vi A FEBRUARY PIKE 103 



over without a touch, the edge of enthusiasm 

 was to some extent blunted, and the keeper, 

 who appeared about mid -day, was asked 

 somewhat petulantly to explain the wrong- 

 headedness of the fish under his charge. 

 This, of course, he could not do, but, 

 willing enough to tell of past triumphs, he 

 furbished up the tale of the nineteen- 

 pounder anew, and dwelt on the labour of 

 carrying it home, accompanied as it was by 

 two others of fourteen pounds and thirteen 

 pounds respectively, both caught by the 

 lucky fisherman on the same day. 



Having done his duty by the triumphs 

 of history he departed, and somewhat 

 cheered I returned to my spinning, deter- 

 mined to give the sixteen-pounder another 

 chance. Opposite the hatch-hole of which 

 mention has been made, the river was deep 

 and some thirty yards wide, but a few yards 

 above was a shelving shallow. Spinning 

 across and up-stream I thoroughly searched 

 the deep water and worked up towards the 

 shallow, making casts of about thirty-five 

 yards. At last, in some four feet of water, I 

 had that blessed sensation only obtained in 

 spinning for pike, the sensation that some- 



