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THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
The Pike. A Lea Pike is a beautiful fish, and there are no handsomer
anywhere excepting the pike from the Avon, although there may be many
much larger. The Gresham Angling Society have in their museum a very
fine pike that was taken a few years ago at Dobbs Weir—it weighed 263/4lbs.
This is considered a large fish for the Lea.
Walton says that Sir Francis Bacon observed the pike to be the longest
lived of any fresh-water fish, and it is perhaps the most ferocious inhabitant
of our rivers. It has a cruel look, reminding one of the shark. When fishing
the reservoir at Chesthunt a friend of mine hooked a pike and had almost
secured it, when another enormous pike seized the first fish and made off with
it into the weeds, and in spite of the angler's efforts the line eventually broke.
My friend some days after got the fish he first hooked, in a very swollen
state with some of the tackle still in it.
Perch. My first Perch was taken when I was quite a young boy at the
Lock by King's Weir ; it weighed nearly one pound and I can vividly re-call
the pride and pleasure had in the capture. I am here reminded of the many
happy days of my youth spent at Broxbourne. The fishing inn, the
"Crown," was then kept by old Tom Want and his brother. An old writer
on Fishing, F. March (my copy is dated 1842), says of the "Crown " :—"I
cannot pass this house without calling and giving the old toast, 'May you
never know want but by name'—but here there are two Wants, and the more
you know of them the better you like them." The house was in those days
what Walton called "an honest ale-house, where the sheets smelled of
lavender," and the gardens were charming, although not quite so grand as
Benningfield afterwards made them.
The Chub. Sometimes called by Lea anglers "Large-headed Dace"—
certainly when young the resemblance is somewhat close. My father was
quite an adept in catching this fish in the style so delightfully described in the
Compleat Angler. The sedgy banks of the Lea, with the overhanging old
pollard willows and deep holes under the banks, are well adapted to this kind
of fishing.
The Dace of the Lea is a fine lively looking fish, and is taken up to a pound
in weight. Twelve to fourteen ounces are very good fish. Those in the
neighbourhood of Hertford, and taken with an artificial fly, afford excellent
sport, and require a keen sight and quick hand in securing them.
The Roach. "Oh! he is only a roach-fisher" is often used as a term of
depreciation. But in reality among many ardent anglers the sport is looked
upon next to trout fishing, and certainly among the London fraternity it is
thought so much of that during the whole of the season they follow no other
—preferring it to every other kind of fishing. In one part of the water at Rye
House are still found Roach with black spots. Salter mentions them, and
Wheldon says: "At Black Pool, Roach are still taken with black transparent
spots upon them ; at the bottom of the hole there is a black peaty bog—the
spots may arise from this." The extraordinary fact is that although there
are other parts of the water of greater depth, the spotted fish are only caught
in this hole.
The Carp is sometimes taken in the Lea. Possibly being a native of still
waters, they are carried by floods or the breaking down of sluices (as are
Tench and Rudd) into the river; they then grow finer and fatter, but, it is
said, they do not breed.