PIKE-TACKLE. 35 



I once knew a very expensive salmon river in Ireland, where 

 the tenant calculated on paying half his rent by the sale of the 

 fish. In this instance the difficulty of disposing of the game 

 was very simply overcome : the contractor who bought the 

 salmon, went backwards and forwards between his house and 

 the river, and as fast as a fish was caught it was carried off and 

 put in ice ready for shipment to London or Dublin the same 

 evening. 



A few words here on gimp, and the way to select and stain 

 it, &C. 



Gimp — that is, or should be, a strand of the purest floss silk 

 lapped round with brass or copper wire of different thicknesses — 

 is an almost indispensable adjunct in most kinds of pike-tackle. 

 Its merit is, that whilst as pliant and as fine as the finest twisted 

 gut or silk line, it is practically impervious to the teeth of the 

 .ordinary run of pike. Various sizes of gimp are manufactured, 

 and of the thicknesses usually employed by fishermen the num- 

 bers run from 000, 'the finest,' to 3, ' the coarsest.' No. i is dupli- 

 cated, that is, there is, a fine No. i and a coarser No. i. This 

 ^ives seven numbers in all,' and between them the pike-fisher 

 need find no difficulty in selecting exactly what suits his pur- 

 pose. I never use anything thicker than the fine No. i myself, 

 and if the troller keeps the other three smaller sizes, that is 000, 

 00, and o, he will have abundant selection. As there are great 

 .differences in the quality of gimp, and consequently in the cost 

 of its production, it will be found the best plan in the long run 

 always to purchase the most expensive, as the differences 

 between good and bad gimp cannot readily be observed by the 

 eye, and are often not discovered until too late. The best 

 rough and ready method of testing its quality, and one which 

 I recommend all purchasers of gimp to resort to, is the very 

 simple one of trying its strength or weight-lifting power. As in 

 the case also of dressed silk troUing-lines, the fisherman will be 



^ These are the sizes and numbers of the best gimp as manufactured by 

 Messrs. Kenning, of Little Britain. London. 



D 2 



