236 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



boiled, &c. ; but I say don't be deluded into doing anything of the 

 sort, for I have tried it, and boiling ever so little makes it very 

 soft, and it won't stop on the hook at all. I say do nothing more, 

 to it than I have recommended above. After it is washed and 

 clean it is ready for use, and for this.bait a No. 4 hook is the best. 

 Cut off a piece of pith about the size of a hazel nut and put the 

 hook through and through - it several times till you have worked 

 the pith up the shank ; it will then stop on the hook very well. 

 When you have a bite with this bait play your fish very carefully, 

 for I have found that two out of three of the fish so caught have 

 only been hooked by the skin at the side of the mouth. This is a 

 clinking bait to use in the depth of winter, when the snow lies 

 deep on the ground, and when the thermometer indicates a few 

 degrees below freezing point. Indeed, I think it is useless to try 

 it unless there is a little frost.' 



OTHER BAITS. 



The white larva of the wasp, or wasp grub, which is found 

 in the comb in a mummified (might I say com-atose ?) state, 

 is often a successful bait for roach, dace, chub, bream, &c. 

 It is, however, difficult, from its delicate nature, to keep it very 

 satisfactorily on the hook, and for this purpose some authors 

 have recommended that it should be slightly baked before use, 

 whilst others have considered that in order to ' snatch a grace 

 beyond the reach of art ' the head of the parbaked grub should 

 be dipped in some red stain, or bullock's blood, if I remember 

 the actual prescription rightly. 



Wasp grubs are plentiful during the summer and early 

 autumn months, and the only difficulty is how to become 

 possessed of them without inviting attentions of a personal 

 character from the bereaved progenitors. Having suffered many 

 things, many times, myself in the process I will give a recipe 

 for obtaining them, which is both simple and perfect. Having 

 marked, during the day, the position of the wasp's nest — a levei 

 ground being preferable from chbice — make up a sort of large 

 squib of powdered sulphur and gunpowder in equal parts, 

 thoroughly mixed up in a pestle with sufficient water to give it the 

 consistency of thick paste. Roll the mixture up to the thick^ 



