A FORECAST OF PROMISE. 



CHAPTER XXIV 



PIKE AND PIKE FISHING 



h OOD pike fishing in Broadland can 

 be obtained almost anj^where, and 

 worthy of much more attention 

 than strangers are wont to bestow 

 upon it. The best time to indulge 

 in the sport is the early autumn, 

 when the weeds are dying down 

 and the fish are in good condi- 

 tion, with voracious appetites, 

 when they are accustomed to 

 draw out from the shallows in 

 favour of deeper pools and 



secluded bays. It is the time when the leaves of the sweet 

 chestnut trees have fallen, and our English oaks clothe 

 themselves in a burnt-sienna-coloured mantle and the hoar 

 frost is found upon the blades of grass at breakfast-time. 



Then it is that the Esox lucms darts from his lair 

 with a rush and a swirl, cleaving the water like a torpedo 

 which causes the reel to hum and the blood to tingle in every 

 vein of the fisherman's body. 



Then it is that the fish is full of life and activity, whilst 

 its appetite can scarce be appeased, so much so that it will 

 attempt to gorge other fish its own equal in weight and bulk. 

 At this period of the year nothing seems to come amiss to its 

 palate rats, frogs, ducks, waterhens and other fowl, whilst 

 instances are on record where bathers have been attacked as 

 well as animals drinking from the stream ; even swans, when 

 feeding with their heads under water, are no exception. 



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