BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES 



nature, there is an authentic instance recorded of two 

 Pike being discovered inside a third, the smallest of the 

 three having been hooked and then swallowed by a 

 second, and the second by a third, thus all three specimens 

 were secured at one time when the Une was pulled in. 

 Pike have even been known to attack human beings. 

 Shallow and deep water are both frequented, but the 

 latter is more often sought in Winter. It is a great lover 

 of the surface. Spawning takes place in Spring, and at 

 that time the more usual haunt will be left for some 

 quiet backwater until the egg-laying process is at an end. 

 Several hundreds of thousands of eggs are capable of 

 production by one female, but the greater majority never 

 hatch out, and young fish (called Jack) often pay the 

 death-penalty in their eagerness to swallow a stickle- 

 back whose spines do not permit the latter to travel 

 down its captor's throat. It is fairly well established that 

 Pike attain a good age, and as regards weight a very large 

 fish in prime condition may turn the scale at anything 

 from 40 pounds upwards. Between 60 and 70 pounds 

 seems to be the record weight for a Pike from British 

 waters, but a fish of half that w^eight may be looked upon 

 as a very fine specimen. That the Pike is the king of 

 coarse fish is generally agreed, and it affords the greatest 

 sport of them all. It is a game fighter, and rarely 

 gives in until its energy is thoroughly exhausted. Yet I 

 caught one beautifully marked specimen (now in Letch- 

 worth Museum), which was exactly three feet in length 



and 13 pounds in weight, which gave me little or no 

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