150 THE PRACTICAL FISHERMAN. 



Perhaps angling for pike is the most popular of all fresh-water fishing. 

 The reason for this is not far to seek. The fish is a bold, dashing, vora- 

 cious creature, and hardly ever derives a lesson from experience ; con- 

 sequently the angler nearly always finds him ready to feed. There is no 

 capriciousness about him no whimsical peculiarities, as with barbel or 

 carp no very great variety of bait or food to be successively tried until 

 the proper sort is found and, to complete the catalogue, the sport he 

 gives when on the hook may be said to be good, owing to his enormous 

 strength and comparative freedom from the sense of pain. 



I have referred in the preceding paragraph to the insensibility of the 

 pike to pain. Perhaps, as some interest has been excited in a leading 

 daily journal in connection with this subject, the occasion may be op- 

 portune in which to make some remarks anent the subject. That a pike, 

 hooked and even struggling for its life, suffers anything more than a 

 sense of physical discomfort I am prepared to deny. I will give two 

 instances which came under my personal observation, which will perhaps 

 suffice to prove this position better than any selection from the multitude 

 of examples furnished by other writers. 



The first occurred on the Thames, near Windsor. Myself and friend 

 were fishing with the gorge hook for pike, and I, having exhausted my 

 store of hooks, was obliged to have recourse to his tackle basket. Having^ 

 sought one out and duly baited it, I began fishing anew, when presently 

 bob, bob, a jerk and a shake, proclaimed the run of a no very puny fish. 

 The usual eight minutes were allowed, and I wound up and proceeded to 

 play my fish. He fought gamely, more so than I really expected, 

 because of the gorge hook, and suddenly rearing his head above the 

 water, with one shake of his jaws broke or cut the fine gimp in two. 

 There was no help for it, however, and with a deep-mouthed growl I com- 

 menced again. Presently, and before ten minutes had elapsed, it was my 

 friend's turn to announce a run. The legitimate period of waiting was 

 allowed, and he reeled in and repeated with success the playing business, 

 in which I had been so unlucky, and in a few minutes a fine male fish 

 of 71b. lay on the floor of the punt ; from the side of his jaws there 

 protruded the gimp of two hooks, and that of one had been broken. I 

 thereupon dissected the fish, and found that the lowermost hook and bait 

 were unquestionably mine, and that the barbs had been securely fixed in 

 the walls of the maw. Ergo, the fish could not have suffered pain. 



The other incident took place in Windsor Park, on Virginia Water. 

 A party of us had been fishing some time, when, on rounding a bend and 

 gently rowing into a sort of cove which is always a favourite spot for 

 jack, I indicated a spot to one of my friends which looked as if it held a 

 fish. Sure enough it did, and he instantly proclaimed it hooked. As he 



