PIKE-FISHING. 185 



Bagshot. I have seen several preserved specimens of fish 

 of about 3olb. weight in different parts of the country, but 

 there are none to my knowledge so heavy as that mentioned 

 above, of which Mr. Frank Buckland took a cast. ^Ve 

 hear of exceptional pike of 4olb., but the stories are 

 generally second-hand. The fishmongers at Leadenhall 

 have had Dutch pike up to 481b. 



During the high floods that occurred in the Thames 

 valley during the weeks succeeding the turn of the new year 

 (1875), 'lis pike-fishers were completely nonplussed. One 

 of the best known amongst them went up the river as soon 

 as there seemed to be a prospect of success, and found the 

 water, to his disgust, in colour and consistency, not unlike 

 pea-soup. All his efforts were unsuccessful till luncheon 

 time. Then he moored the punt to the rushes in a position 

 commanding a quiet eddy. He discarded the ordinary 

 method of live-baiting, and, by affixing a heavy bullet a 

 yard from the hook, improvised a rude ledgering apparatus. 

 The result justified his choice of both place and method. 

 His live-bait were large dace, and the yard of free tracing 

 below the bullet gave them an opportunity of pirouetting in 

 a pretty wide circle. The angler had fortunately " struck 

 'ile"; the eddy of his choice happened no doubt to be the 

 furnished apartments into which a large family of pike had 

 been driven by stress of water, and the bait had dropped 

 into their midst like manna in the wilderness. Their pike- 

 ships one after another simply opened their jaws and 

 absorbed the treacherous dace, without moving a foot, 

 running madly when they found out the sort of man the 

 angler was, but till then taking things ridiculously easy. In 

 one lucky hour — I saw the fish, beantifiilly shaped and 



