136 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



Sir Francis Bacon, in his History of Life and Death, observes 

 the pike to be the longest-lived of any fresh-water fish : and yet 

 he computes it to be not usually above forty years, and others 

 think it to be not above ten years : and yet Gesner mentions a 

 pike taken in Swedeland in the year 1449, with a ring about his 

 neck, declaring he was put into that pond by Frederick the Second, 

 more than two hundred years before he was last taken, as by the 

 inscription in that ring, being Greek, was interpreted by the then 

 bishop of Worms. But of this no more, but that it is observed, 

 that the old or very great pikes have in them more of state than 

 goodness ; the smaller or middle-sized pikes being by the most 

 and choicest palates observed to be the best meat ; and contrary, 

 the eel is observed to be the better for age and bigness. 



All pikes that live long prove chargeable to their keepers, be- 

 cause their life is maintained by the death of so many other fish, 

 even those of their own kind ; which has made him by some writers 

 to be called the tyrant of the rivers, or the fresh- water wolf, by 

 reason of his bold, greedy, devouring disposition ; which is so 

 keen, as Gesner relates a man going to a pond, where it seems a 

 pike had devoured all the fish, to water his mule, had a pike bit 

 his mule by the lips; to which the pike hung so fast, that the 



two large hooks, diverging from each other, are soldered or riveted in ; 

 through the other end a strong stift" wire about twelve inches long is passed, 

 on which the instrument may play so as to (i:ish the light through the 

 water. The line is held in hand, and with a length of about fifty feet 

 towed after a boat rowed at the rate of two and a half or three miles an 

 hour. The instant the fish strikes he should be drawn in ; but care must 

 be taken to keep the spoon from weeds, the tug of which often deceives 

 the fisherman. In this way three gentlemen {quorum pars fui), trolling 

 among the Thousand Isles of the St. Lawrence, took, in less than six hours' 

 work, more than three hundred pounds of pickerel. It is said that the 

 same method has been practised successfully with the trout of the lakes ; 

 and there is not sufficient reason for doubting the assertion, as the larger 

 black and Oswego bass freely take the spoon, which tempts them as a fly. 

 It is, however, a most barbarous mode of fishing, and the three gentlemen 

 above alluded to, were perfectly satiated with one day's experience ; and 

 gladly substituted a fly made of scarlet cloth and a forked piece of pickerel's 

 tongue at the bend of the hook, with which they angled most successfully 

 for the bass among the rapids around the islands. The Messrs. Conroy arc 

 now furnished with the spoons and flies. — im. Ed. 



