THE JACK. 207 



This record of a day's jack-fishing, does not, of course, 

 pretend to be anything very extraordinary. Many better 

 days have been had and are had occasionally, though very 

 many worse. Not long ago was enjoyed a day's fishing in 

 "private" waters by a sporting Billingsgate salesman 

 and a friend. They killed eight jack, weighing 78 lbs., 

 the largest scaling 11 lbs., and thus showing an average 

 of nearly 10 lbs. each. Since then two gentlemen took 

 2 cwts. of jack in a well-known bit of water, near 

 Luton ; while Mr. Francis has put on record 3 cwts. as 

 the result of a day's "jacking " executed by himself and 

 a friend. But few and far between are such days now, or 

 anything like them. Fishermen have so increased in 

 number of late years, and every inch of water which can 

 be got at by hook or by crook is so " hunted to death," 

 that were it not for strictly " private " waters, and stern 

 proprietors who will only give very special friends a day 

 just now and then, jack-fishing, or at lest jack-catching, 

 would be in danger of becoming a sport of the past. 

 By the way I must note here a curious fact* concerning 



the partiality of the fish at , for a certain bait. We 



had brought with us for our day's fishing just mentioned 

 some splendid gudgeon and dace ; but we found by experi- 

 ment that the jack preferred the small, ill-conditioned 



roach of the water, which were covered with black scabs, 

 probably some parasite. Perhaps these gave the bait 

 some piquant flavour ; but however this may be, the fact 

 of the jack preferring them to our dainty bait is contrary 

 to the experience of almost every jack-fisher, who knows 

 that a new bait to a stagnant water jack is especially 

 provocative of his appetite. 



By way of a few miscellaneous jottings on jack-fishing — 



