94 DAYS AMONG THE PIKE AND PERCH 



and the plunge of the hooked fish on the tightening line is 

 sufficient to drive the hooks home. If you are careful it is 

 an easy matter to kill a pike, but also take notice of what 

 I have said on this subject in previous chapters. In using 

 a snap down a sluggish river or lake you should fish as 

 near the bottom as you can, and keep trying all over the 

 place, altering your depth or plans to suit the changed 

 conditions of each place. If the place is very deep a slider 

 float can be made out of a plain jack float, or even a big 

 old barrel bung, so long as you put a stop on your line at 

 the proper distance above your float. 



In fishing a deep lake with snap tackle my advice is to 

 use large baits and fish them deep down. I am aware that 

 big pike are sometimes taken on very small baits ; I well 

 remember a fourteen-pounder that fell to a live dace only 

 weighing half an ounce. 



During the early autumn the pike are among the weeds 

 and flags, and shallow fishing must be attended to; but 

 during the late autumn and winter I certainly recommend 

 the baits to be deep down. I once rigged a gentleman out 

 for a day on a private lake that was well stocked with pike 

 of all sizes. He insisted on small bait, and I found he 

 never was more than five feet deep, although the bulk of 

 the water was twice that depth. He landed nine fish, 

 going forty-one pounds, the largest not quite six pounds, 

 and was very pleased with his day's sport. Another 

 gentleman who got permission a week later took down a 

 can of dace, the very largest size he could get ; he hugged 

 the bottom as near as he could, and also, strange as it may 

 seem, landed nine fish, but his nine weighed more than a 

 hundredweight, the largest over twenty pounds. The 

 conditions of the two days were alike ; I put it down to 

 the difference in tactics adopted by the two anglers. 



In some waters a live gorge hook has to be employed 

 with a float instead of a snap ; but this is a tackle that 

 must not be tolerated if a snap can anyhow be used. This 

 gorge hook is simply a double hook of the shape known as 



