48 HINTS ON ANGLING. 



mode, a very fine, and indeed most excellent fish. When 

 out of season, lie is about as filthy a compound as can well 

 be imagined. 



September and October are fine months for pike-fish- 

 ing ; but if the angler can stand the weather, the winter 

 months are decidedly the best for large fish. Mr. Dalton's 

 keeper, at Fillingham Castle, will tell you that the troller 

 invariably catches the largest fish in his magnificent pond 

 on sharp frosty days, when there is a thin film of ice spread 

 over the surface of the water; and, in corroboration of 

 this, we are in a condition to state, that a good pike and 

 perch were taken by trolling, out of a large etany in the 

 77irzs,near St. Omer, in the Pas-de-Calais, on the sixteenth 

 of January, in the very depth of the severe winter of 

 this present year, 1845, the ice, which was very thick, 

 being previously broken, to enable the angler to get his 

 bait into the water. 



The pike, like some other fish, is supposed to be af- 

 fected in his hues, by the complexion of the water in 

 which he lives. However this may be, it is unquestion- 

 ably true, that pikes taken out of canals, rivers, and rapid 

 streams, are generally of a brighter colour, and more 

 brilliant in their tints, than those which frequent deep 

 pools and large weedy lakes. The latter are commonly 

 much darker, and their sides tinged with a deep yellow; 

 and some of those taken out of the marais in the Pas-de- 

 Calais, are frequently quite tawny, and striped across the 

 back and sides, like a Bengal tiger. The river and run- 

 ning- water fish have, too, a finer flavour, and are in every 

 respect, both for the sportsman and the cook, far superior 

 to their brethren of the pond and the pool. 



Formerly, the pike was a scarce and expensive fish in 

 England: and some curious anecdotes are collected in 



