THE BOOK OF THE PIKE 



the water inhabited. I have found a five-pound great 

 pike from the waters of Lake Superior good eating, a 

 twenty-one pounder very tasty, though slightly dry, 

 and I have enjoyed fried river pickerel when they were 

 taken from a one-time trout stream. I think, to bor- 

 row one of Walton's expressions regarding another 

 matter, he who turns down the great pike as an article 

 of food is "a little too superstitious." Unquestionably 

 no member of the pike family can be compared either 

 to the yellow perch, wall-eye — "pike-perch" or black 

 bass as a pan fish. However, later we may revert to 

 this question again, giving some cooking directions, 

 as I did in "Trout Lore," for the aristocrats of cold 

 water; for the pikes, as quaint Izaak observes, properly 

 cooked, are "choicely good." 



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