SPINNING, : 197 
Indeed it may be said that the reed and the lily are 
to the Pike what the hollybush is to the woodcock. In 
lochs and meres it commonly frequents the most shoal 
and weedy parts, small inlets, and little bays, or the 
mouths of streams where minnows or other fry congre- 
gate; and in rivers, back-waters and dam-heads, eddies 
between two streams, or in fact any water that is weedy, 
of moderate depth, and not too much acted upon by the 
current. 
As a general rule, Pike will be found during the sum- 
mer in or close upon the streams; and in winter, after 
the first heavy flood, in the large eddies and deeps. 
The Pike spawns sometimes as early as February, but 
more commonly about March or April, according to the 
climate, forwardness of the spring, and other local cir- 
cumstances,—the young females of three or four years 
old taking the lead, and the dowagers following. For 
this purpose they quit the open waters in pairs, and 
retire into the fens, ditches, or shallows, where they 
deposit their spawn amongst the leaves of aquatic 
plants ; when the spawning process is complete the fish 
return again into the rivers, and are then for some weeks 
in a state of partial stupefaction, and unfit for food. In 
rivers they begin to be in condition again about June, 
but in still waters the recuperative process is much 
slower. On the Thames, within the City jurisdiction, 
which extends up to Staines, Pike-fishing is illegal 
between the ist of March and the 31st of May. 
