in the ground, or stump of a tree, near the pike's haunt, letting the line pass over the fork of a stick placed for that purpose, and suspending the hook by a yard of the line in the water; but so as when the pike bites the fork may give way, and let him have line enough to go to his hold and pouch the bait. If you bait with a frog, put the arming-wire in at his mouth, and out at his gill; then tie the frog's leg above the upper joint to the armed wire. Secondly, the walking-bait is that which the fisher attends to himself, and is called trowling, from the French of troller, to move or walk about. Before I proceed any further in this mode of angling for the pike, I shall give the angler a description of that kind of rod, line, and hooks necessary to be used. Your rod must be a strong one, and ringed for the line to pass through, and about three yards and a half long; your line, about thirty yards long, wound upon a winch, to be placed on the butt end of your rod, and with which you may always keep your line to any length; at the end of your line next your hook let there be a swivel. The hooks that are most general are the two following ones they are formed and baited in this manner. The first is no more than two single hooks (though you may buy them made of one piece of wire) tied back to back, with a strong piece of gimp between the shanks; in whipping the gimp and hooks together, make a small loop, and take into it two links of chain, about an eighth of an inch diameter; and in the lower link (by means of a staple of wire) fasten by the greater end a bit of lead, of a conical figure, and angular at the point. The second hook may be either single or double, with a long shank, and leaded

two 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 four inches long, and at the top of the wire, about half a yard of gimp, with a loop at the top of that; to bait this hook you must have a brass needle about seven inches long; put the loop of the gimp on the eye, or small curve of the needle, then thrust it into the mouth of the fish, and bring it out at his tail, drawing the gimp and wire along with it till the lead is fixed in the belly of the bait-fish, and the hook or hooks are come to his mouth; then turn the points of the hooks towards his eyes, if a double hook, but if a single one, directly in a line with his belly, and tie his tail to the arming-wire very neatly, with white thread :I always, whether the hook be double or single, put a small piece of a worm on the point or points of it; which prevents their pricking the pike, for if it does he will instantly leave it. To bait the former, 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 downwards, he will swim with nearly the same ease as if at liberty. Either of the former hooks being baited and fastened to the swivel, cast it into the water, and keep it in constant motion, sometimes letting it sink and at others raising it gradually, chiefly throwing it into the parts of the pond, meer, or river, where his haunts are most usual; as near banks, under stumps of trees, by the side of bulrushes, waterdocks, weeds, or bushes; but in any of these places you need never make above a trial or two for him, for if he is there he will instantly seize the bait. When you draw your bait near the bank, play it

longer there, first deep, then raise it higher and higher by degrees, till you bring it so near the top that you can see it glitter; take it not hastily out, because he often takes it near the top. When he has taken it, give him line, and let him run to his hold and pouch it; allow him in general five minutes' law, then strike him, and divert yourself with him as you please. But if after he has run on with the bait to his hold, and rests there but about a minute, and then runs quickly off with it again, do not strike him until he has rested a second time; and not then until the five minutes are expired, unless he runs off again before they are; which if he does, draw a tight line and strike him immediately; if he resists very much, give him line enough, which will soon exhaust his strength; and when you pull him towards you, do not do it violently; for if you do he will launch and plunge in such a manner, that though he may not be able to break your tackle, yet he will tear away his hold, nay even his entrails if he is hooked there; but if you feel him come easily towards you, wind up your line until you see him; then if he struggles again very much, give him line again, and so proceed till you have killed him by following which methods you will soon accomplish. The pike bites best from the middle of summer to the end of autumn, about three in the afternoon, in clear water, ruffled with a gentle gale, but in winter all day long; and in the spring he bites early in the morning and late in the evening. The best baits for him are small roaches, daces, bleaks, &c. if the day be dark and cloudy; but a gudgeon is the best, if the water is clear and the day bright and fine. Your live baits should be kept in a tin kettle, with holes

made in the lid that you may change your water often, which will keep them alive a long while; your dead ones in a tin box made for that purpose, with bran, which dries up the moisture that hangs about them, and contributes to preserve them longer. Angling for the pike at the snap is to let him run a little, and then to strike him the contrary way from whence he runs, with two strong jerks in this method you must use a double spring hook, which is to be had at any of the shops, and your tackle must be very strong. The snap is best used in March, when they are spawning, at which time they are sick and lose their stomach; though they will then take your bait, but immediately throw it out of their mouths: therefore striking them when they first take the bait is the only way to be even with them, which is called angling at snap. The way to bait the snap-hook is thus: make a hole with a sharp penknife in the side of the bait-fish; then put the gimp that is fastened to your hook into it, and draw it out at the mouth, till the spring hook comes to the place where the incision was made; which when it is, put it into the belly of the fish, then have a piece of lead about the size of a horse-bean, though of an oval form, with a hole through it from end to end large enough for the gimp to go through; draw it down to the fish's mouth, then put it in it, and sew it up. Or you may make an incision in the skin only, and draw the gimp out at the bone behind the gills, then enter it again under the gills, and bring it out at the mouth, which I think is the best method, because the hook has only the skin to hinder its fixing in the pike, whereas in the first method it must pierce through the flesh and skin before it

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can touch him, and if it is not very large may hook him so slightly as to spoil all your sport. There used to be a way also of taking a pike called huxing; but as the use of trimmers is now so generally known, it would be needless for me to insist further upon it.

I shall now communicate to the reader a method which I have taken more pikes and jacks with than any other way. The hook which you must use is to be like the first hook that I have mentioned, with this exception only, that the lead of a conical figure must be taken away: then, before you fix the swivel on the bottom of the line, put on a cork float that will swim a gudgeon, then put on your swivel, and fix your hook and gimp to it put a swan-shot on your gimp, to make your float cock a little, and of such a weight, that when the hook is baited with the gudgeon it may do so properly. Your gudgeons must be kept alive in a tin kettle: take one and stick the hook either through his upper lip or back-fin, and throw him into the likely haunts before-mentioned, swimming at mid-water. When the pike takes it, let him run a little, as at the snap, and then strike him. In this method of pike-fishing you may take three kinds of fish, viz. pikes, perches, and chubs.

Rules to be observed in trowling: September and October are the best months for trowling, because the weeds are then rotten, and the fishes are fat with the summer's feed. March is the best for the snap, because, as I have said before, they then spawn and are sick, and therefore never bite freely.

A large bait entices the pike to take it the most, but a small one takes him with greater certainty. Always, both at trowl and snap, cut away one of the fins, close at the fins of the bait-fish, and