II 



FEBRUARY FILL-DYKE 



I WONDER whether there is a close-time 

 for pike, and what the penalty is for 

 disregarding it. I suppose that as a fisher- 

 man I ought to know, but there might just 

 as well be a close-time for rats in a wheat-stack 

 as for pike in a trout-stream. For all I know 

 they may be out of season in February, so 

 perhaps I had better not mention the name 

 of the river referred to in these notes of a 

 February day, lest I be pursued by those whose 

 business it is to deal with breakers of the law. 

 In such matters the activities of upholders 

 of the law are confined to their own fishery 

 districts. It is not their business to pursue 

 malefactors beyond those limits. The main 

 point is that the pike must be got rid of by 

 every imaginable device, and they seem to 

 take better in these parts in February and 

 March than at any other time of the year. 

 Spinning for pike in fast-running water is great 



