Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

I thought not dear, considering that I got nearly three dozen of very nice perch and some gudgeons in exchange for it, which had been taken in the thieving-net as I anticipated. Having done this, and sunk the net again, I went on trolling till the servant came back rather suddenly, and having pulled up the net, found only a cat in it-his astonishment was great, that forgetting his former caution, he came up to tell me of this extraordinary circumstance. I affected to be as much surprised as himself, and asked him if there had been any fish in the net; and when he told me there were some, I pretended to be still more surprised, and suggested whether it was possible the cat had gone into the net to catch the fish. The servant seemed to have little doubt that this was the case; I told him he had better open the cat, and ascertain if she had eat themthis the man proposed immediately to do; but having anticipated some such test as this, I had previously crammed a couple of gudgeons down the cat's throat; and as soon as the servant had got out his knife ready to operate, I asked him to let me first look at the cat's mouth, when, upon squeezing her neck, I soon made the tail of a fish appear, and told the man there could be no doubt but that the cat had gone into the net after the fish. The man and the cat were both gudgeoned, and he went off openmouthed to tell his master, while I walked quietly home, thinking I had had sport enough for that day.

An occurrence of a somewhat similar gullability took place in my presence some years ago, while a party were jack fishing on a Meer, in a western county. A club had been formed, consisting of nine

members, who were accustomed to meet once a fortnight for the purpose of perch and pike fishing, and who usually had very good sport, frequently catching ten, twelve, or fourteen pike each, weighing upon an average eight pounds a fish, though I have several times known pike caught which would weigh from fifteen to twenty-eight pounds; this of course did not happen often, but perhaps six or seven times in the course of the season. The perch generally run from one pound to three pounds each, and on a favourable day, there was no end to the sport with them. On the Meer there was a small island, with a cottage on it, where the club dined; when dinner was ready, it was announced by a certain signal, and immediately all the boats steered direct for port. When once placed at table, with the window open, so as to give a full view of the water, such was the beauty of the scenery, the refreshing coolness of the wines, tankards, &c. &c., that it generally required no little degree of resolution to induce one to leave this social board, to return to the boats, and it was only the most persevering brothers of the angle that would do so. It was always a rule when dinner was announced for each person to set three or four trimmers, and it afterwards afforded no little amusement to hunt out the different trimmers, and bet, of those that had run, which had the heaviest fish. so large a piece of water, with a lively fish, it was a work of some time before the boats could row near enough to the trimmers to take them up. Sometimes during dinner, four or five trimmers would have run, and could be seen all sailing up the meer; three or four boats would be then dispatched after

In

them, and if a trimmer suddenly crossed the water, the fleet of boats were brought into contact to the no small enjoyment and sometimes danger of the boaters. One member of the club was a little dapper good-humoured rotundity of a man, whose only pretension for becoming a member, was his similarity to the pike, in having an endless appetite. This little gentleman being very unskilful, was for ever losing the baits off his hooks, and consumed more baits, and gave more trouble, than all the other members of the club together. He offered, on one occasion after dinner, to bet five sovereigns that a particular trimmer had a larger fish at it than another; this bet being accepted, a long and animated chase took place till the trimmers were taken up; but instead of finding a fish at his trimmer, a dead moor-hen was found on the hook. Nothing could describe the little man's surprise, nor could he be persuaded but that the moor-hen must have accidentally stuck itself upon the hooks in trying to get the bait off, and after carrying the trimmer all over the meer, was drowned at last in trying to get away under water. The fact was, one of the party having shot a moor-hen, put it on as bait, and the line of another trimmer which a fish had run out, had crossed the one on which the moorhen was, and of course wherever the fish went, he took both trimmers with him. Our little friend still continued in his belief that the moor-hen had stuck itself on the hooks and no one took the trouble to contradict him. The gentleman who had won the five sovereigns, thinking to have a little more sport with the moor hen, unperceived, put it down the throat of

a good sized live pike, and hooking the fish fast on to a trimmer, turned it loose, and going up to his friend, asked him if he would hazard another five sovereigns upon a similar bet as the former; this he agreed to do and the other selected the trimmer to which he had previously hooked the pike, and having got up to it in a boat, took up the fish, which being larger than that on the other trimmer, he again won his wager; he then said he would now have the fish opened just to see what it had been principally feeding on; this was accordingly done, when to the utter astonishment of the little gentleman, another moor-hen appeared. Oh! oh! said he, I now see pretty plainly how I lose all my baits, "these d-d moor-hens come and take them off under water, and the pike seeing this one at that work, has taken him as well as the bait." He will never now fish near the sides of the water, or in the vicinity of rushes (which are the best places for pike), lest, as he says, the moorhens should carry off his bait.

The voracity of a pike is proverbial, there is scarcely any consumable thing in or on the water it will not attack, however disproportionate in size it may be compared with itself. I have on a fine summer's evening frequently seen a brood of young wild ducks utterly annihilated by one of these fish in the course of a few minutes, and at particular times they will take almost any thing that is offered them. A short distance from London, in a very small unprotected stream, a pike lay basking near a cottage, when a gentleman, who was walking round his garden, saw it, and putting up a rod and line, having no other bait, desired the cook to cut him off a large piece of veal,

[graphic][subsumed][merged small][merged small]

1 ..

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »