CHAPTER IX 

 ARTIFICIAL BAITS 



Artificial baits and their uses Shape and colourContradictions 

 pure and simple How to use an artificial Best water and time 

 to try them Wind and weather Ice in the rod rings Irish 

 pike and the huge spoons Pike flies and calf's-tail bait, 



A RTIFICIAL baits for pike-fishing are made in almost 

 \ endless variety, and in all sorts of materials, from 

 German silver to vulcanite ; even bunches of peacock's 

 feathers, and the skin of the fish itself have been utilized for 

 this purpose. Some of these artificials, like the famous old 

 " Clipper," are so constructed that a light breeze is quite 

 sufficient to set them spinning with great rapidity, and 

 when drawn through the water they look like a glittering 

 line of silver. These are good baits to use when the water 

 is clouded. When the rivers have run down very low and 

 bright, and every weed in four feet of water visible, a 

 bright, silver like artificial is of very little use ; a dull- 

 coloured soft india-rubber bait would then be more likely 

 to kill. It hardly matters what colour or shape, or by what 

 name it is known ; an artificial will take jack sometimes 

 when the conditions of the water are favourable, but water 

 and weather must be right. 



I have known an angler to use a certain artificial on a 

 well- know -i water, when the river was running in the very 

 pink of condition, and the pike fairly on the rampage, in 

 fact, just about the chance of a lifetime, and in the course 

 of a short afternoon to get half a dozen right gooc? fish. 



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