THE PIKE OF FACT 19 



Mr. Pennell himself states that the width of the fish 

 across the back of the head was nine inches. Instead 

 of being taken with the fly, as Stoddart (also an 

 authority) alleged, the account sent to Mr. Pennell 

 made it clear that the pike, whatever weight it might 

 be, was captured by spinning. Strangely enough, in 

 the last year of the century this very fish was discussed 

 in some of the London papers. 



The 96-pounder from a lough near Killaloe was 

 mentioned by a writer now almost forgotten, Mr. 

 William Hughes, a barrister, and author of 'The 

 Practical Angler,' published in 1842 ; and the story is 

 that this pike was so long that it was carried suspended 

 from an oar by two men. That is a suspicious way of 

 putting it ; for on two occasions, once in the west 

 and once in the north of Ireland, boatmen described 

 to me gigantic pike which they said they had seen 

 borne home in precisely the same way. It seemed 

 to be a favourite poetical expression viz. that 

 the pike was so immense that an oar had to be 

 passed through the gills and the beast dangled 

 midway between two bearers shouldering the oar. A 

 go-lb. pike was also stated in the . ' Field' some years 

 ago to have been killed in the Shannon in somewhat 

 the same district as the other, but careful efforts to 

 obtain assured evidence were as disappointing as ever. 



