74 DAYS AMONG THE PIKE AND PERCH 



ing down the valleys ; when the rain has been coming down 

 in a deluge; when a heavy snowstorm has whitened the 

 whole face of nature ; and when the frost has been so keen 

 that every few minutes I have been obliged to suck the 

 ice from the rings of the rod. This will happen sometimes, 

 and speedily spoil a spinning line if you are not careful ; 

 a few drops of castor-oil rubbed on the line will counteract 

 this trouble somewhat ; but it is an evil to contend with, 

 and sucking the ice out of the rod rings on a cold day in 

 winter is disagreeable, but absolutely necessary. 



First and foremost as an artificial for pike I put a spoon, 

 and this is made in varied patterns, perhaps the best being 

 the collapsing or split one, mounted on a bar, with a tag of 

 red worsted covering the somewhat mighty treble that 

 arms the bar. Wagtails, Clippers, Devons, Phantoms, 

 Spirals, and a host of others are made, and can be purchased 

 nearly anywhere, from one shilling to two shillings each. 

 I say again that I have no choice ; weather and water are 

 more important than shape or colour of your artificial. 



A friend of mine, who goes to Ireland to fish the loughs 

 there, tells me that no hard and fast rule can be laid down 

 even there ; he found the best plan was to get his boatman 

 to zigzag the boat round the flags and weeds and islands, 

 threading his way about so that the bait whisked into all 

 sorts of odd corners a trick that only an Irish boatman 

 can do and trail the bait some twenty or thirty yards 

 astern. His best fish, a twenty-seven pounder, was got 

 on a five-inch Phantom, and he got this after trailing over 

 the place with one of a set of huge spoons I got made for 

 him ; these Irish lake spoons being about six inches long 

 and three wide, with hooks on the end more like grappling- 

 irons. 



Some of these lake pike will take a huge peacock's- 

 feather fly, dressed on a large single hook. I have seen 

 some of these flies at least five or six inches long, and 

 nearly as big as a sparrow ; this is cast among the flags 

 and weeds like a salmon fly, working it about in a series of 



