Here you go, a recipe for pike from no less an authority than Izaak Walton, author of the Complete Angler -
"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 saucein 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.
and all rotten drunk of course
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