CHAPTER II. 



INCIDENTS, RECORDS, AND TRADITIONS OF 

 PIKE-FISHING. 



IT is an idiosyncrasy with some anglers to 

 think (and perhaps believe) that a fish 

 which ultimately escapes from the hook would 

 have proved the largest of the day. They love to 

 tell how, under very difficult circumstances, and not- 

 withstanding very great skill on their part, their 

 tackle has been broken and carried away by a 

 monster fish. 



On an occasion when I was fishing some grand 



pike water near Maidstone with a companion, he 



hooked a fish on spinning-tackle and lost 



"nd s it in a growth of sedges, into which the 



tradi- fish plunged and broke the trace ; he 



of size declared it was a huge pike, " the biggest 



he ever had on his line." Next morning, 



near the same place, I caught a jack of 6 Ibs. 



on paternoster, with my friend's spinning-flight in 



its mouth. 



A peculiarity of other anglers is, that with 

 their oft-repeated accounts of pike and other fish 

 they have captured, or seen, the weight also of 

 such specimens increases in a marvellous manner, 

 irrespective of their length and girth. 



