j 3 o THE PIKE. 



fish fed at once, and was successfully played 

 and landed. It was a female, and measured 44 

 inches in length by 24 girth ; and for condition, 

 with elegance of contour, was one of the hand- 

 somest ever seen. 



On January 3Oth, 1878, Mr. James Barker caught 

 a 27^ Ibs. pike on paternoster-tackle in the Thames 

 at Hampton Deeps. 



There is no practical limit to the depth of water 

 that can be fished by paternostering, for the 

 plummet of course carries the bait down to the 

 bottom. It is a particularly good way to fish weir- 

 pools, old flood-gates and camp-sheathings ; and 1 

 should think would prove a killing method in the 

 great depths of Irish loughs. At Shiplake Deeps 

 near Wargrave, where there are fifteen feet of 

 water ; at Runsford near Moulsford ; at Sonning 

 (above the weir) and other deep waters of the 

 Thames where are big pike, I have found pater- 

 nostering successful : for the bait goes right down 

 among the aldermanic fish. At Sonning some 

 years ago, fishing with a nine-inch barbel, deep 

 down to the bottom, I caught a fine pike of 

 2\\ Ibs; and no doubt there are many as big or 

 even bigger in these profundities of the Thames 

 and other rivers. 



Before leaving the subject of paternostering 

 and live-baiting generally, I should say that the 

 best time to fish is when a river has cleared, or 

 nearly so, after floods succeeding frosts : the latter 

 will have decayed the weeds, which the floods will 

 clear away. In such conditions of water I have 

 hardly ever known sport to be bad, especially if 

 rivers are flowing in full volume, in which case the 

 angler should fish the still eddies and quiet lay- 



