DAYS AMONG THE PIKE AND PERCH 



conveyance of some kind is necessary to cover the three 

 miles that separate the station from the water. These lakes 

 have been noted for many years, excellent fish of all kinds 

 being fairly plentiful, the middle one of the three being 

 the best for roach, tench, and other coarse fish. Somehow 

 or other those big roach, as they are called, do not strike 

 me as being above suspicion. I have carefully examined 

 a case of six very large ones that are preserved and now in 

 the club room of the Gresham Angling Society ; those 

 roach weighed between two and three pounds each, one 

 or two of them near the latter figure. Somehow or other 

 those roach had the distinguishing feature of the rudd ; 

 the back fin was too near the tail for my liking ; the 

 mouth, however, was hardly the mouth of a rudd. They 

 are perhaps what we may call a survival of the fittest 

 a strain of more than one fish in them. 



The centre lake contains some good perch. I have 

 heard of one that went nearly four pounds, and they have 

 a tradition that a much larger one was once got on a pike 

 bait, but this never seemed to be satisfactorily explained. 

 That centre lake is very deep, when full up, as this is a 

 reservoir or feeder for the Grand Junction Canal. The 

 top lake at Marsworth is rather weedy and shallow, and is 

 the home of innumerable ducks, which go wheeling out 

 of the dense jungles of flags sometimes in clouds. I have 

 fished that lake once or twice for pike ; but never had a 

 big day in it. It has a perfect jungle of under- water weeds, 

 and is somewhat difficult to fish, as your bait and a hooked 

 pike may get entangled. 



I think the lake furthest away, at Wilston, is the best for 

 pike and perch ; personally I am acquainted with several 

 gentlemen who go there, sending them frequently cans of 

 Thames dace ; and from what I hear, half a dozen fish up 

 to ten or twelve pounds can be occasionally got. Mr. 

 Richardson Carr, the estate agent at Tring, might, I don't 

 say he would, grant permission. 



