298 PIKE AND PIKE-FISHING. 



To return however, to the subject of pike fishing, I 

 may mention that, within the last eight or nine years, 

 I have captured about one hundred and fifty pike out 

 of Teviot alone, five-sixths of them with the rod, and, 

 as has been already mentioned, chiefly during spare 

 hours, and on my return from some trouting excursion. 

 Of these, the largest was a male fish, and weighed about 

 seventeen pounds. I caught another with the minnow 

 and single gut line, on the 8th of March, 1845, weigh- 

 ing fourteen pounds, and I have not unfrequently taken 

 others approaching to twelve pounds. That there still 

 exist in the Heaton-mill cauld several fish heavier than 

 any I have named cannot be questioned. I once 

 hooked and played one, apparently a twenty pounder, 

 until quite exhausted, and had I been accommodated 

 with a gaff-hook or convenient landing-place, would 

 certainly have secured him. As it turned out, in the 

 absence of either, I was compelled to use more than 

 ordinary force, in order to bring him within reach of 

 my hand. The tackle being formed of single gut, ac- 

 cordingly broke, and the fish, after lying motionless 

 for some minutes on the surface of a bed of thick weeds, 

 made his escape. A pike weighing nineteen pounds 

 was killed, some years ago, with the leister a little way 

 below Ormiston-mill. This perhaps was the largest, 

 actually secured, of Teviot pike. 



The introduction of these fish into the principal tri- 

 butary of Tweed, has, there is no question, conduced 

 very materially to injure the salmon-fishings; nor, as may 

 be supposed, have the common trout remained wholly 

 unscathed. With regard to the ravages committed 

 among the fry of the salmon, I may mention that almost 

 every pike captured by me during the months of April 

 and May contained in its stomach, or disgorged on being 



