60 DAYS AMONG THE PIKE AND PERCH 



still waiting when two hours later we joined him. He 

 said he had not the smallest notion what was meant by 

 spinning. 



We will consider this question for a moment, and see 

 what it really is, and discuss the point as briefly as we can. 

 In the first place a set of hooks called a flight is necessary, 

 and this flight should be of such a character that it will 

 impart an attractive spin to the bait, as well as being 

 fixed in such a position that the pike itself can be securely 

 hooked as soon as it lays hold. 



One of the earliest flights I ever saw was used by a certain 

 school of very old-fashioned Trent spinners. It must be 

 more than forty years since I saw it used for the first time. 

 This was merely a very large-eyed treble, a hook nearly as 

 large as we see on old-fashioned spoons sometimes ; this large 

 hook was mounted on a yard of stout brass gimp, with a 

 big box-swivel about midway down the gimp. In baiting 

 this flight with a dace, the gimp, by the aid of a stout 

 needle, was passed completely through from the vent and 

 out at the mouth, the hook itself being underneath, between 

 the vent and the tail. Now this was undoubtedly a simple 

 flight ; but in the rapid waters of the Trent it was effective, 

 because I found that pike were hooked much easier in that 

 river than in the more sluggish Ouse. 



Hardly any of the Trent men would use more than two 

 trebles on a flight, and these were whipped on a length 

 of gimp nearly close together and threaded completely 

 through the bait, with the help of a baiting needle. I don't 

 think I ever saw a good and experienced Trent man spinning 

 with more than two trebles on his flight ; in eight cases out 

 of ten the pike of that river would grab the bait near the 

 tail, while in a lake, canal, or slow-running streams like the 

 Ouse and Nene, they would seize it across the shoulders in 

 a much more deliberate manner, necessitating a somewhat 

 different flight for those waters. 



Some men consider it the correct thing for a spinning bait 

 to travel at a fast rate through the water, and to spin 



