THE HAUNTS OF THE PIKE 21 



Ouse were the most prolific years in my pike-fishing career. 

 One season alone I got two hundred and twenty-seven, 

 large and small. 



I should say the Hampshire Avon is the best pike river 

 in England to-day ; while the whole district of the eastern 

 counties, comprising Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cam- 

 bridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, etc., still maintains its 

 ancient character, although perhaps in a lesser degree. 

 I look round and find plenty of suitable pike water. At 

 present the fish are woefully thinned down ; but constant 

 restocking should be carried on, and a stringent by-law 

 passed for the protection of those pike waters ; the size of 

 takable fish should be regulated, the close season extended, 

 and the methods of capture clearly defined, and all regu- 

 lations strictly enforced. Only under conditions like 

 these, every angler and every preservation society working 

 together for the common good, can we expect a certainty 

 of sport when we go pike-fishing, especially pike-fishing 

 on a public river. 



What man who has had the privilege of wetting his lines 

 in a first-class water, and found the big jack well on, has 

 ever forgotten the experience ? None of them, I warrant ; 

 at least I can speak for myself as to the very few occasions 

 I enjoyed that great good fortune. The anxious novice 

 who happens to read these pages, and would very much 

 like to be a successful pike fisherman, must make up his 

 mind, if he follows this branch of angling in public waters, 

 to two things : first, he is bound to catch more pike under 

 four pounds than over that weight ; and, secondly, if 

 he gets three or four jack during a day's spinning or live- 

 baiting he can consider himself extremely lucky. 



Taking them in a general way, pike are not sociable fish, 

 though large ones are often discovered in pairs. After 

 floods and frosts, or owing to some accidental circum- 

 stances, they may sometimes be found collected together 

 in numbers in favourable eddies or in a backwater away 

 from the main stream, or at the tail end of an island where 



