264 



Peacock : The Beck — A Study. 



This pike was an old friend of months' duration, and had 

 taken up his abode in the deep pool by the reeds the March 

 before. Three males and a female fish had arrived about the same 

 time from the river, where they retire for the winter for warmth 

 and a better supply of food ; and most furious contests took 

 place for supremacy and the possession of the lady, who was 

 the largest fish of the four. After watching- their interminable 

 struggles for some time, I ' wired - the lady and her two smaller 

 admirers, leaving the old leviathan, which weighed about 

 seven pounds, to have the reach to himself; at the same time 

 stopping his exit at both ends by a strong wire net from bank to 

 bank. 



Now ' wiring fish ' is the most unsportsmanlike sport I know 

 of, but I have tried all w r ays of taking pike, and still prefer it. 

 All ways are a certainty in streams like our becks ; and at one 

 time I would have undertaken to catch every pike of any size in 

 a given distance in a given time if they were not spawning, but 

 it is quite a different thing with the wire. You may visit the 

 water day after day before you can find a fish lying conveniently 

 for slipping a wire over and round it, and having a successful 

 heave. Of the three fish just mentioned, the two males were 

 taken on the morning and afternoon of the same day after 

 a little dexterous manipulation ; the lady was captured the 

 following evening, but not with the same brilliant success. It 

 was a bright sunny late afternoon in mid April, with a sharp 

 north-easter blowing, when I set out to look for her amongst 

 the weeds, where she was soon found in her usual berth, but 

 from which she as quickly retired to the deeper water for 

 additional security. There she would have been absolutely 

 indistinguishable from the surrounding mud and decayed 

 vegetation to any but the most practised eyes. I was using 

 a double twist of copper wire, and with the depth of the water 

 found the greatest difficulty in working the noose round the 

 fish, especially as she was lying head up stream close to some 

 rotting flags of the previous summer. The water was so deep 

 and the ripples so continuous, that I had to stand on the very 

 edge of the bank to see at all, and had to plant my feet very 

 firmly before striking. The fish came overhead easily'and well, 

 but, alas, not safely. The bank had been considerably under- 

 mined by the floods of the preceding winter, .and the sudden 

 jerk and heave proved too much for its tenacity ; and before 

 I could quite realise the whole position, I was reposing three 

 feet below the surface of the water on a soft bed of ooze, on 



Naturalist, 



