AGE AND GROWTH OF A PIKE 



erills, and the fens are so abundantly stored with them, 

 that you may buy a horse-load for a shilling, it is the 

 spring- tide that brings them up, for about Midsummer 

 and after, they much decrease and diminish in their 

 number ; some being taken with snares and bow.nets, 

 some with trolling, and many little ones devoured by 

 the greater: so that in the stocking of a pond, the 

 wisest course is to put in all your Jacks as near as you 

 can of a bigness, for a Pike of 30 inches will make no 

 bones of one of 16. As to the increase of them, some 

 are apt to grow more in length, others more in breadth 

 and thickness; which latter sort are the best fed and 

 the firmest fishes ; for a lean slender Pike, though he 

 may seem to advance and improve in length, yet he is 

 commonly a waster; if he hath received any outward 

 hurt, or wound, either by an Otter, or by a stronger 

 of his own species, or is inwardly pricked by the hook, 

 or any casualty ; yet still he will live and eat his meat, 

 and be as hungry as Pharaoh's lean kine ? which de- 

 voured the fat ones : he will be yet for plunder and as 

 greedy as ever, though he do not thrive ; this 1 ob- 

 served in a large Pike which I took in a wasting condi- 

 tion ; he had a long hook in his belly, and the end of 

 the wire hung out of his mouth ; he might probably 

 have b?en long in that declining state and so might have 

 continued a considerable time, though he fall away 9 

 and must at last die of a consumption. 



There are several circumstances of time and place 

 which may be very advantageous, and conduce much 

 to the growth of a Pike ; a still, shady, unfrequented 

 place, where he is not frightened, or disturbed, is very 

 commodious for his rest and repast ; especially if his 

 shelter be thick and convenient : if a ditch join upon 

 the rher, a spring or small brook run into it, his abode 

 will be more pleasing: if it be a solitary and retired 

 corner, not beaten by fishers, or the often visits of his 

 flattering friends. 



