PIKE AND PIKE FISHING 327 



near Beccles one boat landed seventy-four in three days. On 

 the Yare, near Buckenham, thirty-one fish were landed in 

 one day ; whilst often it happens that an angler takes more 

 fish in weight than he can comfortably carry home. It is 

 rarely that a season passes without a long list of fish scaling 

 over twenty pounds each in weight being recorded, and a fish 

 of thirty -five pounds is by no means a record. The best centres 

 to make are Oulton Broad, Wroxham and Potter Heigham. 



The local stories of pike and their ways are endless, and 

 visitors to Broadland will hear many, some of them real 

 startlers, if they take the trouble to inquire, when in the 

 neighbourhood. One which has been before recorded is 

 worthy of repetition. 



It concerns a gander and a pike. The former developed a 

 nasty habit of wandering, so to cure it the owner tied to its 

 leg a big fish-hook with half a frog attached. The bait took 

 the fancy of a pike, who swallowed it, thereby arresting the 

 progress of the gander, and causing it to perform a number of 

 somersaults on the surface of the water. For some time the 

 struggle was most amusing, the fish pulling and the bird 

 screaming, each with all its might ; the one attempting to fly, 

 and the other attempting to swim from the invisible enemy ; 

 the gander at one moment losing, and the next moment re- 

 gaining, his centre of gravity. At length victory was with 

 the gander, who, bearing away for the shore of the pond, 

 landed on the green grass one of the finest pike ever caught 

 in the neighbourhood. 



Professor Day, or " Josser " as he is dubbed by those who 

 know him intimately, is one of the characters of Broadland. 

 History does not record whether he earned the distinguished 

 title for his prowess at " the noble art of self-defence," or at 

 the more peaceful " art of angling," but it is a well-known 

 fact that he is equally proficient at either, and further, that 

 his skill and local knowledge regarding the latter sport is, 

 and has been, unequalled during the present century. The 

 Professor can tell before he starts out for the day whether 

 sport will be obtained or whether it would not be better to 



