HOOKING A TREE INSTEAD OF A PIKE. 193 



SNAGS. 



One of the most unpleasant drawbacks the worm- 

 fisher has to contend with, is the frequency with which 

 the hook gets entangled upon snags, roots, and other 

 impediments at the bottom of the water, giving rise to a 

 perpetual succession of lost hooks and broken lines, 

 besides taxing the sportsman's patience sometimes 

 beyond endurance, and too often relieved by a volley of 

 most unparliamentary language. 



Such mishaps are of very frequent occurrence in 

 some rivers, especially those whose course lies through 

 wooded districts, and which consequently get encum- 

 bered with the carcases of uprooted trees brought down 

 by every flood, forming a constant source of annoyance 

 to every uninitiated sportsman. I recollect a friend of 

 mine, while trolling for pike one day in a deep part of 

 the Till (a river much incommoded by sunken snags in 

 some parts), accidentally struck his hooks into the 

 stump of a sunken tree, and supposing his tackle to be 

 arrested by the jaws of a pike, waited anxiously, after 

 the orthodox eight minutes had elapsed, for -some 

 indication of the bait being gorged, which is usually 

 announced by the fish shifting his position on feeling 

 the barbs of the hooks tickle his stomach. But no, 

 the line remained motionless ; and my friend, being 

 convinced that nothing but the fangs of a sixteen- 

 pounder retained it in durance, was afraid to pull, in 

 case he should cause him to abandon it, and resolved to 



K 



