BAIT-FISHING. 417 



jointed, with a handle which may be made to take on and 

 off for the sake of convenience ; and armed with a deep 

 net, which receives the fish. The hook is intended to 

 supply the place of the net, but is a clumsy substitute. 



The baits used for pickerel are exceedingly various, reach- 

 ing from the common lob-worm and ordinary hook — which 

 will often take the small-sized fish — through all the 

 degrees of live minnows and other fish, as well as frogs 

 and newts, dead minnows and shiners, artificial minnows 

 and shiners, and even the artificial fly. These various 

 baits are used also in almost as many different ways, of 

 which three have been already described in the list of 

 baits, under the heads of " The live Minnow-bait," " The 

 Spinning-minnow," and the "Grorge-hook bait." But be- 

 sides these, the snap-hook bait is employed at those times 

 when pickerel are shy of gorging, and inclined to eject the 

 bait, or blow it out, as the angler denominates this act. The 

 snap-hook is either the plain or the spring snap-hook, and 

 they are both used for live, as well as dead fish baits ; 

 though the spring snap-hook is very apt to destroy the 

 life of the fish very rapidly, and is a very cruel mode of 

 baiting. The plain snap is made in several ways as 

 follows : — First plan— two hooks, No. 4, should be tied back 

 to back, then to these tie another smaller hook, No. 8, 

 together with a piece of wire ending in an eye. To the 

 eye is whipped a piece of gimp, and the other end of this 

 has a loop by which it is attached to the hook-swivel in 

 the usual way. In fixing on the bait proceed as follows : 

 Take a good sized shiner, or small roach, or a perch 

 with the back fin removed, arm the gimp with a baiting- 

 18* 



