42 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



is a minnow. Indeed, it was mentioned to me by Lord Har- 

 rington that he has a sheet of water in Cheshire containing 

 some exceedingly fine pike which are not to be tempted with 

 any other spinning-bait. 



It has been recommended by some authors that spin- 

 ning-baits should be allowed to stiffen before being used, and 

 others have stated that the keeping them in salt, or ' pickle,' for 

 a day or two improves their flavour. Certainly it has been 

 well said, ' there is no accounting for taste ! ' Not only does a 

 fresh bait spin better than a stale one, but the lack of elasticity 

 and general ' flabbiness ' of the stale bait to a great extent 

 destroy its life-likeness, whilst its scales lose their metallic 

 brilliance, and the eye — the most prominent feature in all 

 spinning-baits — becomes shrunken and lustreless. Fish, as it 

 has been truly remarked, are not aldermen, and, unless it be 

 the eel, none that I know of prefer their food high. 



If possible, therefore, spinning-baits, and, it is needless to 

 add, live-baits also, should be kept alive, and carried with him 

 by the troller. The bait-can, or other receptacle, can then be 

 placed in the water from time to time, which reduces the chance 

 of the theory of the survival of the fittest being worked out in 

 a manner only too complete and unanswerable. 



When, however, it is desired to preserve baits alive for any 

 considerable length of time, they ought to be placed in a 

 running stream, if practicable in a box not less than two or 

 three feet square with free gratings in several places, and 

 specially at both ends, the grated ends being anchored up and 

 down stream. The upper portions of the box, also perforated, 

 ought by rights to be partly out of the water, and the whole 

 should be kept clean and well scoured from time to time. 

 Dead baits should be removed from the box periodically, or as 

 soon as discovered, and food in the form of worms, gentles, or 

 chopped liver, scattered in every day or two. This latter is an 

 important part of the business, as baits cannot live and thrive 

 for any considerable length of time without food, although by 

 their practice many fishermen appear to believe that they can. 



