6 DAYS AMONG THE PIKE AND PERCH 



Many fables and traditions have been handed down from 

 one writer to another, and from father to son, on this point 

 of the pike's savage ferocity, and also on his marvellous 

 powers of digestion ; and none of these traditions seem 

 to lose anything by being repeated ; and they need lose 

 nothing, for he has deservedly earned the name given him 

 by many writers the " freshwater shark." 



When you come to look at him, and consider the question 

 of his food in all its bearings, it is more difficult to determine 

 what he is not likely to eat, than what he will ; for many 

 anecdotes are told of the extraordinary things he has been 

 known to run at, and fairly and squarely seize. One 

 writer says that " a swan was observed on a lake in a very 

 peculiar manner, the head and neck for a long time under 

 water ; on proceeding to the spot it was discovered that 

 a pike had got the head of the bird firmly fixed in its 

 throat ; and being unable to extricate themselves from 

 this extraordinary difficulty, the pair of them had died." 



Now I should not like to hint for a moment that our jack 

 opened his jaws with intent to swallow the swan altogether ; 

 probably when the bird's long neck was thrust down into 

 the water he seized it on the off-chance, and paid with his 

 life for his rash error. More than once or twice I have 

 seen a pike that had been taken from the water an hour 

 or two previously, make a sudden spring and lacerate the 

 hand of an angler who had incautiously put his finger 

 in too close proximity to the fish's jaws. That wounded 

 hand haunts me even to this day, and causes me to impress 

 most strongly on the young angler that he must not on 

 any account put his hands too near a captured pike, or in 

 all probability, if he is grabbed by those terrible curved 

 teeth, he will remember it for the rest of his life. 



I remember once taking home several six- and seven- 

 pounders, and turning them out of my bag into the long 

 iron trough under the kitchen tap ; my wife went for a can 

 of water, and, reaching over the trough, was startled, and 

 screamed out loudly, when one of the fish made an upward 



