84 DAYS AMONG THE PIKE AND PERCH 



The river from these poplars down to Wray House 

 Island was wide, open, and fairly deep, and a capital 

 spinning water. I could sink my bait well down without 

 much danger. All round the island odd jack would lurk, 

 but on this day not another fish rewarded my efforts. 

 A week previous to this visit I tried a long cast up a back- 

 water that came in under the shadow of the poplars just 

 mentioned, and got a ten-pounder ; he took the sprat the 

 very instant it struck the water. I fancy that I must 

 have thrown it right into his open mouth. All round that 

 bend under the shadow of Paxton Hill there were some 

 good perch, and a lot of them 5 many a nice dish I have 

 had from there, using a paternoster baited with worms and 

 tiny gudgeons. An old retired schoolmaster, who lived 

 there and frequently fished the place, told me that he once 

 saw a shoal of big perch in that corner, the leader of which 

 must have gone more than five pounds. I never, however, 

 saw one taken from that river that went more than two and 

 a half pounds. 



One day when fishing that stretch with a local postman 

 we had an adventure. Close to the island there is a deep 

 hole within a yard of the bank, and a shelf that reaches to 

 the very edge of it. In the postman's kettle was a ten-inch 

 chub. He threaded this on a big gorge tackle, and just 

 dropped it on the shallow water of the shelf above the hole 

 while he unwound his old line and laid it in coils on the 

 grass. All at once a huge head poked up above the edge of 

 that shelf, and in an instant, with a splash that sent a 

 shower of water over us, a giant pike seized the chub and 

 made off across the river to a thick bed of weeds. All 

 efforts to dislodge him proved unavailing. We got a boat 

 and a long pole, but could do nothing, and at last the old 

 line finally broke close to the trace, and another fish of a 

 lifetime was lost. About a month afterwards the postman 

 recovered that pike, but alas it was dead, and too far gone 

 for anything. He took it to a farm near by and measured 

 and weighed it ; it was forty-three inches long, and scaled 



