WHICH INTRODUCES THE PIKE 7 



spring and only missed her arm by an inch. Be very 

 careful in disengaging hooks from pike. Always carry 

 a spring gag, that can be bought for sixpence, to insert in 

 the mouth and hold the jaws apart ; and a short, heavy 

 club also is useful to give him a smart tap between the 

 eyes. This will effectually settle his nonsense. 

 J Pike do not confine themselves to a fish diet. I have 

 found all sorts of things inside them rats, chickens, tiny 

 ducks, moorhens, and other small birds and mammals ; 

 and once I found a rusted key, no less than five inches long ; 

 another time there was a metal tea-spoon, and a good 

 square of old rag, while again a lead plummet with a brass 

 ring on the top was brought to light. This latter article 

 had been lost by a roach angler earlier in the day ; he said 

 a pike had seized his plummet, and I had the pleasure of 

 restoring to him his lost property. 



The strangest capture of a pike I ever made or saw was 

 a five-pounder, who rushed at a big swan-quill float that 

 I was using under the boughs for chub ; when winding bait 

 and float home again, he came like a flash, and the float 

 firmly stuck under his gills and the opposite corner of his 

 jaw ; that float was hopelessly ruined, but the pike was 

 bagged. 



When pike are hungry they will run at almost anything 

 that moves in the water, if it only bears any resemblance 

 to the living things of the water or bank ; but when not 

 on the feed scarcely anything will tempt them. Expert 

 pike fishermen know very well the difference between the 

 " runs " when he is " on the job," and when he is not ; he 

 often plays with a bait, mouthing and killing it, but has no 

 intention of taking it fairly, so that he can be hooked. 

 Sometimes he allows himself to be hauled about, and even 

 dragged to the surface, when with a wink of his eye and 

 a flap of his tail he carefully drops the bait and rolls over 

 into deep water ; and you are prepared to swear there was 

 a mocking grin on his wicked-looking face as he did so. 

 But I cannot help thinking that it is a fortunate thing they 



