MONSTER PIKE: FABULOUS AND OTHERWISE. 3 



As to the size pike attain — here I must lay down my pen 

 and consider a moment. First, I will say that I believe seven- 

 eighths the stories about big pike to be untrue; secondly, 

 that one or two immense pike may have been taken, but that, 

 with one exception,* no skeleton, cast, or head of a giant pike 

 is in existence. Of late years, no pike is known to have been 

 taken weighing 401b. or over. The largest pike I ever felt 

 quite satisfied about were two caught in England by Mr. 

 Alfred Jardine, which weighed 371b. and 361b. respectively, 

 and were exhibited a few years back at the Fisheries Exhi- 

 bition, South Kensington.f The largest pike I ever killed 

 weigbed 251b. two days after it was caught, and fell a 

 victim to a Thames bleak (one of a bottle-full which I 

 had exported in spirits of wine to Ireland), mounted on 

 a Chapman spinner. Twice I have hooked pike about the 

 same size in the Thames, but with unpleasant results. I am 

 convinced that half the tales of big pike arise from want of 

 a proper weighing-machine. Unless a railway station is handy, 

 or the angler possesses a spring balance which will weigh over 

 301b. or 401b., as often as not the weight of the pike has to be 

 guessed — and we all know what that means. Again, however 

 fast fish may grow in the water, it is an unquestionable fact 

 that they grow very much faster after they have been hooked, 

 played, and landed. If pike weighing from 701b. to 1001b. 

 were so common a century or more ago, why is it we are never 

 gratified with the sight of even a forty-pounder nowadays ? 

 Photographs of large fish give no accurate idea of their size, 

 unless a measure or some article of known size — e.g., a postage 

 stamp — is photographed with them. 



* The head of a pike measuring 9in. across is preserved in Kenmure Castle, 

 CO. Galway. The recorded weight of this fish is 721b. 



t Mr. Jardine has kindly furnished me with the following details concerning 

 some of his largest pike : " My 371b. pike," he writes, " was caught on Nov. 4th, 1879, 

 in Buckinghamshire. Measurements : Extreme length, 47in. ; length, eye to tail, 

 39in. ; length of head, 13in. ; girth, 25in. ; caught on my snap tackle, with large 

 live dace for bait. On Jan. 24th, 1877, near Maidstone, in Kent, I caught a 361b. 

 pike. Extreme length, 46in. ; length, eye to tail, 38in. ; length of head, 12iin. ; 

 girth, 25in. ; bait, a large live roach, on my snap tackle. Frank Buckland made 

 two casts of this fish: one is in the Buckland Museum, South Kensington; the other, 

 exquisitely painted by H. L. Rolfe, is in my possession. On Feb. 26th, 1882, in 

 Sussex, I caught, on a gut paternoster, with a very small live dace, a 311b. female 



{)ike, of most elegant shape and exquisite condition and colourings. Extreme 

 ength, 44in. ; length, eye to tail, 36^in. ; length of head, llin. ; girth, 24in." 



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