AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
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small perch, when neither a roach nor bleak would tempt 
them.* 
Observe that all your baits for Pike must be as fresh as 
possible. Living baits you may take with you in a tin 
kettle, changing the water often: and dead ones should be 
carried in fresh bran, which will dry up that moisture 
that otherwise would infect and rot them. 
In trolling, the head of the bait-fish must be at the bent 
of the hook; whereas in fishing at the snap, the hook must 
come out at or near his tail. But the essential difference 
between these two methods is, that in the former the 
Pike is always suffered to pouch or swallow the bait: but 
in the latter you are to strike as soon as he has taken it. 
The rod for trolling should be about three yards and a 
half long, with a ring at the top for the line to run 
through; or you may fit a trolling-top to your fly rod, 
which need only be stronger than the common fly-top. 
Let your line be of green or sky-coloured silk, thirty 
yards in length, which will make it necessary to use 
the winch, as is before directed, with a swivel at the end. 
The common trolling-hook for a living bait consists 
of two large hooks, with one common shank, made of 
one piece of wire, of about three-quarters of an inch 
long, placed back to back, so that the points may not 
stand in a right line, but incline so much inwards as that 
they with the shank may form an angle little less than 
equilateral. At the top of the shank is a loop, left in 
the bending the wire to make the hook double, through 
which is put a strong twisted brass wire, of about six 
inches long; and to this is looped another such link, but 
both so loose that the hook and lower link may have 
room to play. To the end of the line fasten a steel swivel. 
But there is a sort of trolling-hook, different from that 
already described and to which it is thought preferable, 
which will require another management: this is no more 
than two single hooks tied back to back, with a strong 
piece of gimp between the shanks. In the whipping 
the hooks and the gimp together, make a small loop; and 
take into it two links of chain, of about an eighth of an 
inch diameter, and into the lower link, by means of a 
small staple of wire, fasten by the greater end a bit of 
lead of a conical figure, and somewhat sharp at the 
point. These hooks are to be had at the fishing tackle 
shops ready fitted up. 
* A frog skinned, will, by the whiteness of its flesh, tempt Pike, 
when other measures fail, but it must be kept in motion, and when 
seized, will be carried slowly to the bottom by the fish: you must suf- 
fer it to remain several minutes before you strike, for, should the Pike 
not be very greedy, he will keep it in his jaws some time before he 
swallows it. — F. d. 
The latter kind of hook is to be thus ordered, viz: put 
the lead into the mouth of the bait-fish, and sow it up; 
the fish will live some time; and though the weight of 
the lead will keep his head down, he will swim with 
near the same ease as if at liberty. 
But if you troll with a dead bait, as some do, for a reason 
which the angler will be glad to know, viz: that a living 
bait makes too great a slaughter among the fish, do it with 
a hook, of which the following paragraph contains a de- 
scription: 
Let the shank be about six inches long, and leaded from 
the middle as low as the bent of the hook, to which a 
piece of very strong gimp must be fastened by a staple, 
and two links of chain; the shank must be barbed like a 
dart, and the lead a quarter of an inch square: the barb of 
the shank must stand like the fluke of an anchor, which is 
placed in a contrary direction to that of the stock. Let 
the gimp be about a foot long; and to the end thereof fix a 
swivel. To bait, it thrust the barb of the shank into the 
mouth of the bait-fish, and bring it out at his side near the 
tail: when the barb is thus brought through, it cannot 
return, and the fish will lie perfectly straight, a circum- 
stance that renders the trouble of tying the tail unne- 
cessary. 
There is yet another sort of trolling-hook, which is, in- 
deed, no other than what most writers on this subject have 
mentioned; whereas the others, here described, are late 
improvements: and this is a hook, either single or double, 
with a long shank, leaded about three inches up the wire 
with a piece of lead about a quarter of an inch square at the 
greater or lower end: fix to the shank an armed wire about 
eight inches long. To bait this hook, thrust your wire 
into the mouth of the fish, quite through his belly, and 
out at his tail; placing the wire so that the point of the hook 
may be even with the belly of the bait-fish; and then tie 
the tail of the fish with strong thread to the wire: some 
fasten it with a needle and thread, which is a neat way. 
Both with the troll and at the snap, cut away one of the 
fins of the bait-fish close at the gills, and another behind 
the vent on the contrary side, which will make it play the 
better. 
The bait being thus fixed, is to be thrown in, and kept 
in constant motion in the water, sometimes suffered to 
sink, then gradually raised: now drawn with the stream, 
and then against it; so as to counterfeit the motion of a 
small fish in swimming. If a Pike is near, he mistakes the 
bait for a living fish, seizes if with prodigious greediness, 
goes off with it to his hole, and in about ten minutes 
pouches it. When he has thus swallowed the bait, you 
will see the line move, which is the signal for striking him ; 
do this with two lusty jerks, and then play him. 
