LIVE-BAITING. 167 



end of the line should be added 4 feet of salmon gut, slightly 

 stained ; and looped on to that 18 or 24 inches (according to depth 

 of water fished) of fine trout gut, with a \ oz. or f oz. plummet for 

 sinker ; should you get " hitched up " and fixed fast to any obstruc- 

 tion, you have only to use sufHcient strain to break the fine gut, and 

 all you lose is the plummet. Then at the loops connecting the 

 trout and salmon gut, attach a single paternoster hook of square bend, 

 size No. 10, bound on 12 inches of medium gimp — copper gimp pre- 

 ferred, as it does not Show so plainly in the water — and for the bait use 

 a live dace (in preference to a gudgeon) about 4^ inches long, hooked 

 carefully through both lips, it living longer than when hooked 

 through the upper lip only. Next draw off 8 or 10 yards of line 

 from the reel and fish all the nearest water, gathering up the line 

 slowly with the fingers into the palm of the left hand in a kind of 

 figure-of-eight (8) coil (a knack easily acquired by practice), slightly 

 lifting and dropping the point of the rod but always keeping a 

 moderately tight line, insinuating the bait into likely corners, eddies, 

 and between weeds, carefully searching all those places usually 

 frequented by pike. Then throw again " off the palm " to other 

 places, increasing the distances and pursuing this method until all 

 the water round has been thoroughly fished. A bite is known by 

 the bait being arrested or shaken, when a yard or two of line should 

 be paid out, three or four seconds allowed for the pike to turn the 

 bait head-first into his mouth, and a firm draw, rather than a strike, 

 given to drive the hook well home ; if the pike runs at once on 

 taking the bait, lift the point of the rod smartly and the fish will 

 be instantly hooked ; if in his rush he takes up all the line in your 

 hand you will have him on the reel, and it is well in playing a fish 

 to get the line as quickly as possible on the reel, as it prevents the 

 chance of getting your line kinked or in a tangle. 



' A fish under 3 lbs. carefully unhook and return to the water 

 uninjured ; in paternostering a pike generally gets hooked some- 

 where in the mouth, and is unhurt as he does not swallow the bait ; 

 moreover you get much better sport by paternostering, the fish 

 fighting against restraint only, and not suffering acute pain from 

 having the throat lacerated or the inside torn up, as is the case 

 when using dead or live-bait gorge, both of which are most cruel 

 and unsportsmanlike ways of fishing. 



' In spinning for pike, which perhaps nearer approaches the 

 elegance of fly-fishing than any other method, use a rod similar to 

 that for paternostering, a fine plaited Nottingham line waterproofed. 



