PIKE FISHING IN RIVERS 81 



to return again later in the afternoon. I am one of 

 those anglers (and I confess it without a blush) who 

 dislike laying hands on a pike struggling and 

 snapping in the water, and I always hasten to dispatch 

 him out of water with the ' priest ' before attempting 

 to meddle with the hooks in the mouth. I had to 

 stoop down, however, to insert my finger and thumb 

 in the wretch's eyes, and was not a little proud to 

 weigh him after I had given him his quietus at 

 a trifle under the 8 Ib. I took another pike of 4| Ib. 

 before, at about four o'clock, a hatch of olive duns 

 and rising grayling induced me to resume the more 

 scientific branch of the day's work. The rod, being 

 one of special excellence, was none the worse for its 

 application to pike. 



Once it came in my way to have the opportunity 

 of noticing the vagaries of pike in a river of another 

 character a typical trout stream. It is a not uncom- 

 mon error to say that the pike, bold and brutal, will 

 rush recklessly at anything and everything, and 

 may be caught by Tom, Dick, and Harry with little 

 trouble and no skill. Slight experience will, however, 

 undeceive a person who entertains such an idea, and 

 he will not be long in learning that pike may become 

 as shy and require as careful fishing as even trout:. 



G 



