RANDOM CASTS 143 



HOW THE NEW RIVER PIKE WAS LANDED 



One would not think that there are big pike within a 

 minute's walk of a busy London thoroughfare ; but I want 

 to say a few words on an adventure that befell a friend, 

 who I may say is very much an amateur. He has a house 

 and garden at Palmer's Green, the garden abutting on the 

 Metropolitan Water Board's New River. This friend 

 put a live bait in, on a gorge hook, and a very strong cord 

 line. On going down the garden path an hour or two later 

 he found he had a fish on ; but what to do with it he had 

 not the remotest notion. In his own words I will describe 

 what followed. He had no landing-net, nor anything 

 suitable, except a home-made wire gaff-hook, and this was 

 lashed to a small cane handle. He played that fish, or 

 rather, he said, the fish played him, and after a very long 

 time he got it near the bank, and thought if he jerked the 

 gaff-hook under its chin he could succeed in getting it on 

 the bank. He tried this dodge, but as soon as the gaff was 

 driven home, the pike made a wild plunge, and dragged 

 the wire-bound gaff away from the stick, and away it went 

 thirty yards down stream, the hook sticking under his 

 jaws, but the line held fast. He now thought of a garden 

 rake that stood against a shed close by, so he cautiously 

 let out more line, and seized that weapon ; this he also 

 tried to stick under the jaws of the fish, after he had once 

 more carefully played it to the bank. This experiment 

 was worse than the hook, for no sooner did the fish feel one 

 of the teeth of the rake than he made a wilder rush than 

 ever, going backwards with terrific force, and dragging the 

 rake from his grasp. Our friend had about got to his wits' 

 end by now, and wondered what next, when he suddenly 

 remembered he had a long mat basket with two handles 

 in the old shed ; this he secured, and after playing the fish 

 for a long time, he manoeuvred it somehow into the basket, 

 and a sudden desperate lift sent the lot rolling on the grass. 

 It weighed nineteen pounds good, was in splendid con- 



