SPINNING. 199 



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 1st of March and the 31st of May. 



