4292 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSM:N. 
successful where good fish 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. 
