Pike (fish)

“ His clothes are the colour of the heron’s feathers, his rod painted sky-blue, and his line is grey-green like the long stalks of the water-plants.
He creeps along the mossy, boggy bank, taking care to avoid all disturbance of the water. The pike is timid, and easily put to flight, watchful and agile; if he only breaks a reed, if he only lets a snail-shell drop into the water, it will perceive him. He finds out places where he thinks the fish is lying, and expectantly drops his bait beyond the edge of the reeds on the point of land. ”

“ There were, however, pike in the pool when he reached it—great sluggish beauties, lazily lying under the gleaming, swaying leaves of the water-lilies. For once, he was in luck, to use his own words: ‘As our bait traversed the deep back-water, we felt the indescribable thrill, or rather shock, which proceeds from a decided run, and a three-pound pike fights as gamely as a ten-pounder.’ The small fish caught, he trudged on in the waning afternoon sunshine to the second pool; startling a kingfisher, which flashed out of the reeds behind him like a veritable gem of living colour. ”

“ The pike, termed for its voracity the fresh-water shark, is found in most of the larger lakes and rivers of Great Britain. It grows to an immense size—is easily produced as a pond fish—and, being a bold determined biter, affords excellent sport to the lovers of the art. It is taken with natural and artificial baits, as frogs, mice, minnows or any kind of fry; and when the weather is favourable very little skill is requisite to obtain abundant sport in a well-stocked water. The best mode of pike-fishing is trolling. ”

“ Pike are autumn and winter fish and are at their best in December. They grow to a very considerable size, fish of 20 lb being regarded as "specimens" and an occasional thirty-pounder rewarding the zealous and fortunate. The heaviest pike caught with a rod in recent years which is sufficiently authenticated, weighed 37 lb, but heavier specimens are said to have been taken in Irish lakes. River pike up to about 10 lb in weight are excellent eating.
America has several species of pike, of which the muskelunge of the great lake region (Esox masquinongy) is the most important. ”

“ After a few frantic rushes it weakens very materially, and if kept away from weeds soon gives up the struggle for freedom.
In England, where game-fishes are much scarcer than in this country, the pike is considered a fine game-fish and is much sought after by bait-fishers, and with a wonderful array of murderous traces, minnow-gangs, and spinning tackle. In the United States, where there are so many better game-fishes, it is not often made the object of special pursuit. Most pike are caught by anglers in northern waters when fishing for black-bass. ”

“ A large fish does not care to move except for a good mouthful. The best pike-fisher I know prefers a half-pound chub when he goes after one of his fifteen-pound jack; and the largest pike I ever ran—and lost, alas!—who seemed of any weight above twenty pounds, was hooked on a live white fish of full three-quarters of a pound. Still, no good angler will despise the minute North-country flies. In Yorkshire they are said to kill the large chalk trout of Driffield as well as the small limestone and grit fish of Craven ”

“ The pike is an animal of extraordinary boldness. A few years ago, the head keeper of Richmond Park was washing his hands at the side of a boat, in the great pond, when a pike made a dart at one of his hands, which the keeper suddenly withdrew, otherwise he would have received a severe snap.
Mr. Jesse says, "Fish appear to be capable of entertaining affection for each other. I once caught a female pike during the spawning season, and nothing could drive the male away from the spot at which the female disappeared, whom he had followed to the very edge of the water. ”

“ As for pike, which are inferior to no fresh-water fish, and now more esteemed than ever, being less plentiful upon draining the fens, and so harm more; they are dangerous guests in the great waters; for if grown large, they will devour and destroy the best fish, and depopulate the water. But thus far you may trust them; if you can procure one hundred jacks once in two years not exceeding nine inches, you may put them with the carps into your great waters, so as your carps are not under nine or ten inches ”

“ In some remarkable and incomprehensible manner the good old name of Pike has fallen into disuse, and is now applied in this country to a fish that is not a pike at all, but a perch, Lucio perca, the Pike Perch, Big-eyed Pike, or Glass Eye of the Lakes; while the name Pickerel, which is merely the diminutive of Pike, is appropriated to the most gigantic and ferocious monsters of the deep. ”

“ I also learned that the fish had repeatedly treated other anglers as it treated me, holding the bait for a short time in its mouth and then rejecting it.
So it is clear that the water-vole will by no means be safe from the pike when it is the inhabitant of the brook instead of the river.
Moreover, it does not need a very large pike to devour a full-grown water-vole. The pike can swallow an animal which seems quite disproportionate to its size. A young pike of barely five inches in length was seen swimming about with the tail of a gudgeon projecting from its mouth. ”

“ Lakes ten, eight and six miles long, swarming with trout and perch, offer exceptional facilities for pike, yet very big fish are rarely caught. For many years past I have only heard of one twenty-pounder, though all the lakes are keenly fished. The record is a pike of 34 lb., caught in Bassenthwaite in 1861, on a spinning bait. The fact is that only few pike reach 20 lb., and fish over that weight, when caught, should be celebrated by a dinner and a fitting glass case. No, the modern pike is not the creature of our youthful imagination. ”

“ Th' insnared fish, here on the top doth scud,
There underneath the banks, then in the mud,
And with his frantic fits so scares the shoal,
That each one takes his hide, or starting hole:
By this the pike, clean wearied, underneath
A willow lies. ”

“ Oa, hearing the swish of her bow, has only time to make a few hasty snaps at the big perch’s already swollen belly; her thick, fleshy lips are still pulling at the Rasper’s intestines as she slowly dives down into deep water.
The gulls and terns, which have begun to gather about the spot, are filled with renewed hope, and swoop down upon their prey with vociferous cries. Involuntarily the angler’s attention is attracted to them.
He takes out his glasses, then rows nearer; and in another moment he has the two fish in his landing-net.
What a haul! A pike that has gorged itself on a giant perch! ”

“ Anglers know well that the voracious pike is a fish most tenacious of life, and that hours after he has lain in the fishing-creel apparently dead, he is quite capable of giving a snap with his sharp teeth. But few are aware how long a pike will live out of his proper element. ”

“ Live fish are the best bait, as we have before remarked, though the leg of a frog is good, and in winter a piece of pork, but nothing can be better than a shiner or a little perch; and it might here be remarked, that as the pike is an epicure in the manner of his eating, it is invariably a good plan to let him have his own time, after he has seized the bait. As to torchlight fishing for pike, though unquestionably out of the pale of the regular angler’s sporting, it is attended with much that we must deem poetical and interesting. ”

“ The pike take the larger double hook gaudy fly, in deep running places, beyond the weeds, when there is a stiff breeze blowing and small close rain falling, and at no other time will he look at a fly; it is useless to try unless in a rapid stream, which is an unusual place for him to haunt in general. Autumn is the best [222] time for these fish. When you prepare the trolling bait for jack or pike, have a needle to draw the gymp through the bait, say a minnow, gudgeon, or dace, putting it in at the mouth of the fish and out near the root of the tail ”

“ In summer it may be caught with a worm or minnow bait; and in winter holes are cut in the ice, and the white grub, usually found in decayed wood, is used as bait. In springtime the fly is most attractive. The wall-eyed pike, as the pike-perch is sometimes called, is found usually in the Southern States, western New York, the Great Lakes, and Canada, in which latter country it is known as the doree, another fish of the small species being known as the sandre. It is an exceptionally gluttonous fish, easily caught with a hook, and in Lake Champlain is occasionally caught by trolling. ”

“ Perch, on the contrary, are said to be so ravenous that they will devour their own spawn, and that of other fishes. They breed freely and are quite hardy, but do not grow rapidly. Trout, when kept in ponds, are rather ravenous; but pike far exceed all other fish in this respect. A large pike will destroy nearly all the small weak fishes in a pond; and, indeed, he has been known to seize young ducks, and devour them. ”

“ I find among my notes on Witham pike fishing, that in 1890 one angler [76b] took, in two hours, five fish, weighing altogether 31lbs.; the largest scaling over a stone (14lbs.) , measured 351⁄2 inches in length and 19 inches in girth. A few days later he landed fishes of 7lbs. and 5lbs., while another angler, about the same date, secured a pike of 16lbs. But a Horncastle fisherman, [76c] in the same week, captured one of 18lbs. in the Witham near Tattershall. One of our greatest anglers states that his largest pike, taken in the Witham, was 161⁄4lbs. ”

“ As for pikes, the best food to raise them up to an extraordinary fatness is eels; and without them it is not to be done, but in a long time; otherwise small perches are the best meat you can give them. And the common opinion, that pikes will not eat perches, because of their armed backs, is a great mistake, as I have found by certain experience. Breams put into a pike-pond, will breed exceedingly, and are good enough to maintain pikes, who will take care they shall not increase overmuch. ”

“ I have collected it on the east coast of Florida of a beautiful emerald-green coloration, without distinct dark markings, and with orange-colored lower fins—a most beautiful fish.
Although an interesting little fish, it is of no importance to anglers and is merely mentioned here, with the little western pickerel, to enable the reader to identify the different members of the pike family. It spawns early in the spring. It seldom grows beyond a foot in length, and is usually much smaller. Fishing for it is on the same plane with sunfishing, and the lightest tackle should be employed. ”

“ The body of this fish much resembles a pike in shape; but the scales, which are very large and stiff, are of a beautifully bright silver colour; the mouth is large, and situated like that of a pike; but when open, much resembles that of a sturgeon; and though not provided with any teeth, takes a bait as ravenously as a pike or a trout. The sizes we caught were from two feet long to four feet. Their flesh, though delicately white, is very soft, and has so rank a taste, that many of the Indians, except they are in absolute want, will not eat it. The Northern Indians call this fish Shees. ”

“ He has, usually, not been long on his perch, before he perceives a stately pike, or other member of the finny tribe, paddling up the river, he instantly breaks a leaf off the cabbage, and when the fish has approached sufficiently near, throws it into the water, the frightened fish immediately disappears, but shortly after rises, and grateful to the kind and unknown friend who has provided this admirable parasol, swims towards it, and after pushing it about for a while with his nose, finally places himself comfortably under its protecting and congenial shade. ”

“ One of ten pounds, stuffed with a savory dressing and baked, is not unpalatable, but cannot be compared favorably with the whitefish, black-bass, or trout.
The pike when of large size is a good game [140] fish. Its weight and strength, added to its bold rushes when hooked, are very trying to light tackle. One of fifteen pounds is worthy of the angler's most serious attention on an eight-ounce rod. Its manner of fighting is similar to that of the mascalonge, though in a lesser degree, and it does not continue its resistance so long. ”

“ Plenty and peace have taken possession of the land, and the pioneer of other days has become the nabob of the present time.
123 PIKE FISHING. If so be the angler catch no fish yet hath he a wholesome walk to the brook-side, and pleasant shade by the sweet silver streams. Robert Burton.
The Pike is a common fish in all the temperate, and some of the northern regions of the world; but in no country does he arrive at greater perfection than in the United States. For some unaccountable reason he is generally known in this country as the pickerel ”

“ His 2 lb. trout was seized by a 5 lb. pike. The pike held on while the angler reeled in towards the boat; then the attendant slipped his net beneath them and landed the pair. Thus was piracy adequately punished. Sometimes, ignoring the bait, a pike will seize the float or the lead, and his teeth becoming entangled in the line he will be landed.
Once an account appeared in The Field of a good-sized pike caught in a most remarkable fashion. A net of fish as bait was hanging over the side of a boat. A pike attacked these fish, and becoming involved in the mesh was drawn aboard and killed. ”