A DAY WITH THE TRENT PIKE 113 



of the hole ; tries a little sulking ; but the tackle won't 

 allow these tactics to succeed ; so he caves in after a 

 gallant ten minutes' fight, and the landing-net encloses 

 a fine nine-pounder male. 



We get four fish out of this hole, but none of the others 

 exceed my friend's limit of five pounds, so we are content 

 with the sport, and return them to fight again on some 

 other occasion. 



Down stream we still go, alongside Kelham Hall estate, 

 and after unsuccessfully trying another deepish eddy, we 

 find the dogcart has arrived with our luncheon on board. 

 We spend half an hour over this, and then decide to spin 

 over a long length of slack water, the main stream just 

 there going over to the opposite bank. This proves very 

 nearly as unfruitful as the previous eddy did to the snap 

 tackle, until we reach some old timber that had once been 

 either a private wharf, or the ruins of some camp-shedding. 

 This looks a likely place, so the spuming tackle is cast out 

 right on the far side, and at the tail of the eddy just be- 

 tween the racing stream and the dimpling eddy the bait 

 is allowed to sink fairly deep down, and then spun home 

 in a series of sink-and-draw movements with the rod point 

 and the reel. At the third cast there is a vicious tug deep 

 down, and a heavy rolling draw, and as we tighten up, that 

 jack gives us a splendid challenge ; he hurls himself full 

 length from the water, and rolls into the heavy current 

 beyond. It is only a seven-pounder, but it fights as I 

 think a pike of mine never fought before ; he is game to 

 the very backbone ; and my friend and patron, who has 

 handed me the rod while he rests a bit, and is a looker-on 

 at the contest, vows if we land that pike it shall grace his 

 dining- table dressed out in all the delicacies of frills and 

 stuffing and sauces. He is as good as his word, and I have 

 the pleasure later on of sharing in that repast. 



Before the shades of evening settled down upon us we 

 got one more, the smallest of the lot, a five-and-a-half- 

 pound fish. This was also taken on spinning tackle, and 

 i 



