144 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



the other, " that he hath known a pike, in extreme hunger, fight with one 

 of his (tame) otters for a carp, that the otter had caught, and was then 

 bringing out of the water." If a pike were so fool-hardy as to make 

 any such assault, the otter would have dropped the lesser carp, and 

 speedily captured and with the greatest ease the bigger and best prize 

 the pike. I believe that the largest pike ever caught in the British Isles 

 was that caught many years ago, and the weight of which was about 

 921bs., in the river Shannon, by some visitors at Portumna Castle, the 

 family seat of the Marquis of Clanricarde. I never saw a pike that 

 weighed more than 331bs. ; but Mr. Christopher Grove, of Bond-st., his 

 cousin, Mr. T. Grove, of Charing-cross, and Mr. Sweeting, of Cheapside, 

 all celebrated fishmongers, tell me they have frequently Dutch pike 

 weighing upwards of 401bs., and sometimes reaching 501bs. 



There are many methods of angling for pike. I shall describe the 

 best. The easiest, simplest, and in many instances the best, is called 

 " sinking and roving." It is practised with a live fish-bait a gudgeon, 

 dace, roach, or trout. For large pike, a dace, roach, or trout, weighing 

 6oz. is not too big a bait. As a general rule, large fish will not trouble 

 themselves with small baits. In sinking and roving you pass your hook 

 through the skin, taking in a little of the flesh, by the side and at the 

 root of the dorsal fin of your live bait. The hook is to be attached to 

 one yard and a half of stout gimp, which is to be heavily leaded to keep 

 down the bait to within a foot or two of the bottom of the water. On 

 your line is to be a large cork float, to prevent the bait from sinking to 

 the very bottom, or swimming about too freely, and to tell you when 

 you have a bite, or technically speaking a " run." Your rod must be 

 stout and strong, and your winch line must consist of 80 yards of strong, 

 platted silk line, prepared \vith oil and varnish. Such a line will answer 

 for spinning or trolling for pike. The more lively your bait the better. 

 Let it swim about here and there, by aquatic plants and roots of trees, 

 and when you have a " run" do not strike instantly. Let the pike run 

 off with the bait, giving him line to enable him to do so without check. 

 In from five to ten minutes he will swallow or " pouch" the bait, and 

 then you must strike your fish smartly and play him vigorously. When 

 the line is suddenly slackened a little, and has a quivering motion 

 communicated to it, then you may be sure that the bait is pouched. On 

 the contrary, as Capt. Williamson says : " when you see a great number 

 of very small bubbles rising from the spot where you know, by the 

 direction of the line, the jack is lying, you should forbear from striking, 

 it being a certain sign that he has not pouched your bait." A pike 

 seizes its prey by the middle, then swims off with it, to its lair, turns it 

 headforemost in his mouth and then swallows it, rapidly or slowly 

 according to the state of his appetite. Pike seem sometimes to play in 

 sheer wanton cruelty with the fish they have seized, as cats do with 

 mice. Taylor in an old, and, as far as it goes good, treatise on angling, 

 writes : "The pike will, as soon as he has seized the bait, run to his 

 hold to pouch or swallow it ; allow him, therefore, five minutes to do so 

 (unless the line slackens before that time, which is a signal that he has 

 already done it), and then strike. But if after he has run off with the 



