145 



day's pike-fisliing that has ever fallen to my lot. It was 

 in a large Kentish lake, some 18 acres in extent — in mid- 

 winter — and the jack were madly on the feed. Everything 

 under about 81bs. or lOlbs. was put back, and yet we took 

 away a hundredweight, including a 31b. perch. But the 

 missing monster was not amongst the slain. Only once 

 since that disaster on Loch Derg have I been within an ace 

 of scoring a record pike. It was down in Sussex, and I was 

 spinning a lake, from a little cockle-shell of a punt, poling 

 her about the shallows with my landing-net handle, there 

 being no oars in the boat. After making a long cast, and 

 commencing to slowly draw in line, my bait — a big roach — ■ 

 stopped. " Bother those weeds," I exclaimed, and giving a 

 savage tug, it was responded to by the terrific rush of a 

 hooked fish. He took about seventy or eighty yards of 

 line olf the reel, and then settled down like a log on the 

 bottom. Fight he would not, stubborn, passive resistance 

 was his policy, and as he was in 15ft. of water, he kept well 

 down out of sight., boring on the bottom. My friend 

 on the bank shouted to remind me that he had 

 got the gaif, and that I was too far out to pole the 

 boat ! The situation was serious, but the first thing to do 

 was to kill that fish ; and to do this I tried my utmost. After 

 boring about like a submerged torpedo for half an hour, the 

 great pil^e rolled to the surface, and I saw at length the 

 ambition of my life was gratified — it was a veritable mon- 

 ster of a pike. But lift him in the net I could not ; for it 

 was not deep enough, and twice he slipped out and rencAved 

 the fight. Finally, by the advice of my frantic friend on 

 the bank, I agreed to run the fish, head foremost, into the 

 net, and try him that way. Woe is me, he slipped out, the 

 spinning flight hung in the meshes of the net, the fish 

 struggled, tore out the hooks, and then he sank 

 111 deep water. That he was a veritable thirty-pounder, T 

 am prepared to make solemn affidavit ; and it is borne in 

 upon me that this was my last chance of securing a record 

 pike. 



Hope springs eternal in the breast of the fisherman, and 

 so it happens that we never abandon ourselves to blank 



