LIVE-BAITING. 139 



larger baits are necessary, and I have known several cases in 

 which fish of half a pound and upwards were commonly used, 

 recourse should be had to the live-bait gorge-tackle. 



Where pike are over-fed or obstinately shy of the ordinary 

 bait, it would be as well to try them with gold-fish, with which 

 I have succeeded in catching pike under circumstances that 

 gave me considerable faith in them. If gold-fish are not forth- 

 coming, a small carp will also form a variety and be found a 

 killing as well as a long-lived bait. To quote from myself — if 

 it is permissible — ' the principle which is so generally admitted 

 in the case of men and the higher animals, holds good also in 

 that of fish : if you want to attract them and stir their appetites, 

 offer them a novelty — no matter what — but something that 

 they have not been accustomed to. Thus, as a rule, were I 

 fishing a river in which there were no "ground swimmers," I 

 should try a gudgeon ; if there were no surface swimmers, a 

 dace or a bleak ; and so on. 



' How, if not upon this principle, is to be explained the 

 indisputable fact that the " spoon," at first so deadly both for 

 pike and trout, is now almost disused on many waters where it 

 was originally most successful? Indeed, so convinced am I 

 that " novelty hath charms " even for the rugged breast of the 

 pike that I have more than once been on the point of rigging 

 up a plated fork instead of a spoon, to try conclusions with !' 



In stew ponds, where pike are kept and regularly fed, not 

 only eels, but also frogs form a most acceptable variation of the 

 dietary. A friend of mine, when living not far fronf Great 

 Marlow, had in his gardens a stew pond which was kept well 

 stocked with pike by supernumerary captures out of the neigh- 

 bourmg Thames. Some of these jack were of easily recog- 

 nisable size and had their own names, to which, indeed, local 

 tradition said that tliey were in the habit of responding when 

 called. I have often watched Thomas, the tyrant undisputed 

 of this small watery domain, and I have noticed that the 

 observation was mutual. I have watched to see whether the 

 state of domesticity, so to speak, would have any corresponding 



