422 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPOKTSMEN. 



successful where good fisli abound, and the fishing for 

 them is attempted at the proper season. The butt of the 

 rod should be rested against the thigh or groin, and it 

 should be grasped by the hand about 18 inches higher up, 

 which will give the angler great power over his rod, and 

 also leave the left hand at liberty to manage the line, a 

 loop or two of which should be held in that hand, ready to 

 " pay out," as the sailors say, when the bait is cast. When 

 a pickerel has seized the bait, wait patiently, as already 

 recommended, and the average time necessary for this 

 exercise of patience will be about six minutes ; then strike, 

 and play, or not, as before mentioned. 



In removing the bait from the mouth of the pickerel 

 after landing him, be careful of his jaws and teeth, which 

 sometimes inflict severe wounds. The first thing to be done 

 is to knock him on the head, which will enable you to 

 recover your hooks and gimp at your leisure, whereas by 

 attempting, by means of the disgorger, to remove them 

 •while he is alive, great risk is incurred not only to them, 

 but to your own fingers. After he is quite dead, open the 

 mouth, and if the bait is still there, after propping the 

 mouth open, liberate the hooks with the knife, and remove 

 the bait ; but if this has been swallowed, make an incision 

 into the stomach, and remove them through it. Very 

 often the process is a delicate and tedious one, and many 

 fish will require to be slit open from the mouth to the 

 stomach before the hooks can be removed. An implement 

 called the spoon is sold at all tackle shops, which super- 

 sedes the use of bait, but it is so deadly that it is held by 

 sportsmen mere poaching to use it. 



