306 PIKE AND PIKE-FISHING. 



bedizened with dyed wool, bright hackles, and tinsels. 

 Bead-eyes, also, are held in estimation, and gimp or 

 wire arming is of course essential, 



The pike, although a bold, vindictive fish, careless of 

 the angler's presence when in pursuit of its prey, is 

 nevertheless sulky in its disposition, not to be tempted, 

 at times, by any bait, although dropped immediately 

 before its snout. It is liable, also, to be operated upon 

 by the weather, more so even than the trout is ; and 

 moreover, in many places, has its feeding hours, apart 

 from which it is loth, unless under very favourable cir- 

 cumstances, to follow the bait. As regards seasons, 

 however, I have caught it in Teviot throughout all the 

 year, but the pike of this river may possibly form one of 

 several exceptions to the general rule ; for in the Loch 

 of the Lowes, in Selkirkshire, as well as in certain lakes 

 in Boss- shire, where I have over and over again exerted 

 my utmost skill, during the spring months, to secure a 

 single fish, I never could accomplish my object sooner 

 than the month of May ; and even then, the disposition 

 of the pike to take freely was very questionably mani- 

 fested. 



Out of Till, which is an early river, and swarms with 

 pike, I once took several of these fish, during Spring, 

 and have no doubt, that, as in Teviot, they may be 

 captured there at any season. Their spawning months, 

 in the south of Scotland, are March and April ; and 

 they are considered by many epicures as finest in con- 

 dition when full of roe. For my own part, with regard 

 to the Teviot pike, at no season did I ever capture one 

 which was not highly relishable, being firm, white in the 

 flesh, and well tasted. Those of the Loch of the Lowes 

 possess the same qualities ; but it is very different with 

 the pike of Yetholm Loch, of Earn, Tay, and twenty 



