252 THB PIKE. 



The height and colour of the water is another very important 

 matter. A tolerably full water I have generally found favourable, 

 when not discoloured by rains ; but it is almost useless to try for 

 pikes in muddy waters, or at any rate those that are rendered so 

 by floods ; on which account some of our best stored rivers are in 

 an improper state to fish in during the very best time of the 

 whole year ; that is from the latter end of September to the be- 

 ginning of March, as at those times the waters being clearer of 

 weeds, the troller escapes the annoyance they would otherwise 

 occasion him ; added to which, the fish being then in the highest 

 season are so much the more worth catching ; yet there are few 

 rivers that run through a clayey soil that are not in a turbid state 

 during the autumn and winter months, the only intervals at which 

 they become clear being during the time of frost, and then it is of 

 little use to attempt to fish for pike. 



And now a word or two about how the pike is to be caught,, and 

 the proper tackling to be employed for the purpose. 



There are two modes of fishing by which pikes may be taken by 

 sportsmen : that is by trimming or by trolling. Certain other 

 methods are indeed resorted to, such as netting and wiring, both 

 most poaching modes of proceeding : and as to shooting them 

 when basking on the surface with a rifle, it is an act that can only 

 be justified upon the plea that " a man may do what he likes with 

 his own," which can never be admitted when practiced upon the 

 property of his neighbours, unless it be at their special instance and 

 request. Nor can laying down a trimmer in every case be con~ 

 sidered as fair fishing, particularly in small streams ; in which, 

 unless they are set for the purpose of extirpating the breed, is al- 

 most an unsportsmanlike a mode of proceeding as wiring hares or 

 trapping foxes. In extensive waters however trimming is a per- 

 fectly fair mode of proceeding, and is a particularly exciting mode 

 of fishing when carried on in right style over a considerable extent 

 of water like the Broads in Norfolk. Of these Horsea Mere, and 

 Heigham Sounds, have been celebrated for the store of pikes they 

 contain from the time of Camden even until now : and the num- 

 bers that have been taken in, or rather out of those waters by 

 this mode of fishing is truly surprising. Mr. Yarrell mentions a 

 return of four days pike fishing there with trimmers in March 

 1834, viz. on the llth at Heighara Sound, sixty pike, the weight 

 altogether 280 Ibs : on the 13th at Horsea Mere, eighty nine pike 



