bag was had on a snap paternoster tackle 

 and live bait. 



In slow-running rivers like the Great Ouse, the Nene, 

 and the vast watershed that drains the whole of the coun- 

 ties forming that district, it does not matter so much about 

 selecting the deepest corners ; indeed, during the late sum- 

 mer and early autumn, the shallow and weedy places, over 

 which a slight stream wanders along, even if less than a 

 yard in depth, are by far the best places to try ; but the 

 spinning bait has to be so manipulated that it must not, 



