THE PIKE. Ill 



of fifteen pounds or over ought to make his heart rejoice to 

 such an extent that he would call his friends and neighbours 

 together and give them a banquet in honour of the occasion. 

 An eight-pound fish is not to be despised, while one of six 

 or seven as a fish for the table, and a bit of sport for the 

 angler, especially out of a stream, is hardly to be equalled. 

 It is true the pike is not a very good fighter ; a ten-pound 

 jack being nothing like a five-pound barbel for pluck and 

 dogged resistance ; still, however, a five or six-pound jack on 

 the light tackle of a Trent spinner, in a stream, is not to be 

 despised. Two of the finest pike, I suppose, that have ever 

 been taken out of English waters by the rod and line were 

 taken a year or two ago by Mr. Alfred Jardine. They 

 weighed thirty-six pounds each, or the two together seventy- 

 two pounds. These are grand fish in the estimation of all 

 anglers who have seen them, and are preserved, and were 

 exhibited at the Norwich Fisheries Exhibition. I believe 

 they received a valuable prize there as specimen fish. There 

 must, however, be a great deterioration of the race of jack 

 during these last few centuries ; for what are Mr. Jardine's 

 fish, or indeed the monsters that have been taken from the 

 Irish lakes, compared to that historical pike captured in the 

 vicinity of Mannheim in the year 1497 A.D. 1 To one of the 

 gills of this fish was found suspended a medal with the follow- 

 ing inscription in Greek : "I am the first fish that was put 

 into this pond by the hands of the Governor of the Universe, 

 Frederick the Second, on the fifth day of October, 1232." 

 By this it will appear that the fish had reached the ripe old 

 age of two hundred and sixty-five years, and he is said to 

 have weighed three hundred and fifty pounds, measuring 

 nineteen feet in length. His skeleton is said to be preserved 

 in the Museum at Mannheim. 



Various are the methods employed for the capture of the 

 jack. He can be shot, trimmered, huxed, and snared or 

 snatched, but these are methods unworthy of a sportsman, and 

 should be carefully avoided by the true angler. He legiti- 

 mately is taken by live baiting, dead gorge fishing, and spin- 

 ning with both the natural and artificial baits. Of all the 

 methods that are adopted for the capture of the pike, spinning 



