CHAPTER VIII 

 SPINNING FLIGHTS AND THEIR USES 



Spinning : what it is An ancient spinning tackle Trent flights 

 The author's spinning flight Dead bait spinners The Chapman 

 spinner, and its contemporaries What water to spin over 

 How to spin over the streams How to play and land a pike on 

 spinning tackle Preserving dead baits. 



SPINNING for pike has been a favourite pastime of 

 mine for many years, and I look upon it as being the 

 most sportsmanlike of all the methods adopted for the 

 capture of the freshwater shark. 



I will preface my remarks by saying that spinning is 

 done by fixing a small fish on a set of hooks in such a manner 

 that when worked in the water it looks like a disabled fish 

 trying to escape from some fancied danger or foe. The 

 spinning bait must be kept constantly on the move ; that 

 is, turning over more or less rapidly or slowly, as the cir- 

 cumstances of the place into which it is thrown demands. 

 Spinning is good and warm exercise for a cold day, as you 

 must of necessity keep in motion, throwing the bait into 

 every clear opening, hole, eddy, or stream that takes your 

 fancy. 



One man that I dropped across one day had a very 

 curious idea as to what spinning was like ; he borrowed a 

 rod, reel, line, trace, and a spoon bait from the farmhouse 

 where he was staying, went down to the river, threw the 

 bait in, and then lit his pipe and waited for something to 

 pick that spoon from the bottom ; needless to say he was 



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