HABITS OF PIKE 71 



and sixty-seven years old. The skeleton was preserved in 

 the Mannheim Museum, and was nineteen feet in length ; but, 

 upon being examined by a clever anatomist, it was discovered 

 that several vertebrae had been supplemented. However 

 much or little of this story has been exaggerated, the fact 

 that pike, under favourable circumstances, will reach a very 

 large size is undoubted, and the rate of growth in the earlier 

 years, where food is plentiful, and the water suitable, is 

 astonishingly rapid. Mr. Simeon, in his admirable Stray 

 Notes on Natural History, cites an instance in which pike had 

 increased to nearly twenty pounds weight (from two or three) 

 in eighteen months, or at the rate of almost ten or eleven 

 pounds a year. 



The pike is from his habits a solitary fish, though big ones 

 are often found in pairs ; and after floods and frosts they 

 may, like perch, be found collected together in numbers, in 

 any favourable eddy, such as the mouth of a back-water, or 

 the tail of an island, the ends of old locks, reed or rush beds, 

 the corners of tumbling bays, etc., all of which are favourite 

 holds. They spawn from March till May, in ditches and back- 

 waters, and, after a short rest, they scour themselves in the 

 streams, and then take up their regular habitation and 

 hunting-grounds for the season. The pike, when young, 

 and up to about four pounds weight, has been called a jack, 

 until by degrees it has often come to be called a jack, no 

 matter of what size it may be. It is certainly one of the most 

 omnivorous fish that swims, and, when hungry, nothing 

 living, and few things dead, come amiss to it. I have known 

 pike to take plummets and floats when in motion, under the 

 idea that they were edibles, and retain their hold of them for 

 some space in spite of strong pulling. Yet, where they are 

 well fed, and are much fished for, they get tolerably shy and 

 wideawake ; and a pike that has been run once or twice and 

 roughly handled, is apt to come at the bait somewhat 

 cautiously. 



In fishing for pike, regard is to be had as to whether you 

 wish to take them, big or little, indiscriminately, or whether 

 you desire only to kill those over a certain size, returning all 

 others to the water. If the latter be your aim, no gorge bait 

 of any kind should be allowed, and the angler should be 

 confined to spinning or snap-fishing. If, however, the former 

 be your wish, you may use any bait or style that suits your 

 purpose. 



