A LOOK ROUND 137 



I must give a word of warning : I fancy the fishing is not 

 quite so good now ; pike and perch fishermen have in- 

 creased greatly in numbers, and any known good water is 

 mercilessly fished ; but still decent sport can be relied on. 



The Hampshire Avon is also another good pike and perch 

 river ; and permission can be obtained at several good 

 stations all the way down from Salisbury to Christchurch, 

 taking in Downton, Breamore, Ringwood, Fordingbridge, 

 etc. I saw a bag of seven fish only last season, taken at 

 Breamore during a short afternoon, that tipped the beam 

 at forty-five pounds, and the gentleman assured me that 

 pike, and good ones, were still there in numbers. 



Many of the reservoirs and lakes within easy distance of 

 London used to be very good pike and perch waters ; in 

 fact, some of them are now very fair ; but a constant 

 fishing, in season and out of season, will in time ruin the 

 very best of waters. The Welsh Harp at Hendon used 

 many years ago to be one of the best, fish of twenty pounds 

 being occasionally got, whilst most weeks during the season 

 an odd ten- or twelve -pounder would be landed ; but of 

 late years, owing most likely to pollution and a scant re- 

 stocking, it has got worse and worse, and a day in it now 

 is not by any means the certainty of long ago. 



The same can be said of Elstree, although this water is 

 most decidedly better than the Welsh Harp ; a pike going 

 fourteen pounds, and a perch two and three-quarter pounds, 

 being had there as late as 1906. Some few years ago a pike 

 going thirty pounds was taken from Dagenham Lake in 

 Essex. And a grand fish of no less than twenty-nine 

 pounds was taken in January of this year in the Thames 

 near Oxford ; I believe this is the record pike for this river. 



In some of the stretches of the Sussex Arun, the Rother, 

 and the Ouse, good pike and perch are still taken ; a friend 

 of mine got some good ones only last season from the waters 

 at Petworth. In taking a look round, as the heading of 

 this chapter indicates, we find that pike- and perch-fishing 

 are not nowadays what they were in the good old times ; 



