THE JACK. 201 



much discussion on this point, I have no doubt myself 

 it is because he thinks that the fish is in difficulties 

 of some kind or other, and so will be an easier prey. I 

 believe a jack with all bis cleverness, activity, and greedi- 

 ness, has often very hard work to earn an honest livelihood 

 by capturing live food, and the older he gets the more 

 his difficulties increase. The dace and roach and chub 

 are too quick for him. When, therefore, he sees a bait 

 "wobbling/'' as if in difficulties, or spinning round as if 

 seized with vertigo, I take it he says to himself, "' Here's 

 a chance," and forthwith avails himself of it, with a result 

 often more satisfactory to the angler than himself. 



Though particularly fond of jack-fishing, I do not look 

 on Esox lucius as a sporting fish of the first class. He 

 will not compare with the trout, and is any number of 

 degrees behind a barbel. It is true of almost all fish that 

 they do not show an increase of strength or determination 

 to resist capture in proportion to their weight and size. 

 This is particularly the case with jack, as far as my ex- 

 perience goes. A jack of from four to seven pounds will, 

 as a rule, show as much sport as one of ten to fifteen ; 

 and really when they are above eight pounds or so they 

 are very tame when hooked, and allow themselves to be 

 dragged almost like a mere log through the water. I 

 remember a particular instance of this at Cranford. My 

 live bait had been taken, and after giving the fish the 

 usual law for pouching I began to haul in. I felt something 

 very heavy on my line, but there was no rush or struggle. 

 I at once came to the conclusion that the fish had neg- 

 lected the bait, and that the hook had got foul of a 

 sunken hurdle or large branch of a tree. I hauled away 

 very gingerly, and when I had got in about thirty yards 



