CHAP. VIII.] THE FOURTH DAT, 201 



These have not been tried by me, but told me by a friend 

 of note, that pretended to do me a courtesy. 1 But if this 



one bird will destroy nine thousand fish in a year. Ephemera says here 

 that "Anointing any fish dead-bait for pike or for perch, or any other 

 fish, is more superfluous, if possible, than gilding the purest Australian 

 gold nugget." But we have nevertheless unequivocal evidence that 

 bait anointed with oil of ivy has, in some instances, proved very effi- 

 cacious. ED. 



1 The Pike loves a still, shady, unfrequented water, and usually lies 

 amongst, or near weeds ; such as flags, bulrushes, candocks, reeds, or in 

 the green fog that sometimes covers standing waters, though he will some- 

 times shoot out into the clear stream. He is, sometimes, caught at the 

 top ; sometimes in the middle ; and often, especially in cold weather, at 

 the bottom. Their time of spawning, is about the end of February or the 

 beginning of March ; and, chief season, from the end of May to the 

 beginning of February. Pikes are called jacks, till they become twenty- 

 four inches long. 



THK BAITS FOR PIKE, besides those mentioned by Walton ; are a small 

 trout ; the loach and miller 1 s-thumb ; the head end of an eel, with the skin 

 taken off" below the fins ; a small jack ; a lob-worm ; and, in winter, the 

 fat of bacon. Pork is an excellent bait. And, notwithstanding what 

 Walton and others say against baiting with a perch, it is confidently 

 asserted, that pikes have been taken with a small perch, cutting off 

 dorsal fins, when neither a roach nor bleak would tempt them. 



Observe that all your baits for pike must be as fresh as possible. Living 

 baits you may take with you in a tin kettle, changing the water often : 

 and dead ones should be carried in fresh bran, which will dry up that 

 moisture that otherwise would infect and rot them. 



It is strange that Walton has said so little of TROLLING ; a method of 

 fishing for pike, which has been thought worthy of a distinct treatise ; 

 for which method, and for the snap, take these directions. 



IN TROLLING, the head of the bait-fish must be at the bent of the 

 hook ; whereas, in fishing at the snap, the hook must come out at or 

 near his tail. But the essential difference between these two methods 

 is that, in the former, the pike is always suffered to pouch or swallow 

 the bait ; but, in the latter, you are to strike as soon as he has taken 

 it. Some use what is called a spring snap-hook, so arranged with a spring 

 that on the line being tightened the hooks spring apart and enter the pike's- 

 jaws. [The spring-snap is generally used with a dead-bait, a roach being the 

 best one for the purpose. The snap-hooks are best in the summer months, 

 when pike, finding plenty of fish-food in the rivers are very shy of the 

 angler's lures. If at such periods pike seize your bait, they often reject it 

 without pouching, so that it is necessary to strike immediately. ED.] 



THE ROD FOR TROLLING should be about three yards and a half long, 

 with a ring at the top for the line to run through ; or you may fit a 

 trolling-top to your fly-rod, which need only be stronger than the 

 common fly-top. Let your line be of green or sky-coloured silk, thirty 

 yards in length, which will make it necessary to use the winch, as is before 

 directed, with a swivel at the end. 





