102 THE PIKE. 



smashed up the rod and tackle of a brother 

 angler, who was then fishing with me. I baited 

 with a half-pound dace and cast it into the open 

 channel between some weeds, and waited but a 

 short while before I had a run, and drove my 

 snap-tackle well home. The pike immediately 

 made a mad rush, taking nearly a hundred yards 

 of line off my reel, and leaped some feet out of the 

 water ; this was several times repeated, but my 

 salmon gut trace held firm. I had the pike well 

 in hand, and in twenty minutes it was gaffed and 

 safe in my punt. The fish measured 47 ins. in 

 length, 25 ins. girth ; and that afternoon, in the 

 presence of Mr. W. H. Brougham, late Secretary of 

 the Thames Angling Preservation Society, weighed 

 37 Ibs. This pike was probably induced by the 

 tempestuous weather to feed fearlessly, and thus 

 lost its life. It and another of 36 Ibs. (both set 

 up in the same glass case) adorn my collection of 

 specimen fish. 



The relative temperature of the water and air 

 has much to do with success when pike angling. 

 As a rule the air should be a few degrees 

 higher in temperature than the water, so that it 

 is above freezing point. Even in severe frosts 

 pike may be caught in rivers which flow too 

 fast to freeze, but the line may become so com- 

 pletely enveloped with ice that it will not run 

 through the rod-rings, when, if a fish of any 

 size is hooked, a breakage is certain to occur. 

 To remedy this the angler should envelope the 

 bottom and top rings, and an intermediate one, with 

 cotton wadding, secured in position with whip- 

 pings of silk or thread, the wadding to be 

 saturated with castor, or cod-liver oil, which lubri- 



