132 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



LIVE-BAITING. 



TACKLE AND HOOKS. 



Live baiting, or live bait fishing, divides itself -for all practical 

 purposes into two categories — the first, which may be called 

 snap live-baiting, where the fish is struck immediately, and the 

 second, which, but for the confusion of terms, might be called 

 live-gorge-baiting, where the fish is allowed to pouch or gorge 

 before striking. In both cases leads of some sort are used to 

 keep the baits down, and (although not always) floats to keep 

 them up ; as also to indicate the ' runs.' 



There are two methods of using the snap live-bait ordi- 

 narily practised, one with a float, and the other with what is 

 called a 'paternoster.' To deal first with float-fishing : — There 

 is little difference between this and ordinary float-fishing, ex- 

 cept in the strength of the tackle and size of the float used, 

 the object being; of course, to prevent the bait, which is often 

 ^ lb. or even \ lb. weight or more, from pulling it under water. 

 The hooks used are generally of gimp and a barrel-lead or 

 bullet is run on the line to i ft. or i^ ft. above the bait Sup- 

 posing the depth of water to be fished to be about 6 ft. and the 

 bait to swim about i\ ft. from the bottom, that would leave 

 about 3 ft. between the lead and the float and ij ft. in which 

 the bait could ' play.' 



A great variety of patterns of live-bait taclde are given by 

 various authors ; some of them tolerably good, others (and they 

 are the majority) execrably bad — whilst a few are simply impos- 

 sibilities, as no live-bait could survive their application more 

 than a few minutes. Here is an example of the last, taken from 



