PIKE IN THE KITCHEN. 5 



times amazement and awe. Those that have already appeared 

 in print do not require repetition ; but I will give an instance 

 of a pike's voracity, for the truth of which I really can 

 vouch. In August, 1879, I was spinning in Scariff Bay, 

 Lough Derg. My bait was a S^in. spoon — an exceptionally 

 large one. I had a run, played and landed the fish, and 

 found it to be a pike weighing exactly 31b. The tail of a 

 trout was sticking out of its mouth. I pulled out the trout, 

 and found it had only just been swallowed, and was so little 

 damaged that we had it for dinner that evening. The pike 

 without the trout weighed only 21b., and the trout consequently 

 weighed lib. Thus, the hungry beast after having in its maw 

 a fish weighing half as much as itself, the tail of which had 

 not had time to disappear, actually seized a large spoon-bait 

 representing a fish weighing ^Ib. or more. The weights I have 

 given were most carefully taken. 



Pike are good or bad to eat according to the water they come 

 out of, the season, the skill and humour of the cook, and the 

 fashion of the day. At present pike are not held in high 

 esteem for the table, but the time was when they were apparently 

 deemed a great luxury. For instance, in the reign of Edward I. 

 they were more costly than salmon, and many times more 

 valuable than cod or turbot. The best pike I have eaten 

 came out of the Shannon lakes, some of them having a curd 

 such as one finds in a freshly-caught salmon. I never saw 

 this curd in an English pike. The next best fish of the 

 kind I have tasted came out of the Hampshire Avon; and 

 close upon these followed the jack of the Thames and the 

 Bedfordshire Ouse. Pond pike are bad eating, so far as my 

 experience goes. Given abundance of food and water, and a 

 gravelly or rocky bottom, pike are worth cooking. Then their 

 flesh is flaky and firm, not unlike that of cod, and the 

 flavour is delicate. Small pike are an abomination on the 

 dinner-table, on account of their three-pronged bones, which 

 are out of all proportion to their flesh. Fish of 41b. should 

 be deemed the minimum size for the table. In Lough Derg, 

 where the pike must spawn very early, I found them in first- 

 rate condition in May. In the Thames, pike-fishing does not 



