TROLLING WITH A DEAD GORGE 79 



might do it in two minutes or he might be fifteen. Don't 

 check him in the slightest, let him go, and never mind the 

 weeds ; when he stops give him five minutes or so, and 

 then wind him out the best way you can, weeds and all ; 

 and in this fishing you need not strike, as all the striking 

 in the world won't drive the hooks in any better, as they 

 are already down his stomach. 



One very successful dead-gorge fisherman I attended 

 more than once used to bait his tackle rather differently ; 

 he used to thread the gimp back again to the head of the 

 bait ; so that the bait went tail downwards instead of head 

 downwards ; by this plan, when the bait was jerked up- 

 wards among the weeds, the bends of the hooks were upper- 

 most and not the points, and there was less chance of their 

 catching the weeds. To accomplish this he had the wire 

 of his hooks made very strong, and as long as the fish he 

 used for a bait. 



This gorge-fishing among the weeds is sometimes the only 

 chance one has of getting a fish. I remember once seeing 

 a lot of jack among the flags and weeds of a celebrated 

 backwater that had an entrance into the Lower Trent. It 

 looked about the most unlikely spot I ever saw, but there 

 were the fish threading their way in and out, every now and 

 then swirling over with a huge splash. I went and told 

 Harry Norledge, one of the subscribers to that water, and 

 we prepared some special dead-gorge tackle ; and I re- 

 member what a job he had plumping the bait in and out 

 and among those weeds, every now and then hanging on like 

 grim death ; sometimes hauling out a bunch of weeds, now 

 and again getting a run from a good fish, and after all sorts 

 of capers landing him. That old hickory cut-down salmon 

 rod of his was just the very thing ; anyhow, I helped him to 

 get a dozen of those jack out, the largest fourteen pounds ; 

 and we were going to have another turn the next day ; but 

 when I saw him he said his fellow-subscribers of the water, 

 who were the trustees and tenants of the fishery, had in the 

 meantime called a meeting of the committee, who passed a 



