212 



NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. 



been taken. On twenty were jack of some kind, great or 

 small, and on one a grand perch nearly 4 lb. in weight. 

 This may suffice as to the net result of the day's — or 

 rather night's — trimmering ; but let it be added that it 

 is not every one, even if he had the best-stocked lake in 

 England put at his disposal, can do a bit of trimmering 

 successfully. There is a right and a wrong way of going 

 about this, as about everything else. Trimmering is even 

 a science, and not every one's work. Moreover, it is not 

 every one who knows how to play a jack on a trimmer, as 

 the arm, and, indeed, whole body has to be worked scien- 

 tifically when a big fish is hooked. Such a fish is very 

 easily lost by clumsiness and ungentle handling. 



Trimmering was a method of jack -fishing recognized by 

 our forefathers and foremothers, and even a cruel form of 

 it was considered " sport." Dame Juliana, immediately 

 after the passage above quoted on " live-bait " fishing, 

 adds, — 



" And if ye lyst to have a good sporte, thenne tye the corde to a 

 gose fote, and ye shall have a gode halyngne, whether the gose or the 

 pyke shall have the better." 



Old Barker, in his Delight, tells us that — ■ 



" The principal sport to take a pike is to take a goose or gander, or 

 duck ; take one of the pike lines, tie the line under the left wing, and 

 over the right wing, about the body, as a man weareth his belt ; turn 

 the goose off into the pond where the pikes are ; there is no doubt of 

 sport, with great pleasure, betwixt the goose and the pike ; it is the 

 greatest sport and pleasure that a noble gentleman in Shropshire doth 

 give his friends entertainment with." 



Here is the account of a tussle witnessed many years 

 ago between a gander and a pike : — • 



