BAIT-FISHING. 491 
advantage, and a considerable increase to the interest of 
the sport. The principle consists in yielding to him for a 
time, by letting out the line as far as is prudent, and the 
absence of weeds, &c., will allow; and when otherwise, 
making the elastic power of the rod withstand his progress 
by advancing the butt. In this way he will at last be 
tired out, and may then be landed with safety by means 
of the landing-net. 
The snap-bait is employed only when the fish are wary 
and inclined to eject the ordinary kind, and it is used as 
follows :—I have already (on pages 417-18) described the 
mode of arming the hook with the bait, and also the pecu- 
liarly short and stiff top to the rod which is required. 
This last is necessary in order to give increased quickness 
to the stroke. The chief difference in this mode from 
that last described consists in the striking, which should 
be done the moment the pickerel seizes the bait, when, if 
successful, he may be landed or played according to cireum- 
stances, as before described, or if not too large, pulled out 
at once over the shoulder. Trolling, however, by means 
of the gorge-hook, is the most common mode of taking 
pickerel, and is also the most sportsmanlike, inasmuch as it 
is deprived of the stain of cruelty which attends upon live- 
bait fishing. It requires, as I have already observed, the 
full-sized trolling-rod, with long and strong line, a good- 
sized reel, free from multipliers, and all the apparatus 
peculiar to the gorge-hook—viz., cork-float, swivel-traces, 
gorge-hooks, and bait. When these are all artistically 
adjusted, the bait must be manceuvred in the manner 
already described for perch, and it will generally be 
