that the Pike ever likes best. And thus use your frog, that he may continue long alive :

Put your hook into his mouth, which you may easily do from the middle of April till August; and then the frog's mouth grows up, and he continues so for at least six months without eating,but is sustained none but He whose name is Wonderful knows how : I say, put your hook, I mean the arming wire, through his mouth, and out at his gills; and then with a fine needle and silk sew the upper part of his leg, with only one stitch, to the arming wire of your hook; or tie the frog's leg above the upper joint to the armed wire; and, in so doing, use him as though you loved him, that is, harm him as little as you may possible that he may live the longer.*

And now, having given you this direction for the baiting your ledger hook with a live fish or frog, my next must be to tell you how your hook, thus baited, must or may be used; and it is thus having fastened your hook to a line, which, if it be not fourteen yards long, should not be less than twelve, you are to fasten that line to any bough near to a hole where a Pike is, or is likely to lie, or to have a haunt: and then wind your line on any forked stick, all your line except half a yard of it or rather more; and split that forked stick, with such a nick, or notch, at one end of it as may keep the line from any more of it ravelling from about the stick than so much of it as you intend. And choose your forked stick to be of that bigness as may keep the fish or frog from pulling the forked stick under the water till the Pike bites; and then the Pike having pulled the line forth of the cleft or nick of that stick in which it was gently fastened, he will have line enough to go to his hold and pouch the bait. And if you would have this ledger bait to keep at a fixed place, undisturbed by wind or other accidents which may drive it to the shore side (for you are to note, that it is likeliest to catch a Pike in the midst of the water,) then hang a small plummet of lead, a stone, or piece of tile, or a turf, in a string, and cast into the water with the forked stick to hang upon the ground, to be a kind of anchor to keep the forked stick from moving out of your intended place till the Pike come: this I take to be a very good way to use so many ledger baits, as you intend to make trial of.

Or if you bait your hooks thus with live fish or frogs, and in a windy day, fasten them thus to a bough or bundle of straw, and by the help of that wind can get them to move across a pond or mere, you are like to stand still on the shore and see sport presently, if there be any store of Pikes. Or these live baits

It is upon this that Lord Byron founds his charge of cruelty against Walton, not altogether, I must confess, without plausible reason.-J. R.

may make sport, being tied about the body or wings of a goose or duck, and she chased over a pond.* And the like may be done with turning three or four live baits thus fastened to bladders, or boughs, or bottles of hay or flags, to swim down a river, whilst you walk quietly alone on the shore, and are still in expectation of sport. The rest must be taught you by practice; for time will not allow me to say more of this kind of fishing with live baits.

And for your dead bait for a Pike: for that you may be taught by one day's going a-fishing with me, or any other body that fishes for him; for the baiting your hook with a dead Gudgeon or a Roach, and moving it up and down the water, is too easy a And yet thing to take up any time to direct you to do it. because I cut you short in that, I will commute for it by telling you that that was told me for a secret-it is this:

Dissolve gum of ivy in oil of spike, and therewith anoint your dead bait for a Pike: and then cast it in a likely place; and when it has lain a short time at the bottom, draw it towards the top of the water, and so up the stream: and it is more than likely that you have a Pike follow with more than common eagerness.

And some affirm, that any bait anointed with the marrow of the thigh bone of a hern is a great temptation to any fish.† These have not been tried by me, but told me by a friend of note, that pretended to do me a courtesy. But if this direc

* A rod twelve feet long, and a ring of wire,
A winder and barrel, will help thy desire

In killing a Pike; but the forked stick,

With a slit and a bladder, and that other fine trick,
Which our artists call snap, with a goose or a duck,
Will kill two for one, if you have any luck;

The gentry of Shropshire do merrily smile,
To see a goose and a belt the fish to beguile.
When a Pike suns himself, and a frogging doth go,
The two-inched hook is better, I know,

Than the ordinary snaring. But still I must cry, "When the Pike is at home, mind the cookery." BARKER'S Art of Angling. + If this be so, it must arise, I think, from its fishy smell giving token of a goodly morsel of food, the undoubted cause of Salmon roe being so good a bait.-J. R.

The Pike loves a still, shady, unfrequented water, and usually lies amongst or near weeds; such as flags, bulrushes, candocks, reeds, or in the green fog that sometimes covers standing waters, though he will sometimes shoot out into the clear stream. He is sometimes caught at the top, and in the middle; and often, especially in cold weather, at the bottom. Their time of spawning is about the end of February or the beginning of March; and chief season, from the end of May to the beginning of February.

Pikes are called Jacks till they become twenty-four inches long.

The baits for Pike, besides those mentioned by Walton, are a small Trout; the Loach and Miller's-thumb the head end of an Eel, with the skin taken off below the fins; a small Jack; a Lob-worm; and, in winter, the fat of bacon, And notwithstanding what Walton and others say

tion to catch a Pike thus do you no good, yet I am certain this direction how to roast him when he is caught is choicely good;

against baiting with a Perch, it is confidently asserted, that Pikes have been taken with a small Perch, when neither a Roach nor Bleak would tempt them. See the Angler's Sure Guide, 158.

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. - Venables.

It is strange that Walton has said so little of trolling, a method of fishing for Pike which has been thought worthy of a distinct treatise; for which method, and for the snap, take these directions and first for trolling:

And note, that 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.

To bait the hook, observe the directions given by Walton.

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 eight 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.

The latter kind of hook is to be thus ordered; namely, put the lead into the mouth of the bait-fish, and sew 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 will troll with a dead bait, as some do, for a reason which the angler will be glad to know, namely, that a living bait makes too great a slaughter among the fish, do it with a hook, of which the following paragraph contains a description:

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 circumstance that renders the trouble of tying the tail unnecessary.

There is yet another sort of trolling-hook, which is, indeed, no other

for I have tried it, and it is somewhat the better for not being common. But with my direction you must take this caution, 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 baitfish 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, 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 it 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.

The other way of taking Pike, namely, with the snap, is as follows:Let the rod be twelve feet long, very strong and taper, with a strong loop at the top to fasten your line to. Your line must be about a foot shorter than the rod, and much stronger than the trolling line.

And here it is necessary to be remembered, that there are two ways of snapping for Pike, namely, with the live and with the dead snap.

For the live snap, there is no kind of hook so proper as the double spring hook. To bait it, nothing more is necessary than to hang the bait-fish fast by the back fin to the middle hook, where he will live a long time.

Of hooks for the dead snap, there are many kinds: but the one which, after repeated trials, has been found to excel all others hitherto known, we subjoin the description and use of as follows, namely, Whip two hooks, of about three-eighths of an inch in the bent, to a piece of gimp, in the manner directed for that trolling-hook. Then take a piece of lead, of the same size and figure as directed for the trolling-hook above mentioned; and drill a hole through it from end to end. To bait it, take a long needle or wire; enter it in at the side, about half an inch above the tail, and with it pass the gimp between the skin and the ribs of the fish, bringing it out at his mouth then put the lead over the gimp, draw it down into the fish's throat, and press his mouth close, and then, having a swivel to your line, hang on the gimp.

In throwing the bait, observe the rules given for trolling; but remember, that the more you keep it in motion, the nearer it resembles a living fish.

When you have a bite, strike immediately, the contrary way to that which the head of the Pike lies, or to which he goes with the bait; if you cannot find which way his head lies, strike upright with two smart jerks, retiring backwards as fast as you can, till you have brought him to a landing place, and then do as before is directed.

There are various other methods, both of trolling and fishing at the snap, which, if the reader is desirous to know, he may find described in the Complete Troller, by Ro. Nobbes, 12mo. 1682, and the Angler's Sure Guide, before mentioned.

As the Pike spawns in March, and before that month rivers are seldom in order for fishing, it will hardly be worth while to begin trolling till April; after that the weeds will be apt to be troublesome. But the prime month in the year for trolling is October; when the Pike are fattened by their summer's feed, the weeds are rotted, and by the falling of the waters the harbours of the fish are easily found.

that your Pike must not be a small one, that is, it must be more than half a yard, and should be bigger.*

First, open your Pike at the gills, and, if need be, cut also a little slit towards the belly. Out of these take his guts; and keep his liver, which you are to shred very small, with thyme, sweet marjoram, and a little winter savory; to these put some pickled oysters, and some anchovies, two or three, both these last whole, for the anchovies will melt, and the oysters should not; to these you must add also a pound of sweet butter, which you are to mix with the herbs that are shred, and let them all be well salted. If the Pike be more than a yard long, then you may put into these herbs more than a pound, or if he be less, then less butter will suffice: These, being thus mixed, with a blade or two of mace, must be put into the Pike's belly and then his belly so sewed up as to keep all the butter in his belly if it be possible; if not, then as much as you possibly can. take not off the scales. Then you are to thrust the spit through his mouth, out at his tail. And then take four or five, or six split sticks, or very thin laths, and a convenient quantity of tape or filleting; these laths are to be tied round about the Pike's body, from his head to his tail, and the tape tied somewhat thick, to prevent his breaking or falling off from the spit. Let him be roasted very leisurely; and often basted with claret wine and anchovies and butter mixed together; and also with what moisture falls from him into the pan. When you have roasted him sufficiently, you are to hold under him, when you unwind or cut the tape that ties him, such a dish as you purpose to eat him out of; and let him fall into it with the sauce that is

But

Choose to troll in clear, and not muddy water, and in windy weather, if the wind be not easterly.

Some use in trolling and snapping two or more swivels to their line, by means whereof the twisting of the line is prevented, the bait plays more freely, and, though dead, is made to appear as if alive; which in rivers is doubtless an excellent way: but those who can like to fish in ponds or still waters, will find very little occasion for more than one.

The Pike is also to be caught with a Minnow; for which method take the following directions:

Get a single hook, slender, and long in the shank; let it resemble the shape of a shepherd's crook; put lead upon it, as thick near the bent as will go into a Minnow's mouth. Place the point of the hook directly up the face of the fish. Let the rod be as long as you can handsomely manage, with a line of the same length. Cast up and down, and manage it as when you troll with any other bait. If, when the Pike hath taken your bait, he run to the end of the line before he hath gorged it, do not strike, but hold still only, and he will return back and swallow it. But if you use that bait with a troll, I rather prefer it before any bait that I know. - Venables.

In landing a Pike, great caution is necessary; for his bite is esteemed venomous. The best and safest hold you can take of him is by the head; in doing which, place your thumb and finger in his eyes,

In the Royal Cookery, by P. Lamb, Esq. master cook to Queen Anne, I find fifteen ways of dressing Pike, most of them requiring wine either for sauce or for boiling. It reminds one of Lord Blayney's hams boiled in champaign.-J. R.