The celebrated eighteenth-century diarist Parson James Woodforde was a keen coarse fisherman. On 16 May 1781, he and his friends had ‘the best day fishing we ever had’, landing with nets, not rods, a yard-long pike weighing over 13 pounds, 15 brace of trout, the largest not more than 1½ pounds, three brace of perch, ‘one tolerable Tench and I dare say near or not quite five hundred brace of Roach and Dace’.
We do not have details of his dinner, as he ‘was rather fatigued this evening by fishing’. Next day, however, he treated his company to a fine dinner: ‘My great Pike which was roasted and a Pudding in his Belly, some boiled Trout, Perch and Tench, Eel and Gudgeon fryed, a neck of Mutton boiled and a Plain Pudding for Mrs Howes’. The fish was so large that it had to be presented on part of the kitchen window shutters, covered with a tablecloth. Despite its size, the pike ‘was declared by all the company to be prodigious fine eating, being so moist’. Parson Woodforde closes his entry for that day with, ‘I put a large Pike into the boot of Mr Howes’s chaise before they went back.’
