igo PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



it well home to your boat or your feet before lifting it out of 

 water for a fresh throw. Each time that the bait is left to sink 

 after a 'lift,' a proportionate quantity of the line should be 

 pulled in with the left hand and allowed to coil at the troller's 

 feet ; the action being slower than, but of the same nature as, 

 that required in spinning. 



Upon a fish seizing the bait, the first notice which the 

 troller receives of the fact is the stoppage or check of the line, 

 very often hardly to be distinguished from that occasioned by 

 a weed, and followed generally by a few savage little tugs or 

 wrenches, which are produced by the jaws of the pike in his 

 efforts to kill his supposed victim. Sometimes, however, the 

 bait is taken by a heavy fish with a rush and jerk that well-nigh 

 twists the rod out of the troUer's hand. 



A capital description of the taking of the gorge-bait is given 

 by Mr. Stoddart in his ' Angler's Companion ' : — 



No one that ever felt the first attack of a pike at the gorge-bait 

 can easily forget it. It is not, as might be supposed from the cha- 

 racter of the fish, a bold, eager, voracious grasp ; quite the contrary, 

 it is a slow calculating grip. There is usually nothing about it 

 dashing or at all violent ; no stirring of the fins, no lashing of the 

 tail, no expressed fury or revenge. The whole is mouthwork — 

 calm, deliberate, bone-crushing, deadly mouthwork. You think at 

 the moment you hear the action — the clanging action, — of the 

 fish's jaw-bones ; and such jaw-bones, so powerful, so terrific ; 

 you think you hear the compressing, the racking of the victim be- 

 twixt them. The sensation is pleasurable to the angler as an 

 avenger. Who among our gentle craft ever pitied a pike 1 I can 

 fancy one lamenting over a salmon, or the star-stoled trout, or the 

 playful minnow ; nay, I have heard of those who, on being bereft 

 of a gold fish, actually wept ; but a pike ! itself unpitying, unspar- 

 ing, who would pity ? who spare .■'... 



I no sooner felt the well-known intimation, than drawing out 

 line from my reel and slightly slackening what had already passed 

 the top ring of my rod, I stood prepared for further movements on 

 the part of the fish. After a short time he sailed slowly about, 

 confining his excursions to within a yard or two of the spot where 

 he had originally seized the bait. It was evident, as I knew from 



