Paul Adams – ‘Pike & Perch’ by Alfred Jardine

It is a rare angling book that is considered worthy of reprinting 120 years after original publication, but such is the case with Pike and Perch by Alfred Jardine. Originally published in 1897 or ‘98 (references to this are contradictory), the early edition, still readily available, is from 1905 and was issued as Volume III of The Angler’s Library series. As recently as 2017, a limited reprint was published by Medlar Press.

Jardine was something of an angling celebrity in the late nineteenth century and he was associated most closely with pike. He patented many tackle inventions specific to this quarry, including reels, traces, gags, and bait boxes; with no false modesty he generously endorses them in this book. In a similar vein – confident in his standing and forthright in his opinions – Jardine questions and in some cases openly ridicules many earlier reported specimen captures.

The book focuses on pike, with perch addressed only in later chapters, and a passing mention of related species from around the world. On pike in particular his coverage is extensive, including their natural history. Regarding tackle, with generous use of illustrations, his style is exhaustive, if somewhat dry. Angling historians will find much here of interest, as his creativity enjoyed full rein in the design of tackle at this time.

From a combination of woods may be constructed a very serviceable rod; for instance with ash for the butt, hickory the second and third joints, and spliced hickory and lancewood or, better still, hickory and solid cane spliced for the top joint.

If the fishing was productive, the preparations were anything but convenient:

The following is a recipe for waterproof dressing of fishing-lines which I have used for many years and found to answer well:-

Of boiled cold-drawn linseed oil a pint, a wine-glassful of gold size, two tablespoonfuls of copal-varnish, poured all together into a earthen pitkin; cover with a small cheese- plate or tin patty-pan to keep out the dust and place on hob of kitchen stove for three or four days to simmer, stirring the ingredients occasionally until the gold-size and copal is thoroughly incorporated with the oil.

Then coil the line loosely in an old pie-dish, pour enough waterproofing over the line to cover it, place paper or something over, and stand them for two or three days in a gentle heat for the line to soak thorough full of the dressing; after this is done take the end of line off the top coil, and draw the line through a piece of old kid-glove held between the fingers and thumb, squeezing out all the superfluous dressing, letting the line fall onto a large sheet of paper to save it from dust or dirt.When this is done hang it in coils on, or wind it round, an old clothes-horse or the backs of two chairs, where leave it for two or three days to dry; then stretch it on a warm day, in the garden between smooth nails driven into the walls or fence, or between trees, and polish the line with a little sweet oil on a piece of soft leather or old kid glove.We can only hope that the angler’s family had no call for the kitchen stove during the week when it was occupied in preparing the fishing line.

Fortunately, when describing angling methods and favourite venues his narrative is much more eloquent, harking back to a more peaceful and pastoral era that we can but envy today. Jardine sternly rations his use of the full-stop, ideally preferring his sentence to fill a paragraph.

Francis and I, on arriving at the station, found my friend’s waggonette awaiting us. On our drive to his house we placed our livebait cans and their contents in a brook which flowed through the keeper’s garden, and found our dace alive and in splendid order when we called for them next morning to take them to the lake, a mile distant. The boat- house reached, we lost no time in putting rods and tackle together and getting afloat in a punt, well appointed with every requisite…..

.…then we tried water not yet disturbed, quietly approaching a reedy bay – the home of the big pike – not going too near, but fishing it from a distance of 20 yds. Some moorhens swimming in the bay took flight in alarm, for there was a great swirl in the water, and one of the birds disappeared, which showed us where the pike was; and as the bird did not appear again, we judged the fish was on the feed, so I cast a good-sized dace on snap tackle to where the pike bulged, and in less than two minutes it had taken my bait, and I had driven home the steel.

This is not a book that will help today’s angler to catch more or bigger pike, though much of the theory is still valid. It is at its most entertaining as a social commentary on Victorian England. Titled gentry and other landowners are accorded suitable deference. London was a city that abounded in tackle dealers; not just our familiar Hardy and Farlows but also Hancock & Co. of High Holborn, Carter and Co. of St. Johns Street Road and G. Little & Co of Haymarket.

It is not necessary to mention the exact locality, for if I did his lordship would have a score of letters by the next post begging for a day’s fishing; suffice it to say, that fishing there January 19th, 1884, with a companion, we caught fifty-four pike, ofwhich we kept twenty-two, and returned uninjured to the water all fish under 5 lbs: my five largest pike weighed 23 lbs, 21 lbs, 20 1⁄2 lbs, 19 1⁄2 lbs and 19 lbs.

At the heart of any discussion about pike fishing – whether in the nineteenth or twenty-first century – is the use of live bait. Jardine repeats the familiar mantra about live bait feeling little pain, oblivious to the contradictions that he himself describes. But to his credit – and somewhat enlightened for his day – he disavows deliberate gorge-fishing and ridicules rather than explicitly condemns ‘trimmering’, the practice of towing line, hooks and bait attached to a duck or goose.

Trimmering for jack and pike in private waters where it is desirable to thin the numbers of those fish, may be occasionally resorted to, but, to say the least, it is an unfishermanlike way of catching them. As a bit of fun it is sometimes indulged in; it was considered a fine amusement in “Old Nobles” time; and in “The Boke of St. Albans” is thus described: “If ye lyst to have good sports, thenne tye your line to a gose (goose) fote, and ye shall have a gode halynhe (hauling), whether the gose or the pyke shall have the better”.

Elsewhere in Pike and Perch there are more familiar themes. The Mundella Freshwater Fisheries Act of 1879 established the coarse fishing close season we recognize today (until its abolition on stillwaters in 1995) and, although receiving Jardine’s broad support, he could not resist the familiar debate about whether this accords best with the spawning time of individual species. And in the late nineteenth century, the author already laments the fishing pressure on more popular waters, doubtless exacerbated when the norm was to kill – deliberately or otherwise – any pike that took a bait.

At twenty five or thirty pounds for a nice copy, this is a worthy addition to any angling library, more for historical context and social commentary than any technical insights.

Writing & Images – Paul Adams, Summer 2024