74 



THE PIKE. 



Nothing is more fatal when playing a hooked fish than to 

 have some loose line hanging about the reel handles. Every 

 yard of line that I allowed a pike to take out had to be 

 worked for by the fish. 



The best months for spinning are September, October, 

 and November. December is fairly good, but the pike then 

 are getting fat and lazy, seeking the deepest and quietest 

 holes as a general thing. There is nothing in law to pre- 

 vent spinning for pike in public waters as soon as the sea- 

 son opens in June, unless a fishery board, for the district 

 extends the close time. I most certainly do consider that 

 June and July should be observed as a close time by every 

 pike fisherman ; while even in August those fish are by no 

 means in condition. During the early part of the season 

 pike are found on the weedy shallows of a quiet river, 

 being also very partial to a streamy place that flows over a 

 gravelly bottom, runs in the vicinity of flags, reed beds, 

 water lilies, and bunches of weeds are also affected by them, 

 while good ones are often deep in the fastnesses of the reed 

 beds themselves. Quiet corners away from the main current, 

 eddies at the tail of an island, behind some sunken trees 

 and bushes ; in fact, in a quiet pikey river there is no telling 

 where the jack are and where they are not. All likely or 

 even unlikely places should be well tried, especially during 

 September and October. Later on, towards Christmas 

 time, especially if the weather has been very cold, deeper 

 holes close under the cover of huge banks of weeds would 

 be more likely to shelter the fish. At this time of the 

 year the spinning bait should be sunk deep down and spun 

 very slowly home. In rapidly flowing rivers like the Trent, 

 pike, during the early part of the season, love the eddies that 

 curl round and round from the tail of a weir, or on the 

 shallows away from the main current in quiet comers and 

 lay-byes, or down those long stretches of the river where the 

 water flows much quieter than it does in the majority of 

 places. It is difficult to tell exactly where pike are to be 

 found and where not found during the early part of the 

 season ; but if there is a portion of the river that is quiet, 

 weedy, and free from navigation, that is the very place to 

 •expect them in. Later on they retire to the deeper and 



