PIKE IN TROUT WATERS 193 



ed. 1653) regarding the sudden appearance of young 

 pike in places where they had not hitherto been 

 noticed, is in the light of these facts to a great extent 

 dissipated. 



Although there are pike in most of our trout streams, 

 it is sometimes difficult to detect their whereabouts, 

 excepting perhaps in the spawning season. Of course 

 if they show themselves on the shallows, or strike off 

 from under the banks, leaving a trail of disturbed mud 

 behind them to mark their point of departure, there 

 is no room for doubt. But the big fish usually lie 

 under weeds in deep holes, or in dark circling eddies 

 which no human eye can penetrate. What vain 

 delusions, then, do some fishermen cherish when 

 they assert that they have no pike in their water 

 simply because they have not seen them there ! It is 

 said that, if a river holds any number of pike, the 

 presence of roach, dace, and trout minus part of their 

 scales, or exhibiting other signs of having been in the 

 wars, is a sure indication that pike are somewhere 

 near at hand. This may be so, but I know of many 

 pike rivers where one does not see a scarred fish once 

 in five years. 



From the point of view of the trout preserver 

 the banishment of the pike is considered a sine qua 

 non in the development of his fishery. Esox 



o 



