WITH PATERNOSTER AND LEGER 99 



paternoster should be about four feet long, and a fair-sized 

 loop should always be knotted and whipped at each end, 

 one of these loops being to loop the lead in, and the other 

 to tie to the reel line itself. It does not matter particularly 

 which the angler uses, cross-line swivels, bone runners, or 

 loops, and sometimes there are three, sometimes two, and 

 sometimes only one on a paternoster ; for my own part I 

 always found one quite plenty to look after, especially if 

 bushes, boughs, and flags were very much in evidence ; 

 the spare hooks would persist in catching, and a hooked 

 pike was bound to get the other bait round something or 

 other. 



Snaps for this fishing should be dressed on seven inches 

 of oo Hercules wire gimp, and the hooks should not be too 

 large ; I prefer a No. 5 treble at the end, and an eyed and 

 movable h'p hook some two and a half inches from it. The 

 single lip hook, which should be larger than the treble, is 

 put right through both lips of the bait, and one hook of the 

 treble inserted lightly under the back fin ; or, better still, 

 it may be nearer the tail. This snap hook should have a 

 loop at end of gimp, to loop into the buckle of the cross- 

 line swivel. Some men use a single No. i sneck-bend hook 

 instead of the snap ; the single hook has to be swallowed 

 before the pike is hooked, whereas with the snap you can 

 draw on him at once as soon as you feel him run. 



There is also a patent paternoster tackle in use now that 

 has a movable safety-pin sort of wire that goes in at the 

 mouth and out at the gill covers of the bait. This may 

 be useful if obstructions in the water are plentiful, and baits 

 are scarce ; but somehow I don't like those choking wires 

 that go into the mouth of the bait and prop his gill covers 

 up ; he cannot move about with sufficient freedom. Some 

 men simply put the single square-bend hook under the 

 back fin, some put it through both lips. I prefer the small 

 hook snap, single lip hook through both lips, and the treble 

 half-way between the dorsal fin and the tail. The lead 

 for this is a pear-shaped one with a wire eye at the small 



