CHAPTER XIII 

 THE PIKE 



THE earliest fish to spawn is the pike, the female beginning 

 to cast her spawn on the first of March. If the weather 

 be open and warm at this season, she will spawn in the 

 dikes and fleet water (about one foot deep) on the edges 

 of the broad, casting her sand-like spawn on the weeds. 

 Should the weather be coarse and cold, however, she will 

 spawn in deep water, where it is warmer; and there you 

 find the empty fish as proof. The spawning period lasts for 

 three weeks, and at this season the needy marshman shoots, 

 nets, and darts them, poor in condition though they be. I 

 have known one pike weighing twenty-nine pounds to have 

 been shot, and another weighing eighteen pounds taken 

 with a dart, both whilst roudding. They will migrate miles 

 to spawn, and prefer the reed-beds if the weather be windy 

 and warm. They get two or three together when spawn- 

 ing, and rub their sides together, or rub against alder-roots. 

 When three be together, two often hold their heads one 

 way, and the middle one his head the reverse way. When 

 the spawning is over they draw off, leaving the spawn on 

 the hair- weed, and return to their particular waters, where 

 for a short period they feed ravenously on their neighbours. 

 In June they begin to lay on internal fat; and if you 

 examine the big fish " darted " during the summer months, 

 you will hardly ever find any food in their stomachs ; and 

 I am inclined to think big fish do not feed at all during the 

 summer months, though they, too, feed just after spawning, 

 till the middle of May perhaps. Those seen feeding in the 



373 



