172 ALLOW TIME FOR GORGING THE BAIT. 



are in a safe water. On the whole, you will find 

 the greatest advantage result from giving plenty 

 of leisure for the fish to swallow the bait : you 

 ensure the prize, because if he has pouched he 

 cannot escape, and if he has not pouched, you 

 ought not to disturb him. When a jack evinces 

 his bulk, by the agitation of the water, or by 

 rising so near the surface after your bait as to be 

 distinctly seen, and after stopping for a few 

 seconds, shakes your line and runs off, you may 

 be tolerably certain that he has pouched, and is 

 desirous to eject the bait, which, if you use a 

 double gorge-hook, he cannot possibly do." 



The following few lines, containing the opinions 

 of more writers than one, touching the time of 

 striking at pike, are worthy of attention. When 

 you have a run, or in other words, when a pike or 

 jack has seized your bait, lower the point of the 

 rod towards the water, and at the same time draw 

 the line gradually from the reel with your left 

 hand, so that nothing may impede or check the 

 progress of the fish in carrying the bait to its hole 

 in order to pouch it. Do not strike until the 

 pike has had possession of the bait about seven 

 minutes, or till the line shakes or moves in the 

 water, then wind up the slack line, and turn the 

 rod, so that the reel may be uppermost instead of 

 underneath, and strike, but not with violence. Mr. 

 Taylor, in his to a certain extent useful book, says, 



