THE PIKE. II 



Irish lakes they have been taken of the extraordinary weight 

 of eighty pounds, but I don't suppose anyone ever saw one 

 that weight, it was most probably a tradition handed down 

 from father to son, and most likely grew in the process. If 

 tremendous pike like those were got by our fathers in the 

 days that are past, how is it that with our improved tackle 

 and means of getting at them, we never hear of anything 

 approaching that weight being captured. Pliny, the ancient 

 writer, mentions a fish which he called the Esox, and which 

 attained the weight of a i,ooolbs ; but it cannot be identified 

 with the Esox of the present day. I should say the very 

 top weight would not exceed forty to forty-five pounds. We 

 have authentic instances of late years of odd ones nearly 

 reaching the former weight ; but they were like angels' visits, 

 few and far between. Perhaps the heaviest brace of pike 

 that have ever been taken by any one angler, with rod and 

 line, were the pair taken by Mr. Jardine, which were weighed 

 in at a Club, and registered no less than thirty-six pounds 

 each on the average. We hear of odd ones being taken 

 every season in Ireland, that reach thirty pounds ; and some- 

 times, perhaps once in every two or three seasons, one will 

 reach thirty-four, or thirty-five pounds. An article appeared 

 in the " Ans^ler," last December, 1896, giving an account of 

 an extraordinary female pike, that had been taken dead from 

 Dowdeswell reservoir, near Cheltenham, which reached the 

 weight of sixty pound's ; at least it was said to have weighed 

 that, but one gentleman who saw the fish, said he should 

 be inclined to knock at least lolbs off. It appears that the 

 weighing in had been done in a very hasty manner, owing 

 to the fact that decomposition had set in; and the smell 

 was something alarming. So I am afraid this pike can only 

 be set down among the list of guess-weights, and cannot 

 be accepted by any means. It was also said that the Duke 

 of Newcastle has a pike, which he himself or one of his 

 family caught in Clumber Lake (a large sheet of water close 

 to his Grace's Nottinghamshire seat), which weighed, when 

 captured, 421^ lbs. ; but the Duke contradicted this and said, 

 if my memor)' is correct, that gossip this time had added 

 ■eight pounds to its original weight. Clumber Lake, I should 

 say, is one of the finest pike preserves in England ; and if 



