The Complete Angler, 5th edition/Chapter VIII
The fourth day, continued
On the Luce or Pike
Piscator and Venator
Piscator. The mighty Luce or Pike is taken to be the tyrant, as the
Salmon is the king, of the fresh water. 'Tis not to be doubted, but that
they are bred, some by generation, and some not; as namely, of a weed
called pickerel-weed, unless learned Gesner be much mistaken, for he
says, this weed and other glutinous matter, with the help of the sun's
heat, in some particular months, and some ponds, apted for it by nature,
do become Pikes. But, doubtless, divers Pikes are bred after this
manner, or are brought into some ponds some such Other ways as is
past man's finding out, of which we have daily testimonies.
Sir Francis Bacon, in his History of Life and Death, observes the Pike to
be the longest lived of any fresh-water fish; and yet he computes it to be
not usually above forty years; and others think it to be not above ten
years: and yet Gesner mentions a Pike taken in Swedeland, in the year
1449, with a ring about his neck, declaring he was put into that pond by
Frederick the Second, more than two hundred years before he was last
taken, as by the inscription in that ring, being Greek, was interpreted by
the then Bishop of Worms. But of this no more; but that it is observed,
that the old or very great Pikes have in them more of state than
goodness; the smaller or middle-sized Pikes being, by the most and
choicest palates, observed to be the best meat: and, contrary, the Eel is
observed to be the better for age and bigness.
All Pikes that live long prove chargeable to their keepers, because their
life is maintained by the death of so many other fish, even those of their
own kind, which has made him by some writers to be called the tyrant
of the rivers, or the fresh-water wolf, by reason of his bold, greedy,
devouring, disposition; which is so keen, as Gesner relates, A man
going to a pond, where it seems a Pike had devoured all the fish, to
water his mule, had a Pike bit his mule by the lips; to which the Pike
hung so fast, that the mule drew him out of the water; and by that
accident, the owner of the mule angled out the Pike. And the same
Gesner observes, that a maid in Poland had a Pike bit her by the foot, as
she was washing clothes in a pond. And I have heard the like of a
woman in Killingworth pond, not far from Coventry. But I have been
assured by my friend Mr. Segrave, of whom I spake to you formerly,
that keeps tame Otters, that he hath known a Pike, in extreme hunger,
fight with one of his Otters for a Carp that the Otter had caught, and
was then bringing out of the water. I have told you who relate these
things; and tell you they are persons of credit; and shall conclude this
observation, by telling you, what a wise man has observed, " It is a hard
thing to persuade the belly, because it has no ears ".
But if these relations be disbelieved, it is too evident to be doubted, that
a Pike will devour a fish of his own kind that shall be bigger than his
belly or throat will receive, and swallow a part of him, and let the other
part remain in his mouth till the swallowed part be digested, and then
swallow that other part that was in his mouth, and so put it over by
degrees; which is not unlike the Ox, and some other beasts taking their
meat, not out of their mouth immediately into their belly, but first into
some place betwixt, and then chew it, or digest it by degrees after,
which is called chewing the cud. And, doubtless, Pikes will bite when
they are not hungry; but, as some think, even for very anger, when a
tempting bait comes near to them.
And it is observed, that the Pike will eat venomous things, as some kind
of frogs are, and yet live without being harmed by them; for, as some
say, he has in him a natural balsam, or antidote against all poison. And
he has a strange heat, that though it appear to us to be cold, can yet
digest or put over any fish-flesh, by degrees, without being sick. And
others observe, that he never eats the venomous frog till he have first
killed her, and then as ducks are observed to do to frogs in spawning-
time, at which time some frogs are observed to be venomous, so
thoroughly washed her, by tumbling her up and down in the water, that
he may devour her without danger. And Gesner affirms, that a Polonian
gentleman did faithfully assure him, he had seen two young geese at
one time in the belly of a Pike. And doubtless a Pike in his height of
hunger will bite at and devour a dog that swims in a pond; and there
have been examples of it, or the like; for as I told you, " The belly has
no ears when hunger comes upon it "
The Pike is also observed to be a solitary, melancholy, and a bold fish;
melancholy, because he always swims or rests himself alone, and never
swims in shoals or with company, as Roach and Dace, and most other
fish do: and bold, because he fears not a shadow, or to see or be seen of
anybody, as the Trout and Chub, and all other fish do.
And it is observed by Gesner, that the jaw-bones, and hearts, and galls
of Pikes, are very medicinable for several diseases, or to stop blood, to
abate fevers, to cure agues, to oppose or expel the infection of the
plague, and to be many ways medicinable and useful for the good of
mankind: but he observes, that the biting of a Pike is venomous, and
hard to be cured.
And it is observed, that the Pike is a fish that breeds but once a year;
and that other fish, as namely Loaches, do breed oftener: as we are
certain tame Pigeons do almost every month; and yet the Hawk, a bird
of prey, as the Pike is a fish, breeds but once in twelve months. And you
are to note, that his time of breeding, or spawning, is usually about the
end of February, or, somewhat later, in March, as the weather proves
colder or warmer: and to note, that his manner of breeding is thus: a he
and a she Pike will usually go together out of a river into some ditch or
creek; and that there the spawner casts her eggs, and the melter hovers
over her all that time that she is casting her spawn, but touches her not.
I might say more of this, but it might be thought curiosity or worse, and
shall therefore forbear it; and take up so much of your attention as to
tell you that the best of Pikes are noted to be in rivers; next, those in
great ponds or meres; and the worst, in small ponds.
But before I proceed further, I am to tell you, that there is a great
antipathy betwixt the Pike and some frogs: and this may appear to the
reader of Dubravius, a bishop in Bohemia, who, in his book Of Fish and
Fish-ponds, relates what he says he saw with his own eyes, and could
not forbear to tell the reader. Which was:
"As he and the bishop Thurzo were walking by a large pond in
Bohemia, they saw a frog, when the Pike lay very sleepily and quiet by
the shore side, leap upon his head; and the frog having expressed
malice or anger by his sworn cheeks and staring eyes, did stretch out his
legs and embrace the Pike's head, and presently reached them to his
eyes, tearing with them, and his teeth, those tender parts: the Pike,
moved with anguish, moves up and down the water, and rubs himself
against weeds, and whatever he thought might quit him of his enemy;
but all in vain, for the frog did continue to ride triumphantly, and to bite
and torment the Pike till his strength failed; and then the frog sunk with
the Pike to the bottom of the water: then presently the frog appeared
again at the top, and croaked, and seemed to rejoice like a conqueror,
after which he presently retired to his secret hole. The bishop, that had
beheld the battle, called his fisherman to fetch his nets, and by all
means to get the Pike that they might declare what had happened: and
the Pike was drawn forth, and both his eyes eaten out; at which when
they began to wonder, the fisherman wished them to forbear, and
assured them he was certain that Pikes were often so served."
I told this, which is to be read in the sixth chapter of the book of
Dubravius, unto a friend, who replied, " It was as improbable as to have
the mouse scratch out the cat's eyes". But he did not consider, that there
be Fishing frogs, which the Dalmatians call the Water-devil, of which I
might tell you as wonderful a story: but I shall tell you that 'tis not to be
doubted but that there be some frogs so fearful of the water-snake, that
when they swim in a place in which they fear to meet with him they
then get a reed across into their mouths; which if they two meet by
accident, secures the frog from the strength and malice of the snake;
and note, that the frog usually swims the fastest of the two.
And let me tell you, that as there be water and land frogs, so there be
land and water snakes. Concerning which take this observation, that the
land-snake breeds and hatches her eggs, which become young snakes,
in some old dunghill, or a like hot place: but the water-snake, which is
not venomous, and as I have been assured by a great observer of such
secrets, does not hatch, but breed her young alive, which she does not
then forsake, but bides with them, and in case of danger will take them
all into her mouth and swim away from any apprehended danger, and
then let them out again when she thinks all danger to be past: these be
accidents that we Anglers sometimes see, and often talk of.
But whither am I going ? I had almost lost myself, by remembering the
discourse of Dubravius. I will therefore stop here; and tell you,
according to my promise, how to catch this Pike.
His feeding is usually of fish or frogs; and sometimes a weed of his
own, called pickerel-weed, of which I told you some think Pikes are
bred; for they have observed, that where none have been put into ponds,
yet they have there found many; and that there has been plenty of that
weed in those ponds, and that that weed both breeds and feeds them:
but whether those Pikes, so bred, will ever breed by generation as the
others do, I shall leave to the disquisitions of men of more curiosity and
leisure than I profess myself to have: and shall proceed to tell you, that
you may fish for a Pike, either with a ledger or a walking-bait; and you
are to note, that I call that a Ledger-bait, which is fixed or made to rest
in one certain place when you shall be absent from it; and I call that a
Walking-bait, which you take with you, and have ever in motion.
Concerning which two, I shall give you this direction; that your ledger-
bait is best to be a living bait (though a dead one may catch), whether it
be a fish or a frog: and that you may make them live the longer, you
may, or indeed you must, take this course:
First, for your LIVE-BAIT. Of fish, a roach or dace is, I think, best and
most tempting; and a perch is the longest lived on a hook, and having
cut off his fin on his back, which may be done without hurting him, you
must take your knife, which cannot be too sharp, and betwixt the head
and the fin on the back, cut or make an incision, or such a scar, as you
may put the arming-wire of your hook into it, with as little bruising or
hurting the fish as art and diligence will enable you to do; and so
carrying your arming-wire along his back, unto or near the tail of your
fish, betwixt the skin and the body of it, draw out that wire or arming of
your hook at another scar near to his : the then tie him about it with
thread, but no harder than of necessity, to prevent hurting the fish; and
the better to avoid hurting the fish, some have a kind of probe to open
the way for the more easy entrance and passage of your wire or arming:
but as for these, time and a little experience will teach you better than I
can by words. Therefore I will for the present say no more of this; but
come next to give you some directions how to bait your hook with a
frog.
Venator. But, good master, did you not say even now, that some frogs
were venomous; and is it not dangerous to touch them ?
Piscator. Yes, but I will give you some rules or cautions concerning
them. And first you are to note, that there are two kinds of frogs, that is
to say, if I may so express myself, a flesh and fish frog. By flesh-frogs, I
mean frogs that breed and live on the land; and of these there be several
sorts also, and of several colours, some being speckled, some greenish,
some blackish, or brown: the green frog, which is a small one, is, by
Topsel, taken to be venomous; and so is the paddock, or frog-paddock,
which usually keeps or breeds on the land, and is very large and bony,
and big, especially the she-frog of that kind: yet these will sometimes
come into the water, but it is not often: and the land-frogs are some of
them observed by him, to breed by laying eggs; and others to breed of
the slime and dust of the earth, and that in winter they turn to slime
again, and that the next summer that very slime returns to be a living
creature, this is the opinion of Pliny. And Cardanus undertakes to give a
reason for the raining of frogs: but if it were in my power, it should rain
none but water-frogs; for those I think are not venomous, especially the
right water-frog, which, about February or March, breeds in ditches, by
slime, and blackish eggs in that slime: about which time of breeding,
the he and she frogs are observed to use divers summersaults, and to
croak and make a noise, which the land-frog, or paddock-frog, never
does.
Now of these water-frogs, if you intend to fish with a frog for a Pike,
you are to choose the yellowest that you can get, for that the Pike ever
likes best. And thus use your frog, that he may continue long alive:
Put your hook into his mouth, which you may easily do from the middle
of April till August; and then the frog's mouth grows up, and he
continues so for at least six months without eating, but is sustained,
none but He whose name is Wonderful knows how: I say, put your
hook, I mean the arming-wire, through his mouth, and out at his gills;
and then with a fine needle and silk sew the upper part of his leg, with
only one stitch, to the arming-wire of your hook; or tie the frog's leg,
above the upper joint, to the armed-wire; and, in so doing, use him as
though you loved him, that is, harm him as little as you may possibly,
that he may live the longer.
And now, having given you this direction for the baiting your ledger-
hook with a live fish or frog, my next must be to tell you, how your
hook thus baited must or may be used; and it is thus: having fastened
your hook to a line, which if it be not fourteen yards long should not be
less than twelve, you are to fasten that line to any bough near to a hole
where a Pike is, or is likely to lie, or to have a haunt; and then wind
your line on any forked stick, all your line, except half a yard of it or
rather more; and split that forked stick, with such a nick or notch at one
end of it as may keep the line from any more of it ravelling from about
the stick than so much of it as you intend. And choose your forked stick
to be of that bigness as may keep the fish or frog from pulling the
forked stick under the water till the Pike bites; and then the Pike having
pulled the line forth of the cleft or nick of that stick in which it was
gently fastened, he will have line enough to go to his hold and pouch
the bait And if you would have this ledger-bait to keep at a fixt place
undisturbed by wind or other accidents which may drive it to the shore-
side, for you are to note, that it is likeliest to catch a Pike in the midst
of the water, then hang a small plummet of lead, a stone, or piece of
tile, or a turf, in a string, and cast it into the water with the forked stick
to hang upon the ground, to be a kind of anchor to keep the forked stick
from moving out of your intended place till the Pike come: this I take to
be a very good way to use so many ledger-baits as you intend to make
trial o£
Or if you bait your hooks thus with live fish or frogs, and in a windy
day, fasten them thus to a bough or bundle of straw, and by the help of
that wind can get them to move across a pond or mere, you are like to
stand still on the shore and see sport presently, if there be any store of
Pikes. Or these live baits may make sport, being tied about the body or
wings of a goose or duck, and she chased over a pond. And the like may
be done with turning three or four live baits, thus fastened to bladders,
or boughs, or bottles of hay or flags, to swim down a river, whilst you
walk quietly a]one on the shore, and are still in expectaion of sport. The
rest must be taught you by practice; for time will not allow me to say
more of this kind of fishing with live baits.
And for your DEAD-BAIT for a Pike: for that you may be taught by one
day's going a-fishing with me, or any other body that fishes for him; for
the baiting your hook with a dead gudgeon or a roach, and moving it up
and down the water, is too easy a thing to take up any time to direct you
to do it. And yet, because I cut you short in that, I will commute for it
by telling you that that was told me for a secret: it is this: Dissolve gum
of ivy in oil of spike, and therewith anoint your dead bait for a Pike;
and then cast it into a likely place; and when it has lain a short time at
the bottom, draw it towards the top of the water, and so up the stream;
and it is more than likely that you have a Pike follow with more than
common eagerness. And some affirm, that any bait anointed with the
marrow of the thigh-bone of a heron is a great temptation to any fish.
These have not been tried by me, but told me by a friend of note, that
pretended to do me a courtesy. But if this direction to catch a Pike thus
do you no good, yet I am certain this direction how to roast him when
he is caught is choicely good; for I have tried it, and it is somewhat the
better for not being common. But with my direction you must take this
caution, that your Pike must not be a small one, that is, it must be more
than half a yard, and should be bigger.
"First, open your Pike at the gills, and if need be, cut also a little slit
towards the belly. Out of these, take his guts; and keep his liver, which
you are to shred very small, with thyme, sweet marjoram, and a little
winter-savoury; to these put some pickled oysters, and some anchovies,
two or three; both these last whole, for the anchovies will melt, and the
oysters should not; to these, you must add also a pound of sweet butter,
which you are to mix with the herbs that are shred, and let them all be
well salted. If the Pike be more than a yard long, then you may put into
these herbs more than a pound, or if he be less, then less butter will
suffice: These, being thus mixt, with a blade or two of mace, must be
put into the Pike's belly; and then his belly so sewed up as to keep all
the butter in his belly if it be possible; if not, then as much of it as you
possibly can. But take not off the scales. Then you are to thrust the spit
through his mouth, out at his tail. And then take four or five or six split
sticks, or very thin laths, and a convenient quantity of tape or filleting;
these laths are to be tied round about the Pike's body, from his head to
his tail, and the tape tied somewhat thick, to prevent his breaking or
falling off from the spit. Let him be roasted very leisurely; and often
basted with claret wine, and anchovies, and butter, mixt together; and
also with what moisture falls from him into the pan. When you have
roasted him sufficiently, you are to hold under him, when you unwind
or cut the tape that ties him, such a dish as you purpose to eat him out
of; and let him fall into it with the sauce that is roasted in his belly; and
by this means the Pike will be kept unbroken and complete. Then, to
the sauce which was within, and also that sauce in the pan, you are to
add a fit quantity of the best butter, and to squeeze the juice of three or
four oranges. Lastly, you may either put it into the Pike, with the
oysters, two cloves of garlick, and take it whole out, when the Pike is
cut off the spit; or, to give the sauce a haut goût, let the dish into which
you let the Pike fall be rubbed with it: The using or not using of this
garlick is left to your discretion. M. B."
This dish of meat is too good for any but anglers, or very honest men;
and I trust you will prove both, and therefore I have trusted you with
this secret.
Let me next tell you, that Gesner tells us, there are no Pikes in Spain,
and that the largest are in the lake Thrasymene in Italy; and the next, if
not equal to them, are the Pikes of England; and that in England,
Lincolnshire boasteth to have the biggest. Just so doth Sussex boast of
four sorts of fish, namely, an Arundel Mullet, a Chichester Lobster, a
Shelsey Cockle, and an Amerly Trout.
But I will take up no more of your time with this relation, but proceed
to give you some Observations of the Carp, and how to angle for him;
and to dress him but not till he is caught.