THE PIKE, AND PIKE FISHING 



I have seen very bream-like pike — and trout also. The handsomest pike 

 are those from a salmon river, where their food so largely consists of 

 young salmon. As I write I have before me a very fine female pike caught 

 in the Shannon, at Athlone, which weighed thirty-seven pounds when 

 weighed by me in London two or three days after it was caught, so that 

 it was in all probability a good forty pounds when killed. Pike of this size 

 should be about forty-six inches in length. Instead of the almost straight 

 back and belly usually found, especially in male fish, its shape approaches 

 more that of a trout — a long oval — and the head is smaller than that of a 

 male pike I caught in the lake at Bowood which weighed rather over 

 twenty-six pounds. The pike angler will meet with his favourite fish in 

 nearly all parts of Europe, chiefly in the lower and less rapid parts of the 

 river; in lakes it may be found even at an altitude of over 4,000 feet. 



Nearly all books on angling which treat of the pike give stories more 

 or less true both as regards its size, its age, and its voracity. Concerning 

 all these matters, as my old friend, the late Frank Buckland, said: " More 

 lies have been told about the pike than about any other fish in the world,'* 

 this alone gives this fish a distinction which helps to endear him to the 

 true pike angler, and surrounds him with a halo of romance for the general 

 public. Want of space forbids me to enlarge on them; some of them will 

 be found in a recent most valuable little work* by Mr Tate Regan, who 

 has charge of the fish collection in the Zoological Department of the British 

 Museum, South Kensington. Mr Regan says: "Well authenticated in- 

 stances of the capture of pike of from thirty-five pounds to forty-five 

 pounds* weight are plentiful; there are many tales of much larger fish, 

 which may be true enough, but, unfortunately, cannot be verified.'* 



It seems to me that this exactly sums up the position. Personally I can 

 see no reason to doubt the story of the Kenmure pike, caught in Loch Ken 

 by John Murray, gamekeeper to Viscount Kenmure. The Rev. W. B. 

 Daniel, in his excellent work on " Rural Sports," published one hundred 

 years ago, says this pike weighed seventy-two pounds. As regards the 

 age to which pike live, Mr Regan thinks that a fish of sixty or seventy 

 pounds' weight might be at least as many years old. 



HOW TO TELL THE AGE OF FISH 

 Since Mr Regan's book appeared I have published in '• The Fishing 



*Th* Frukwaler Fishes of the British Islts, by C. Tate Rejan, M.A.; lUuitrated; London: Methuen & Co. 



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