THE PIKE 



377 



An experimental Broadsman told me he once got some 

 pike spawn from some alder roots by a reed-bush, and took 

 it to a dike where reed grew, and the spawn couldn't get 

 away, and that in three weeks they were an inch long. 



A curious fact as regards pike is their taking up stations. 

 Should a big pike be caught in a certain part of a broad or 

 mere, another (the next in size in the district) will take his 

 place ; and if he be caught, another takes his place, and 

 so on. 



On the tidal rivers the pike go up the dikes on the floods 

 to get out of the way of the salts. 



For the table, a winter pike, weighing six or seven pounds, 

 is the best ; and for a big pike's food, a half-pound pike is the 

 best bait. All fresh-water fish are best to eat in the coldest 

 months of the year — November to March — whilst many, as 

 bream and roach, are unfit for food in the summer months ; 

 they get soft and muddy, whereas in cold weather their flesh 

 is firm and full of flavour. 



And the best way I know of cooking a pike is to clean 

 him, being careful to scrape his backbone as clean as a 

 hound's tooth ; then place him in brine to soak for an hour ; 

 then rinse him well in pure water, and hang him up in the 

 open air to drain. If this be done at night he will be ready 

 for breakfast the next morning, when you must cut him into 

 sections ; roll them in beaten-up eggs first, and then in flour, 

 and pop the morsels into boiling oil (Lazenby's olive-oil) ; 

 and when the morsel is a rich golden brown, take it out and 

 let it drain on blotting-paper, then serve, and tell me when 

 you have eaten a better dish. 



In winter pike are poached in a curious fashion by the 

 Broadsmen, for they often draw up into the dikes after the 

 bait, because they can catch them easier there. You may 

 see this going on whilst gulls too are poaching small fry 

 that have jumped up on the ice and got frozen in. But let 

 us watch the men-poachers. 

 The frosts have come early and bound the waters as with 



