PIKE FISHING. 329 



Of the numerous streams where pike are to be found, there are 



none where he makes himself more thoroughly at home than the 



Thames, and it is in the waters of the metropolitan river that we 



Londoners mostly seek his acquaintance. A Thames jack is no 



fool, and, especially when he has arrived at years of discretion, he 



wants a lot of taking. In the days of my youth I can recollect 



fishing for pike with gimp about as thick as my little finger and 



other tackle to correspond. It was considered quite fine enough, 



and the fish apparently accepted our theories on the subject 



implicitly, allowing themselves to be captured with engaging 

 ease. 



Not so the Thames jack of to-day ; he must be lured with all 

 sorts of delicacies of the most elaborate kind. These must be 

 mounted with scientifically arranged hooks, and the trace must be 

 of single salmon gut. It would almost seem, indeed, as if the 

 time were not far distant when the proper and only thing to use 

 will be trout gut, so great is the objection that Thames pike dis- 

 play for anything but fine gear. Apropos of gut, I recollect some 

 years ago killing, on a well-known Scotch loch, when trolling for 

 trout, a pike which weighed over twenty-five pounds on a trout gut 

 trace and with a fourteen-foot rod. 



The season for pike begins on the 1 6th June, but this date is 

 much too early to begin pike-fishing on the Thames. The fish 

 recover condition after spawning very slowly, and it is the opinion of 

 many anglers that September is quite soon enough to try for them. 

 From October to the end of January good sport may be obtained, 

 according to weather. Moreover, during these months the 

 pleasure traffic ceases, and fish and fishermen are not being con- 

 stantly disturbed by the ubiquitous steam launch. If there has 



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