124 COARSE FISH. 



this might well be altered to the i6th of July 

 or 1st of August. I am speaking particularly of 

 the Thames, where we have such vast quantities of 

 bleak, roach, dace, &c., that I am of opinion the 

 pike do less harm than in other rivers to the trout. 

 In a trout-stream proper, pike should be slain 

 without mercy, and the gun and the snare unhesi- 

 tatingly employed to get rid of them. 



Pike are in best season from October to February, 

 for a winter pike is firm and hard, deep and 

 thickset, very different from the wretched 

 scarecrows that are caught in July or August by 

 those who fish for them at that time of year. 

 Windy, blustery weather gives good sport as a rule ; 

 the wind seems to stir the fish up and they are 

 keen for their food ; in very still weather pike seem 

 lazy and disinclined to feed, speaking, that is, from 

 my own experience. I have done but little good 

 when the wind is in the east or when heavy snow 

 has fallen, though I have had good sport occa- 

 sionally in hard frosts ; sometimes, in very hard 

 frosts, I have been unable to stir a fish. In 

 Norfolk, I once had a good day when the cold was 

 so intense that I had to keep knocking the ice off 

 the float, the fish froze stiff in a very short while, 

 and the bait-kettle was thickly encrusted with ice. 

 I was fishing a deep pool below a mill ; the great 

 eddy kept the water open, while the ice above the 

 mill was strong enough for skating. Do not, there- 

 fore, allow a cold day to stop your pike-fishing, 

 but fish the deepest \\aters, for there the fish will 

 most likely be found. 



In bitterly cold weather, the line will freeze in 

 the rings ; and to prevent this, cotton-wool should 

 he tied in the rings and saturated with castor oil, 



