A BIG PIKE. 191 



ashore on the island, for some ducks had pitched 

 in the water the other side of it. By creeping 

 carefully through the undergrowth, he got a shot 

 and killed a mallard, which we punted after and 

 secured, then left him for awhile to pay attention to 

 the wood-pigeons, which every now and again 

 settled in the trees there. 



Fishing just outside the fringe of sedges in water 

 eight feet deep, Francis soon got a run, and was 

 playing a nice fish, which took some thirty yards of 

 line with a rush, making for a penstock, where 

 some dangerous posts stuck up in the water ; how- 

 ever, the pike was soon well in hand, gaffed, and in 

 the punt ; it weighed 9 Ibs. He was fishing with 

 snap-tackle, I was paternostering, searching the 

 water round about us with a small, lively dace, 

 both of us every now and then adding a fish of 

 retainable size to those already caught. 



Thus the morning wore on until it was time for 

 lunch, when we re-embarked our friend at the 

 island, and thoroughly enjoyed our midday meal, 

 which we had thoroughly earned ; then we tried 

 water not yet disturbed, quietly approaching a 

 reedy bay the home of the big pike not going 

 too near, but fishing it from a distance of 20 yds. 

 Some moorhens swimming in the bay took flight 

 in alarm, for there was a great swirl in the water, 

 and one of the birds disappeared, which showed us 

 where the pike was ; and as the bird did not 

 appear again, we judged the fish was on the 

 feed, so I cast a good-sized dace on snap-tackle 

 to where the pike bulged, and in less than two 

 minutes it had taken my bait, and I had driven 

 home the steel. Francis rowed the punt away 

 from the sedges to open water, where, after a 



