LIVE-BAITING. 171 



other side. The result is thus described by Mr. W. B. Lord, 

 R.A., in one of his charming sketches of seaside fishing : — 



Some of my readers will remember a most amusing fishing 

 match by Mr. Frank Buckland — fine versus coarse tackle — which 

 appeared in the columns of the Field, the champion knights, Mr. 

 H. Cholmondeley-Pennell, fine gut paternoster, dressed silk line, 

 and jack rod ; Mr. F. Buckland, ordinary coarse tackle and hand 

 line ; Robinson Crusoe, ditto. The result was, as our Yankee 

 friends would say, ' the tallest kind of caution.' The knight of the 

 jack rod and gut line being triumphantly victorious, and beating 

 both his antagonists, together with the united crews of two or three 

 boats anchored near them, out of the lists ! 



LIVE GORGE-BAITING. 



The live gorge-bait cannot be considered quite so sporting 

 a way of fishing as live snap-baiting, inasmuch as when once 

 the fish has pouched the bait his chance of escaping being 

 brought to basket is or ought to be nil. It has in this respect 

 the same disadvantage as trolling with the dead gorge-bait, with 

 the difference that whereas the dead gorge-bait is a method of 

 pike-fishing which may be used when practically none other is 

 available, the .live gorge-bait is only available in the same place 

 as the live snap-bait, unless, indeed, in ponds or lakes where, 

 whatever the nature of the sport may be, the angler lays out a 

 bait for pike and wanders off in search of the sport more im- 

 mediately aimed at— a sort of 'leave-the-rod-to-fish-for-itself 

 performance, not very far removed from trimmering. 



A Nemesis sometimes attends this sort of ' hedging ' arrange- 

 ment ; unless special precautions are taken it does not happen 

 so rarely as once in a century that a large fish carries off alto- 

 gether the derelict rod and that which pertaineth to it. Some- 

 times it is the subject of experiments by a herd of inquisitive 

 cows, and there is a still ulterior contingency, which is too 

 serious to joke about, namely, that persons of indistinct per- 

 ceptions as to meum and tuum may save the proper owner 

 further anxiety as to the custody of his pet trolling rod. 



