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ALPHABET
ANGLING,
THE USE OF BEGINNERS.
BY JAMES RENNIE, M.A.
PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY, KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON.
LONDON:
HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
MDCCCXLIX,
Digitized by tine Internet Archive
in 2007 witii funding from
IVIicrosoft Corporation
littp://www.arcliive.org/details/alpliabetofanglinOOrennricli
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CONTENTS.
Page
PLAN OF THE WORK .
xl
Pleasures of Angling ....
ib.
The Author's Initiation
xii
Markham on the Qualifications of an Angler •
« xiii
Practice founded on Science ' .
xvi
THE WORD ANGLING .
1
Origin and former use of the word
2
Arrangement of the Subject
3
Science and Practice . . . .
ib.
FOOD OF FISHES
5
Herring and Salmon have the stomach empty
ib.
Experime ts of Spallanzani
7
Senses of Fished . .
ib.
Senses employed in procuring food .
ib.
Taste in Fishes . . . .
8
Leather-mouthed Fishes .
9
Smell in Fishes . . . .
11
Denied by Dumeril and others
ib.
Paste Baits and Smelling Ointments
12
Ivy Gum . • ♦ . .
ib.
Salmon Roe ....
15
066
IV
CONTENTS.
Vision of Fishes
Nearsightedness ...
Attention to Colours in Angling
Gervase Markham'a directions
Hearing of Fishes
Researches of John Hunter
Remarks of Weber and De Blainville .
Natural Food of Fishes .
Spawn a favourite dainty
Great Fecundity of Fishes
Experiments of Mr. Harmer
Table of results
Voracity and Cannibalism of Fishes
Anecdotes of Pikes
Perches of the Lake of Geneva
Water Insects and other Live Food
Grubs and maggots
Caddis-^orms^ Cad-bait, or Ruff-coats
Interesting economy of these .
Grubs of Day Flies and other Insects
Figures of these
Blood worm and its gnat .
Shell Fish ....
Gillaroo trout of Ireland .
Water Flies . .
Day Flies as observed by Reaumur
Land insects swept into the water
Angler's Imitative Devices
Pretended imitations .
fallacy of these proved
Remarks of Bainbridge and Sir H. Davy
Times of Feeding and Haunts of Fish
Fish are night-feeders
Dark water and cloudy weather
STRENGTH OF FISHES
Importance of this in Angling
CONTENTS.
Thii Swimming of Fishes
The tail the great instrument of motion
The swim bladder ....
Weight of Fishes ....
Method of estimating this . •
PRACTICAL LESSONS IN ANGLING .
Arrangement of the Lessons .
River Angling . . . •
Peculiar characters of different Rivers .
Angling for Trout
Varieties of Trout ....
Spawning, Seasons, and Haunts of Trout
Variations in different Rivers
Trouiing Rods . . . . .
Directions by Dame Juliana Barnes
Directions by Bainbridge . .
Trouting Lines . . ' .
Hand-twisting . . . •
Gut and Grass . • • .
Trouting Hooka . • . .
Kirby Hooks . . • ,
Limerick Hooks
Hook-making ....
Artificial Flies for Trouting
Dubbing .....
Wing-making ....
Hackle-making ....
Fig-Fishing for Trout
On casting the Line
On striking .....
Seasons for Fig-fishing, with their peculiar Flies
Killing Flies ....
Flies for February . .
The Palmer natui-al and artificial . ,
The Prime Dun . . • .
CONTENTS.
Flies for March ....
The March-Brown or Dun Drake
The Cow-(hing Fly
The Blue Dun Fly .
Flies for April ....
The Stone Fly . . ,
The Hawthorn Fly . . .
The Granam or Green-tail Fly
Flies for May ....
The Dun-cut Fly .
The Green Drake Fly ♦
The Oak Fly .
The Alder Fly .
Flies for June ....
The Red Spinner ....
Flies for July ....
Spider Fly . . • .
Flies for August , ,
Hazel Fly . . . .
Flies for September
Ant Fly . ...
Night Fly-fishing
Moth or Owl Fly .
Ground or Bait-fishing for Trout
Earth Bob and Brandling worm .
Clearing Ring
Minnoiv -fishing for Trout
Minnow Hook baited .
Swivel ....
Angling for Grayling .
Rivers where found .
Method of fishing . . , ,
Angling for Salmon
Great weight ofSalmon
Spawning Seasons, and Haunts of Salmon
Rapid growth of the young
Vll
Tackle and Methods of Angling for Salmon .
Salmon Rod ....
Salmon Flies . . . . . 1
Angling for Chub
Dibbing for Chub ....
Angling for Dace and Roach
Boat-angling on the Thames .
Roach in the Clyde
Angling for Barbel
Caution required in Striking
Angling for Gudgeon
Good to begin with
Angling for Bleak^ Ruff, LoAca, Floundur
AND Miller's Thuub
Paternoster line ....
Angling for Eels ....
Mode of breeding ....
Night-line-fishing
Canal Angling ....
New River virtually a canal .
Angling for Pike
Affords good Sport ....
Spawning SeasonSf and Haunts of Pike .
Account by Captain Williamson
Float and Goose- fishing for Pike .
Directions by Dame J. Barnes
Anecdote from M'Diarmid
Trolling for Pike ....
Gorge Hook and Baiting Needle .
Directions from Salter . .
Directions from Col. Venables
Spinning for Pike ....
Directions from " Titus '* . . , ,
Snap-fishmg for Pike ....
Dead S:uip with three hooks • ,
00,
Page
99
t5.
105
105
ib.
107
ib.
108
ib.
109
ib,
ib.
110
ib.
113
ib.
ib.
114
ib.
ib.
ib.
115
ib.
116
ib.
117
118
ib.
119
120
ib.
ib.
121
122
CONTENTS.
Trimming for Pike
Several sorts of Trimmers .
Trimmer baited
Live Bait Fishing for Pike
Recommended by Titus
Live Bait fixed on a hook .
Angling for Perch
Haunts of Perch .
Methods of fishing
Pond Angling
Fish improper for Ponds
Angling for Carp
Method of fishing
Angling for Tench
Tench a Leather-mouthed fish
Angling for Bream
Cautions required in Striking
Lake Angling
Fishes found in Lakes
Angling for Lake Trout
Account of, from Sir "William Jardine
Angling for Gwiniad .
Lakes in which found .
Angling for Char
Two sorts of Char
Angling for Rud
Where found .
Sea Angling
Mouths of Rivers
Piers and rocks . . •
Boat.fishing .
Page
123
ib.
124
ib.
ib.
125
126
ib.
ib.
127
ib.
127
128
ib.
ib.
129
ib.
130
ib,
ib.
ib,
132
ih.
ib.
lb.
133
lb.
ib.
134
ib.
i3.
LIST
OF TECHNICAL AND LATIN TERMS IN THE NOTES.
Abramis brama, 12Q, n.
Anguilla vulgaris, 113, n.
Angulus, 1, n.
Barbus orfus, 133, n.
Barbus vulgaris, 108, n.
Cernua fiuviatilis, 111, n.
Chironomus plumosus, 36, n.
Cocculus Indicus, 9, n.
Coreganus lavaretus, 132, n.
Cottus Gobio, 1 1 2, n.
Cyprinus Carpio, 127, n.
Ephemeridse, 40, n.
Esox lucius, 1 14, n.
Gadus Lota, 32, n.
Gasterosteus pungitius, 28, n.
Gobio fiuviatilis, 109, n.
Gobitis barbatula, 112, n.
Leuciscus alburnus, ill, n.
Leuciscus cephalus, 105, n.
Leuciscus phoxinus, 33, n.
Leuciscus rutilus, 108, n.
Leuciscus vulgaris, 107, n.
Malacostomata, 9, n.
Meriangus carbonarius, 134, n.
Merlangus poUachius, id.
Meriangus vulgaris, ib.
Morrhua aeglefinus, ib.
Morrhua vulgaris, ib.
Osmerus eperlanus, 28, n.
Perca fiuviatilis, 126, n.
Perca labrax, 134, n.
LIST OF TECHNICAL TEEMS, ETC.
Platessa fluviatilis, 112, n.
Platessa vulgaris, 134, n.
Pleuronectus maximus, ib.
Radii, 53, n.
Salmo aJpinus, 133, n.
Salmo fario, 59, n.
Salmo ferox, 30, n, 130, n.
Salmo salar, 97, n.
Salmo salvelinus, 133, n.
Scomber vulgaris, 134, n.
Specific gravity, 54, n.
Tinea vulgaris, 128, n.
PLAN OF THE WORK.
" Field sports — Angling seems the earliest of them
all, in the order of nature. There, the new breeched
urchin stands on the low bridge of the little bit burnie,
*and with crooked pin, baited with one un writhing
ring of a dead worm, and attached to a yarn thread,—
for he has not yet got into hair, and is years off gut, —
his rod of the mere willow or hazel wand, — there will
he stand during all his play hours, (as forgetful of his
primer as if the weary art of printing had never been
invented,) day after day, week after week, month after
month, — in mute, deep, earnest, passionate, heart-
mind-and-soul-engrossing hope of some time or other
catching a minnow or beardie M"
And this is angling : a sport that requires as much
enthusiasm as poetry, as much patience as mathematics,
and as much caution as housebreaking.
I could not be more than six or seven years old
when I sallied out one day to the river Ayr, with a
bent pin for a hook, as Christopher North has described
so graphically and well ; but instead of a minnow or
(1) Christopher in his Sporting Jacket, Fytte the Fjist.^Black-
wood's Magazine, Sept. 1828, p. 274,
XU PLAN OF THE WORK.
a beardie, (the loach or stone-roach of the south,) I
hooked a large trout ; owing no doubt to the muddi-
ness of the water, for as yet I could know little of the
guiles of the art, in not scaring the fish. My '* yarn-
thread" was strong enough to twitch out the trout to
the green bank where I stood; but the bank itself
unfortunately sloped down to the water's edge, and
my bent pin having no barb to take a firm hold, the
trout slipped off, spanged down the bank, and in an in-
stant, to my unutterable grief, was lost in the dark water.
Disappointment is the mother of wisdom : I never
angled with a bent pin again: but many a good
hook I lost among the roots and stones at the identical
spot where I had, as I may say, pinned my first trout,
and where I supposed, in the simplicity of my inex_
perience, that all the trouts in the river must un-
doubtedly lie, ready to be hooked, though I never again
succeeded in discovering one of them there.
So far as an on-looker and a child could learn, how-
ever, I had good opportunities of seeing the practice
both of fly and minnow-fishing, and that these engrossed
more of my attention than 1 can now recollect, would
appear from the circumstance, that when I was abou
four or five years old, I hovered in the rear of the fly-
fishers till I got hooked myself, and the fly-hook barb
holding faster than my bent pin, it was with no little
difficulty and some pain that it was disengaged from
my ear. As I grew older, my passion for trout-fishing
absorbed many of my thoughts and much of my time,
but far from unprofitably, independent altogether of the
trouts caught; for I have no doubt that this has had great
influence on my pursuits and studies up to the present
PLAN OF THE WORK. XIU
time ; because, while angling, I learned my first field
lessons in natural history, and found out by degrees
the most important fact to a young inquirer, that all
is not to be trusted which is met with in books. For
example, in this very art of angling, all the books from
old Barker's "Delight" toDaniell's "Field" Sports direct
the fly fisher .to '^et the flies go down the stream and
never to draw them against it, because it is unnatural,'
though no angler who ever threw a fly could possibly
comply with this absurdity. They might as well
direct a minnow to be spun down the stream in troll-
ing. And as for the delights of angling : —
There is a pleasure in the rolling floods.
There is a rapture on the lonely shore.
There is society where none intrudes.
By the deep sea, and music in its roar.
Let those that think I must be angling-mad to
apply these exquisite lines to our art, listen to old
Gervase Markham, who, (I must coin a word on such
an occasion), introducts it in his " Countrey Con-
tentments," by saying, — "Since pleasure is a rapture
or power in this last age, stolne into the hearts of men,
and there lodged up with such a carefuU guard and
attendance, that nothing is more supreme, or ndeth
with greater strength in their affections, and since all
are now become sonnes of pleasure, and every good is
measured by the delight it produceth; what worke
unto men can be more thankfull than the discourse of
that pleasure which is most comely, most honest, and
giveth most liberty to Divine meditation? and that
without all question is the art of angUng."
Dame Juliana Barnes, the prioress of Sopwell, also,
in the Book of St. Alban's, printed in 1486, well says.
XIV PLAN OF THE WORK.
" The angler at leest hath his holsom walke mery at
his ease, and a swete ayre of the swete savoure of the
meade floures, that matyth him hungry. He heareth
the melodyous armony of fowles ; he seeth the yonge
swannes, heerons, duckes, cootes, and many other
fowles with theyr broods, whyche to me seemeth
better than all the noyse of houndys, the Wastes of
hornys, and the scrye of fowles, that hunters, fawkners
and fowlers can make. And if the angler take fysshe,
surely thenne is theie no man merrier than he is in
his spirytes."
I need not add a syllable more to set forth the delights
of angling ; but 1 beg leave to add a word or two re-
specting the qualities required in an angler, and I can-
not do this to better purpose than by quoting the same
Gervase Markham, whom the reader has just observed
to discourse so well, though quaintly withal, on the
rapture of the art.
" A skilful] angler,*' quoth old Gervase, " ought to be
a generall scholler, and scene in all theliberall sciences,
as a grammarian, to know how either to write or
discourse of his art in true and fitting termes, either
without affectation or rudenes. He should have sweet-
ness of speech to perswade and intice others to delight
in an exercise so much laudable. Hee should have
strength of arguments to defend and maintaine his
profession against envy or slaunder. Hee should have
knowledge in the sunne, moone, and starres, that by
their aspects hee may guesse the seasonablenesse or
unseasonablenesse of the weather, the breeding of the
storm es, and from what coasts the wdndes are ever
delivered.
PLAN OF THE WORK. XV
^' Hee should be a goode knower of countries, and
well used to high wayes, that by taking the readiest
bathes to every lake, brook, or river, his journies may
be more certaine and lesse wearisome. Hee should have
knowledge of proportions of all sorts, whether circular,
square, or diametricale, that when hee shall be ques-
tioned of his diurnall progresses, hee may give a geo-
graphical description of the angles and channels of
rivers, how they fall from their heads, and what com-
passes they fetch in their several windings. Hee must
also have the perfect art of numbering, that in the
sounding of lakes or rivers, hee may know how many
foot or inches each severally contayneth, and by adding,
subtracting, or multiplying the same, hee may yeeld
the reason of every river's swift or slow current. Hee
should not be unskillfuU in musick, that whensoever
either melancholy, heavinesse of his thought, or the
perturbations of his owne fancies, stirreth up sadnesse
in him, hee may remove the same with some godly
hymne or antheme, of which David gives him ample
examples.
" Hee must then be full of humble thoughts, not
disdaining, when occasion commands, to kneele, lye
down, or wet his feet or fingers, as oft as there is any
advantage given thereby unto the gaining the end of
his labour. Then hee must be strong and valiant,
neither to be amazed with stormes nor affrighted
with thunder, but to hold them according to their na-
turall causes and the pleasure of the Highest : neither
must he like the foxe, which preyeth upon lambs,
imploy all his labour against the smallest frie, but, like
the lyon, that seazeth elephants, thinke the greatest
PLAN OF THE WORK.
fish which swimmeth a reward little enough fbr the
paines which he endureth. Then must hee he prudent,
that apprehending the reasons why the fish will not
bite, and all other casuall impediments which hinder
hie sport, and, knowing the remedies for the same, hee
may direct his labours to be without troublesomenesse.
" Then," concludeth Gervase, ^* if he is not temperate,
but has a gnawing stomach that will not endure much
fasting, but must observe hours, it troubleth the mind
and body and loseth that delight which maketh the
pastime only pleasing/*
I have now left but little room to tell the reader,
that I have made this little book as much a brief na-
tural history of fish as a treatise on angling ; and that
I have, as far as practicable, founded what I have said
and borrowed from others, respecting the art, upon the
basis of science, a circumstance in which all the
books on angling that I have met with are lamentably
deficient. Although I was wont to reckon myself a
tolerable proficient in the art both of fly and ground-
fishing, I have, along with my own small experience,
borrowed freely from the experience of others, every
thing that I thought likely to be useful to a beginner.
As I wish to add to this, should it be approved of
and reprinted, a list of the best Angling Stations in the
rivers, canals, ponds, lakes, estuaries, and coasts of the
British Empire, I shall feel obliged if accounts of any
of these, with the particular fish caught, be sent me, free
of expense, to the publisher's.
Lee, Kent, \st May, 1833.
ALPHABET OF SCIENTIFIC
ANGLING.
THE WORD ANGLING.
** Angling " differs from Fishing as that which is
particular differs from what is general ; for as fishing
means the catching of fish, whatever may he the
method adopted, '^ AngHng" restricts this to the method
of hooking only, and, of course, excludes fishing with
spears, nets, or nooses, and every other method in
which hooks are not used.
The word " Angle*, " indeed, which originally meant
anything bent, so as to form a corner Hke the human
elbow, came in process of time, to signify a hook, and,
from that, to give origin to the term *' Angling," which
literally, therefore, must signify hooking, or the art of
(1) In Greek ayKCov " the elbow j " in Latin Angultis.
B
2 THE WORD ANGLING.
fishing with hooks. " The fishers," says the prophet
Isaiah, '' shall mourn, and they that cast angle upon
the brooks shall lament," or, as Bishop Lowth trans-
lates it, '* those that cast the hook into the river ; *
Fuller in his " Holy State " speaks of '* fishing with
an angle ; " and Dame Juliana Berners, prioress of
Sopwell, entitles a curious portion of her work, printed
in 1496 by Wynkyn de Worde, "The Treatyse of
Fysshynge wyth an Angle." About a hundred years
afterwards, another work was published, entitled ** A
Booke of Fishing with a Hooke and Line," which is
precisely what has since been commonly denominated
"Angling,"
The two principal branches of this art are Fly-fish-
ing and TrolUng, upon which numerous works have
been written : but very few of these are original, or
dictated by experience, by far the greater number
bemg mere compilations. The most celebrated of all
these works is entitled the " Complete Angler, or
Contemplative Man's Recreation," by Izaak Walton :
but though this is really a very good practical work,
containing the result of both the author s experience
and that of his friends, its popularity has not arisen
from this, but, as has been justly said, " from the beau-
tiful accessories of pure style, poetical sentiment, and
picturesque illustration, such as must ever delight the
general reader," though he be no angler, while the
latter will not always readily meet with the information
he may want for immediate practice. It is a book
indeed, which all men, and, I may add, all women too,
must be delighted to read, altogether independent of
THE WORD ANGLING. 3
the subject, in the same way as all must be delighted
with the excellent imitation of it by Sir H. Davy in
hisSalmonia ; and still more with the spirited and highly
poetical articles on Fishing in Blackwood's Magazine,
the striking originaUty, and peculiar raciness of which
evidently bring them home to Professor Wilson, well
known to be one of the best and most enthusiastic
anglers in the North.
ARRANGEMENT OF THE SUBJECT.
As the chief knowledge required by a skilful angler
is the thorough acquaintance with the food and habits
of the fish he wishes to catch, I think I cannot better
commence my instructions to beginners, than by an
account of these circumstances, upon which they must
found all the skill they may subsequently acquire. I
might indeed have begun with a description of rods,
lines, hooks, and baits — the instruments of the angler's
art, but as these have all been gradually invented, and
brought to perfection, wholly by observing the food
and habits of fishes, it is undoubtedly the best and
most scientific way to begin with this fundamental
knowledge.
When these preliminary steps have been got over, —
and I request the beginner's attention to them, before
proceeding farther,— I have, in what follows, been in
some measure guided by the consideration, that local
circumstances must frequently limit the sport of the
most ardent angler, to the waters within his reach.
B 2
4 THE WORD ANGLINO.
Some may have opportunities of fishing in a fine river,
stored with salmon or trout ; others may have only the
convenience of a canal or a pond ; while a third party
maybe confined to the sea-side, at a distance from any
good fresh-water fishing. I have accordingly treated
of angling in these various sorts of waters, under sepa-
rate heads, giving the lead to river angling as by far
the most interesting, though I have myself found as
good sport at sea, particularly in angling for mackarel
in a fine breeze, as ever I did even in fly-fishing for
salmon, or trolling for trout ; yet sea angling is unac-
countably omitted in most books on the subject, pro-
bably because the authors had no experience therein.
I have deemed it more useful to introduce an account
of the various tackle, when giving directions for its
use, than to make a separate division for this purpose.
FOOD OF FISHES
Were we to make a general inference from a few
facts, we might conclude that several fish contrive to
live without taking any other food than the water in
which they swim. The herring, for example, is
never, when caught, found to have anything in its
stomach, and, what is no less singular, the salmon has
not been observed to have anything in its stomach
besides a sort of yellow fluid ; while the trout, which so
much resembles it in many particulars, has usually its
paunch fuUy crammed. In the instance of the gold fish.
Dr. Fordyce kept some in water, supposed to be pure,
and by merely supplying them with fresh air, they not
only lived for many months, but increased considerably
in size; proving that they may be maintained in a
perfect and healthy state for a considerable time, witli
nothing besides fresh water exposed' to the air.
" Some," says White of Selbourne, " that delight in
gold and silver fishes, have adopted a notion that they
need no aliment. True it is, that they will subsist for
a long time without any apparent food but what they
can collect from pure water frequently changed ; yet
they must draw some support from animalcula, and
other nourishment suppHed by the water; because,
though they seem to eat nothing, yet the consequences
of eating often drop from them. That they are best
pleased with such jejune diet may be easily confuted,
since, if you toss them crumbs, they will seize them
6 FOOD OP FISHES.
with great readiness, not to say greediness ; however,
bread should be given sparingly, lest, turning sour, it
corrupt the water. They will also feed on the water
plant called duck's meat {Lemna), and also on small
fry."
As fishes do not breathe, and are not furnished with
lungs, all of them probably derive from the air in
water a greater proportion of nutriment than is done
by warm-blooded animals, — the small red points on the
outer edge of the gills having the power to take up
oxygen, and probably nitrogen, while they at the same
time give off carbonic acid gas ^ Be this as it may,
the power of very rapid digestion, which has been
brought to explain the absence of food in the stomachs
of herring and salmon, is certainly an unfounded sup-
position, inasmuch as the rapidity of digestion must
always depend in a great measure upon a considerable
degree of heat, and the natural heat of fishes is always
very low. M. Broussonet found, upon several trials,
that this heat was from three fourths to one half a
degree of Reaumur higher than the water ; and M.
Despretz'« experiments gave very nearly the same
result.
To me it appears much more probable, that, like
reptiles, such as the snake and the frog, fishes have
intervals more or less extended of fasting, after which
they eat with great voracity, and then rest again for
similar intervals without eating. It is almost incredi-
ble how long a serpent may be kept alive without food j
Cl) See '* Alphabet of Scientific Chemistry," p. 105, &c.
SENSES OP FISHES. 7
whereas birds, whose digestion is very rapid on ac-
count of their high degree of heat, cannot bear the
want of food for many successive hours^ much less
days.
Spallanzani indeed, in his curious experiments on
digestion, found that fishes digested more quickly than
serpents, and that the process was wholly eflPected by
the digestive fluid without any pressure or trituration
from the stomach as in birds ; for the tin tubes con-
taining food, which he caused eels, carp, pike, and
bream to swallow, were not in the least bruised, though
they were so thin that the slightest pressure would
have crushed them, while he found the food within the
tubes digested in the course of from one to three days.
Like other animals, fishes discriminate the food
which suits them by means, of the senses of taste,
smell, and vision, and less commonly, I beheve, by
hearing, each of which it may be well to notice
separately.
SENSES OF FISHES.
The several senses are bestowed on animals to direct
them in the pursuit of what is beneficial, and in avoid-
ing what may be injurious; but for the present I
shall confine myself to such of them as relate to the
procuring of food, it being my wish to render this little
book as practical as possible, while, at the same time,
I am anxious to lay down sound scientific principles
upon which the practice of the art is or ought to be
founded.
FOOD OP FISHES.
Taste in Fishes.
There can be no question that the sense of taste in
fishes, as well as in those birds which live upon similar
food, is less acute than in other animals, a circumstance
strongly indicated by the hard, gristly texture of the
tongue when it exists, as it can hardly be said to do
in all fishes, though it is, as M. De Blainville justly
remarks, very distinct in the carp, and rather less so in
the salmon.
The numerous experiments which I have made upon
birds whose food consists of small fruit and insects,
which they swallow without breaking, lead me to con-
clude, that they choose some and reject others, not
by taste but by touch, probably aided by smell, and I
have no doubt it is the same with fishes ; at least it is
obvious from their so generally swallowing their food
without chewing or bruising it, even if they possessed
acute taste, that it could not aid them in the discri-
mination.
The peculiarly large tongue in the carp accordingly
is traceable to its feeding in part upon water plants,
which it must, as in the case of grass, tear in pieces,
though it has no teeth, and it is probable it has been
thus providentially furnished with a more acute organ
of taste, to prevent its being poisoned by eating water-
hemlock, and other deleterious plants.
That all fish are not thus provided with taste suffi-
ciently acute to enable them to reject what is poisonous,
appears from the practice of poachers in poisoning
SENSES OF FISHES. 9
fish. They pound a quantity of fishers* berries ^ in a
mortar, and, with or without flour or oatmeal, cheese,
honey, and the Hke, make a paste which they form
into balls about the size of garden peas, and throw
them into the water. The fish greedily swallow these,
and becoming intoxicated or palsied thereby, they come
up to the surface of the water, and are easily caught
or soon die.
The teeth of fishes are not then, it would appear,
destined for chewing, but principally for laying hold
of and detaining their prey, being with this view bent
inwards similar to tenter hooks, by which means small
fishes though ever so slippery are forced back into the
gullet, and their escape or return prevented. It is no
doubt with the same design that the throats of many
fish are studded with what M., Bory St. Vincent terms
a pavement of teeth. Such fishes as have teeth thus
placed far back upon the palate and upper part of the
throat while they want them in their jaws, are termed
by a,ng\ers leather-mouthed^.
Amongst leather-mouthed fishes are reckoned the
minnow, the loach, the gudgeon, the bleak, the roach,
the dace, the barbel, the chub, the rud, the bream,
the tench, and the carp. The salmon and the pike
have teeth both in the jaws, and in all parts of the
mouth, and the perch in all parts of the mouth except
the tongue. The sturgeon again has no teeth what-
ever.
The distinction of fish into such as are and such as
(1) In Latm, Cocculus Indicus, (2) Technically, Malacostomata,
10 FOOD OF FISHES.
are not leather-mouthed is of some importance in
angling, as a different management is required for each,
in making sure of a fish after it is hooked. "By a
leather-mouthed fish/' says Walton, " I mean such as
have their teeth in their throat ; and the hook being
struck into the leather or skin of the mouth of such
fish, does very seldom or never lose its hold ; but, on
the contrary, a pike, a perch, a trout, and so some
other fish which have not their teeth in their throats,
but in their mouths (which you shall observe to be
very full of bones, and the skin very thin, and little of
it,) I say, of these fish the hook never takes so sure
hold but you often lose your fish, unless she have
gorged it."
That water-grass and some other plants are partly
the natural food of the carp is, I thinik, unquestionable ;
but I think it probable when either carp or other fish
feed on brewers' grains, boiled barley, split peas, and
the like, that they mistake these tor the eggs or cocoons
of water animals, inasmuch as they could not naturally
procure a supply of these except by rare accident.
That some fish may feed on the seeds of such plants
as are scattered about the water is not however impro-
bable, and it may have been from observin'g this, that
it is recommended by Lebault and Debraw, after re-
moving the fish to let fish-ponds dry, to sow them with
oats or other grain, and when the corn is ripe to stop
up the water and bring back the fish to feed. Bowlker
remarks that carp will eat wheaten, barley, or oaten
bread, while tench and perch will not touch it: a
manifest indication of peculiarity in taste.
SENSES OF FISHES. 11
Even carp however likes animal food, and will de-
vour small eels, frog-spawn, and the roe or the young
of fishes, including its own species, as well as water
insects, which are the staple food of every sort of fish
from the minnow to the salmon, every thing that lives
and moves being swallowed without, so far as we can
find, any discrimination of species or much nicety of
selection.
Smell in Fishes,
Smelling in land animals is immediately connected
with breathing, and we cannot easily conceive how
smell is produced except by a current of air, in which
odoriferous particles are diffused, passing through a
moistened channel, as was first so admirably described
by Schneider two hundred years ago ; but in fishes
which do not breathe, smell cannot be thus produced,
though there can be no doubt of their being endowed
with this sense. Water, indeed, is as good a medium
for diffusing odours as air, and there isthe less necessity
for a current of this being produced through the
nostrils, as fish move about so constantly through the
water. Their nostrils, therefore, are in general large,
but imperforate backwards ; that is, they do not com-
municate with the throat, but in some fishes, such as
the rays and the sharks, the nostril opens by a con-
siderable chink into the mouth, and through this a
current of water may probably run. M. Dumeril and
the Rev. W. B. Daniell tliink, that, from the structure
of the nostril, and the want of an aerial medium for
odours, fishes cannot smell at all, and that their
Ifi FOOD OF FISHES.
nostrils perform a function similar to taste ; but to me
this supposition seems gratuitous and improbable, and
it tends strongly to disprove the opinion, that expe-
rienced anglers find certain strongly smelling sub-
stances in the form of pastes excellent for enticing fish
to their baits.
Paste-BaiiSy and Smelling Ointments.
Walton, for example, recommends for chub in
August, " a yellow paste made of the strongest cheese,
with a little butter and saffron ; " '* for the winter
months a paste of cheese and turpentine ; '* and says
of tench, *^ he inclines very much to any paste with
which tar is mixed." The scent o£ ivy is reported to
have a peculiar power in attracting fish, and hence the
angling books abound with receipts for its various uses.
The oldest I have met with is in a rare volume enti-
tled " The Secrets of Angling," by J. D. [Davors,]
published in 1613, and runs thus: —
To bless thy bait and make the fish to bite,
Lo ! here's a means, if thou canst hit it right,
Take gum of life, well beat and laid to soak,
In oil well drawn of that [ivy] that kills the oak.
Fish where thou wilt, thou shalt have sport thy fill;
When others fail thou shalt be sure to kill.
Walton gives another in Latin, imparted to him by
an excellent angler, who told him it was too good to be
told but in a learned language, lest it should be made
too common, gum ivy being, as he alleged, '^ supremely
sweet to any fish." Walton, however, had not tried this,
in which he pretends to have " no great faith," though
he mentions a circumstance that strongly disproves
.his own opinion. "I have been a-fishing," he says,
SENSES OF FISHES. 13
*' with old Oliver Henley, now with God, a noted fisher
both for trout and salmon : and have observed, that he
would usually take three or four worms out of his bag,
and put them into a little box in his pocket, where he
would usually let them continue half an hour or more,
before he would bait his hook with them. I have
asked him his reason, and he has replied, ' he did but
pick the best out to be in readiness against he baited
his hook the next time ; ' but he has been observed,
both by others and myself, to catch more fish than I,
or any other body that has ever gone a-fishing with
him could do, and especially salmons ; and I have been
told lately, by one of his most intimate and secret
friends, that the box in which he put those worms was
anointed with a drop, or two or three, of the oil of ivy-
berries, made by expression or infusion ; and told me
that by the worms remaining in that box an hour, or
a like time, they had incorporated a kind of smell that
was irresistibly attractive, enough to force any fish
within the smell of them to bite."
The gum ivy kept in the shops being, according to
Best, counterfeit and good for nothing, he advises the
angler to procure it himself by driving several large
nails about Michaelmas or in spring into the thickest
stems of ivy, working them about till they become
loose, and then allowing them to remain till the gum
ooze out ; or by slitting up the bark on the larger
stems of ivy with the same view, and collecting the
gum once a month or oftener.
Walton gives another receipt founded upon the same
principle of strong odour, consisting of the stinking
14 FOOD OF FISHES,
oil drawn out of the polypody of the oak by a retort,
mixed with turpentine and hive honey. Mr. Best
recommends a paste made with three drachms of assa-
foetida, one drachm of camphor, and one drachm of
Venice turpentine, pounded in a mortar with a few
drops of oil of lavender or spike.
On the continent, paste baits are still more compli-
cated, as a specimen of which, I shall give one by M.
Charrs, who was apothecary to Louis XIV., made with
two drachms each of cat's fat, heron's grease, the best
assafoetida, Egyptian mummy finely powdered, two
scruples of aniseed finely powdered, one drachm each
of camphor, galbanum, and Venice turpentine, and
two grains of civet. These are incorporated to the
consistence of a thinnish ointment, by means of the
oil of lavender, of aniseed and of camomile, and may
be kept good for a year or two in a narrow-mouthed pot
or glass covered with a piece of bladder and leather.
The bait and about eight inches of the line are directed
to be anointed with this to attract the fish.
It is probable that these variously scented ingredients
attract fish, (though many dou-bt this,) in a singular
inexplicable way, as cats are attracted by the smell of
valerian, of which there can be no doubt. I should
think, however, that " oil of petre or rock oil," that is,
petroleum, which Walton recommends to attract pike,
cannot succeed, as this is deleterious to all fish ; no less
than tar, which Daniell suggests as the only one of
these ointments which he ever found useful.
The most fascinating of such pastes, however, ap-
pears to be the roe or spawn of salmon, variously
SENSES OF FISHES. ]5
prepared, which is more easily accounted for, from its
smell, than any of the preceding, since they are quite
artificial, while this is a natural and much rehshed
article of food. The original account, if I mistake not,
is given by Barker, in his curious " Art of Angling,"
published in 1651, who addressing his noble patron,
Edward Lord Montague, says, " I have found an ex-
perience of late which you may angle with, and take
great store of fish. First, it is the best bait for a trout
that I have seen in all my time ; and will take great
store, and not fail if they be there. Secondly, it is a
special bait for dace or dare, good for chubb, or bottlin,
or grayling. The bait is the roe of a salmon or trout ;
if it be a large trout that the spawns be any thing great
you must angle for the trout with this bait as you
angle with the brandUng, taking a pair of scissors, and
cut so much as a large hazel nut and bait your hook,
so fall to your sport ; there is no doubt of pleasure :
if I had but known it twenty years ago, I would have
gained a hundred pounds only with that bait. I am
bound in duty to divulge it to your honour, and not to
carry it to my grave along with me. I do desire that
men of quahty should have it, that delight in that
pleasure. The greedy angler will murmur at me, but
for that I care not. For the angling of the scale-fish,
they must angle either with cork or quill, plumming
their ground, with feeding with the same bait, taking
them asunder, that they may spread abroad, that the
fish may feed and come to your place ; there is no
doubt of pleasure, angling with fine tackles or single
hair lines at least five or six lengths long, a small hook.
16 FOOD OF FISHES.
with two or three spawns. The bait will hold one
week, if you keep it on any longer, you must hang it up
to dry a little ; when you go to your pleasure again,
put the bait in a little water, it will come in kind
again."
Mr. Chetham directs for the preparation of salmon
spawn, to sprinkle it with a little salt, laying it upon
wool in a pot, one layer of wool and another of spawn
alternately, till the pot is filled. The direction given by
the Rev. W. B. Daniell, is to take a pound of salmon
spawn in September or October, boiling it about fifteen
minutes, then beating it in a mortar, till sufficiently
mixed with an ounce of salt and a quarter of an ounce
of saltpetre, the membrane in which the spawn is con-
tained being carefully picked out. It is then pre-
served closely covered up in jars or wide-mouthed glass
vessels, and will keep good for months.
I have no doubt that the roe of herrings, or any
other fish, would answer a similar purpose, as the
external appearance, as well as the smell, which seems
the chief attraction, is not materially different. A
paste of the same kind is made with shrimps freed
from the shell. Hence, also, the shell-fish, such as
muscles, used in sea fishing, and the putrid meat used
for eels, obviously attract in consequence of their odour.
Independently of these well ascertained facts re-
specting the smell of fishes, we learn from anatomy
that the nerves of smell are comparatively large, as is
shown in the figure below, a circumstance which
alone would indicate the power or acutenees of this
useful sense.
SENSES OF FISHES. 17
The brain and nerves proceeding therefrom in the carp, a, a, b, b,
the lobes of the brain in five ranks ; c, c, the nerves of the eye ;
d, d, the nerves of smell, branching oflf into expanded filaments
upon the nostrils, e, e.
Vision in Fishes,
The form of the eye in fishes proves that they are
all very near-sighted, so much so, that the dense
medium of water can have but small influence in
extending their vision, which must be further limited
from, the eye being covered by the common skin of the
head, in order to defend the eye-ball, as there are no
eye-Uds for this purpose, as in other animals. This
indistinctness of vision may be obs^ved, by any one
who will take the trouble, in the gold and silver fish
usually kept in glasses. " It has been said, " remarks
White of Selborne, *' that the eyes of fishes are im-
movable ; but these apparently turn them forward or
backward in their sockets, as their occasions require :
they take little notice of a lighted candle, though ap-
plied close to their heads, but flounce and seem much
frightened by a sudden stroke of the hand against the
support whereon the bowl is hung, especially when
they have been motionless, and perhaps asleep: as
fishes have no eye-lids, it is not easy to discern when
c
18 FOOD OF FISHES.
they are sleeping or not, because the eyes are always
open." The large size of the eyes, which are almost as
large as the head in the gold fish^ do not therefore
indicate distinctness of vision, but the contrary ; and
hence M. de Blainville is probably in error, when he
attributes greater distinctness of vision to wandering
and migratory fishes, such as the cod, whose eyes are
as large as those of a man, or even of an ox, than to
species more stationary, such as the perch, whose eyes
are comparatively small.
It is of considerable importance for the angler to
bear this indistinctness of vision in fish always in
mind, as much of his success must depend on being
guided thereby. The shadow, for example, which
will be cast upon the water by having the sun on his
back;, will have the same effect in frightening the fish
as if it were caused by a harmless sheep or a prowling
otter, and the poor fishes being unable to discriminate
between friends and enemies, dart away in terror at
every shadow which crosses them. Sir Humphry
Davy well illustrates this by an anecdote of the late C.
J. Fox, who, walking up Bond Street from one of the
club-houses with an illustrious personage, laid him a
wager, that he would see more cats than the Prince in
his walk, and that he might take which side of the
street he liked. When they had got to the top, it was
found that Mr. Fox had seen thirteen cats, and the
Prince not one. The royal personage asked for an
explanation of this apparent miracle, and Mr. Fox
said, " Your Royal Highness took, of course, the
shady side of the way, as most agreeable ; I knew
SENSES OF FISHES. 19
that the sunny side would be left to me, and cats
always prefer the sunshine." Sir Humphry, speaking
to his companions in the * Salmonia/ subjoins, " as
you are my scholars, I believe I must teach you. The
sun is bright, and you have been, naturally enough,
fishing with your backs to the sun, which, not being
very high, has thrown the shadows of your rods and
yourselves upon the water, and you have alarmed the
fish whenever you have thrown a fly. You see I have
fished with my face towards the sun, and though
inconvenienced by the light, have given no alarm.
FoUow my example, and you will soon have sport, as
there is a breeze playing on the water."
The same indistinctness of vision will prove the
decided fallacy of the supposed art of the routine
angler, who fancies the fish are so well skilled in the
colours and forms of particular flies, as to refuse all
other sorts on particular seasons and days, and even at
different periods of the same day. Nothing can be
more preposterous than such a notion? universal though
it be amongst the most experienced anglers ; yet, at
the same time, I am well aware that the facts are
certain upon which they found the fancy, but are to be
accounted for on a totally different principle, as 1
shall endeavour to illustrate in a subsequent page.
" There is no evidence," says Daniell, *' of any fishes
seeing at a considerable distance, and the conduct of
many of them that are deceived by different- baits
prepared in imitation of their food, gives room to
suspect that objects are not "^ry distinctly perceived
by them even when near."
C 2
aO FOOD OP FISHES.
Light seems peculiarly attractive to fishes, and
accordingly, on taking down a lamp in a diving bell,
the diver is immediately surrounded with a multitude
of fishes, attracted thither by the light. In what is
termed in Scotland Black fishing, so interestingly
described by Sir Walter Scott in his Guy Mannering,
the fishers by night carry a grate of burning coals,
or, what would be still more convenient, good large
torches, and wade along the more shallow streams
where salmon come up to spawn. When the water is
tolerably clear, few fish can escape such a search, and
when they are discovered, they appear to be so fasci-
nated by the glare of the light, that they make little
effort to escape, and are easily speared. I have more
than once been myself engaged in this singular species
of fishing in Ayrshire.
It is on the same principle that the Chinese catch
fish, by what may be called a sort of daring. They
employ two strait boats, with a board painted white
and varnished, nailed to them. This is made to slope
outwards, and almost touches the surface of the water,
the colour of which it is made to take by the reflection
of the light of the moon. Towards this the fish dart,
fall on the board, and are caught without trouble.
Attention to colours in Angling.
From what has been here laid down, it may be seen,
that though fishes are not endowed with acute sight to
distinguish forms, this will not apply to colours, an
attention to which is of some importance for practising
the art successfully.
SENSES OF FISHES. 21
With respect to artificial flies, the most conspicuous
colours and such as contrast best with the water, are to
be preferred, and for this purpose, light colours in the
dusk of morning or evening, and, dark colours in clear
water and bright weather, are to be preferred. The
metallic lustre of peacocks* feathers, and even gold and
silver thread, become in this way useful in dressing
flies, though there be nothing Hke them in natural flies ;
and we shall see, in a subsequent page, the principle
upon which this is founded.
The colour of the line to which the hooks are im-
mediately attached ought, for a similar reason, to be as
near as possible to the colour of the water ; and though
white horse hair or gut is most commonly used, this
is frequently stained pale blue, greenish, or brown, to
match the colour of the water to be angled in. The
following methods are recommended for this purpose,
though they are certainly not very scientific
For a pale watery green. — To a pint of strong ale
add half a pound of soot, a small quantity of walnut
leaves, and a little powdered alum ; boil these materials
for half or three quarters of an hour, and when the
mixture is cold, steep the gut or hair in it for ten or
twelve hours.
For a brown. — Boil some powdered alum till it is
dissolved ; add a pound of walnut tree bark, from the
branches when the sap is in them, or from the buds,
or the unripe fruit. Let the liquid stand till nearly
cool, and skim it ; then put in the gut or hair, and
stir it round for about a minute, or till it appears to
have imbibed the desired tint. It ought not to be very
*22 FOOD OF FISHES.
Strongly tinctured, as it is apt to rot when too dark. For
a bluish watery tint, the above ingredients are also used,
with the substitution of log- wood instead of walnut.
For a yellow.— The inner bark of a crab-tree boiled
in water with some alum, makes a good yellow, ex-
cellent for staining tackle used among decayed weeds,
the colour of which it closely resembles.
A tawny hue is obtained by steeping hair among
lime and water for four or five hours, and then allow-
ing it to soak for a day in a tan-pit. In the absence
of other ingredients, both gut and hair may be easily
stained by being left for twenty-four hours in strong
tea, either with or without a few log-wood scrapings.
The hair to be stained ought to be selected from the
best white. Silken or hempen lines may be tinted by
a decoction of oak bark, which is said to add to the
durability of these materials.
It has even been considered of eonsequence for the
angler to attend to the colour and make of his clothes,
respecting which I find the following quaint remarks
in old Gervase Markham's ' Countrey Contentments.'
" Touching the angler's apparell, (for it is a respect as ne-
cessary as any other whatsoever) it should by no meaias
be garish, light coloured, or shining, for whatsoever with
a glittering hew it reflecteth upon the water, immedi-
ately it frighteth the fish, and maketh them flie from his
presence, no hunger being able to tempt them to bite
when their eye is offended ; and, of all creatures, there
is none more sharp sighted than fishes are. Let then
your apparell be plaine and comely, of a darke colour,
IS russet, tawney, or such like, close to your body.
SENSES OP FISHES. 93
without any new fashioned slashes, or hanging sleeves,
waving loose like sailes about you, for they are like
blinks which will ever chase your game from you."
Hearing in Fishes.
Barker, in his singular book, entitled "Delight,"
tells us, that Edward Lord Montagu one evening
desired him to catch him a dish of trouts against the
next morning by six o'clock, and on dropping a hook
baited with two lobworms on the water, as is done in
fly fishing, the slight plunge attracted the fish to the
spot, and as the night was dark he had good sport.
This proves beyond doubt, I think, that, in the dark at
least, fish are led to their food by hearing ; and as
they came in this manner to Barker's lobworms, they
would no doubt in the same way have run after a
minnow, or any other fish or insect whose movements
through the water they might have heard.
M. Gouan of Montpelier tried some experiments
upon the hearing of gold fishes kept in glass vases, in
which he found that they took no notice of the loudest
sounds, so long as he could prevent the tremor of the
air from affecting the water ; and without considering
that it is this very tremor of the air or water which
constitutes sound, he came to the conclusion, that gold
fishes, and probably fishes in general, are destitute of
hearing. A conclusion, however, which can easily be
disproved, independently of the mythological story of
Amphion and the dolphins, or of the old Scottish
harper, Glenkindie, who, as the ballad has it, " harped
a fish out o* the sa't water."
24 FOOD OF FISHES.
^lian again tells us, that the chad is allured by the
sound of castanets, and in Germany they take this fish
by means of nets, to which bows of wood hung with
a number of little bells are attached, in such a manner
as to chime in harmony when the nets are moved.
The chad when once attracted by the sound, will not
attempt to escape while the bells continue to ring.
They are likewise in the habit, on the continent, of
calling the gold fishes, as well as those kept in ponds,
to be fed at the sound of a bell.
" At Rotterdam," says Mr. Bradley, " in a garden
belonging to M. Eden, a very curious gentleman, I
had the pleasure of seeing some carps fed, which he
kept in a moat of considerable extent ; the occasion
of my seeing these creatures was chiefly to satisfy me
that they were capable of hearing. The gentleman
having filled his pocket with spinach seed, conducted
me to the side of the moat, where we stood mute for
some time, the better to convince me that the fish
would not come to us till he called them. At length,
being desirous to see the event, he called in his usual
way, and immediately the fish gathered together from
all parts of the moat in such numbers, that there was
hardly room for them to lie by one another, and then
he flung some spinach seed amongst them, which they
devoured very greedily. This alone would have satis-
fied me that fish had the sense of hearing; but upon
relating the story to some curious gentlemen, I was
told, that at Sir William Bowyer's near Uxbridge^
there is a pond of pikes or jacks, which they call
together at pleasure, and, I think, this is more surprising
SENSES OF FISHES. 25
than what I have mentioned of the carps; for the
pike is held to be a more wild, untameable fish than
the earp, and as it is a fish of prey, it lias been
thought impossible to civilise it, or make it any way
familiar to mankind/'
In the case of fish-ponds, M. Lebault accordingly
advises not to suffer much shooting at wild fowl, inas-
much as he is of opinion that it frightens, injures, and
destroys the fish. The opinion, however theoretical
it may appear to some, seems to be proved by the
observations of our celebrated physiologist, Mr. John
Hunter, who describes the ear of fishes, always, he
says, important, if not new with him, as consisting of
a gristly substance, very hard or firm in parts, and in
some species crusted over with a thin plate of bone, so
as not to allow it to collapse. . The ear of fishes he
also remarked to possess the singular peculiarity of
increasing with the size of the individual, whereas, in
quadrupeds, the ear is nearly as large in the young
as in the full grown animal. Mr. -Hunter was not
contented with ascertaining the structure of the ear in
fishes, but experimented upon the power of the faculty
itself.
" When in Portugal," says he, ''in 1762, I observed
in a nobleman's garden near Lisbon a small fish-pond
full of difierent sorts of fish. Its bottom was level
with the ground, and was made by forming a bank all
round, with a shrubbery close to it ; whilst lying on
the bank seeing the fish, I desired a gentleman, who
was my companion, to go behind the shrubs, (that
there might be no reflection of light from the flash,)
26 FOOD OF FISHER.
and fire his gun. The moment the report was made
tlie fish seemed universally affected, for they vanished
immediately, raising, as it w^ere, a cloud of mud from
the bottom. In about five minutes afterwards they
began to appear, and again swam about as before."
It would lead me into details inconsistent with the
conciseness aimed at in this little work, to mention all
the erudite discussions to which this subject has given
rise, by Dr. Monro, Geoffroi, Comparetti, Scarpa,
Weber, De Blainville and others : and I shall merely
hint, that Weber discovered a communication between
the ear in fishes and the swim-bladder, the air con-
tained in which is therefore probably affected by sound ;
and that De Blainville expresses his astonishment at
the magnitude of their nerves of hearing.
NATURAL FOOD OF FISHES.
I HAVE already remarked, that the staple food of
every sort of fish is living animals of all kinds, together
with the eggs or spawn which may be deposited in the
water, and which seem to be one of the favourite
dainties of fish, a circumstance no doubt wisely ordered
to restrain the excessive multiplication that might,
without this check, most readily ensue, while, at the
same time, the extraordinary fecundity of fishes may
be considered a wise provision to produce an adequate
supply of food, as land insects are so prodigiously mul-
tiplied probably for supplying food for birds. As this
is undoubtedly the principal supply of food to fishes of
NATURAL FOOD 27
all sorts, it may be interesting to mention a few of the
circumstances respecting it, as ascertained by obser-
vation.
Great Fecundity of Fishes,
Like birds, reptiles, and insects, fish are produced
from eggs, the mass of which found in the mother-
fish is w^ell known under the name of roCi and, after
exclusion, by the name of spawn. The number of
eggs in the roe of some fishes is so prodigious as to
appear almost incredible. In the carp. Professor
Blumenbach says there are more than 200,000 ; but
M. Petit in a carp eighteen inches long found no
fewer than 342,144, and in a sturgeon weighing a
hundred and sixty pounds there was the astonishing
number of 1,467,500 ; yet even this is nothing to the
fecundity of the cod, in which upwards of nine mil-
lions of eggs have been reckoned by the celebrated
Dutch naturalist, Leeuwenhoeck.
The method taken by Mr. Harmer.for counting the
eggs, was to weigh with accuracy the whole mass of
roe, then taking a piece of the weight of twenty, thirty,
or forty grains, as was most convenient, weighing it
accurately, and giving the turn of the scale to the eggs,
to tell them very carefidly over, and then, by dividing
the number of eggs by the grains, to find how many
eggs there were in each grain, or nearly so. He only
reckoned those eggs that could be distinguished by the
naked eye; although by such limitation numbers
were passed over, that, by the help of an eye-glass,
might have been justly counted. They were told on a
28 FOOD OF FISHES.
fine earthen vessel, extremely black, by which means
they are better discovered.
It appears from Harmer's observation, that the size
of the eggs is almost equal in great and small fishes of the
same species, at the same time of the year, and that the
quantity of spawn, is, in general, nearly proportionate
to the size of the animal, whence a tolerable guess may
be given of the greatest fecundity of each kind. If it is
known to what weight they have been found to grow
in a breeding state, their produce at a medium may
likewise be settled, upon learning what the mean size
of each sort is, when under such conditions. This is
not, however, universal, and, consequently, not perfectly
exact, some fish being much more prolific than others,
although of a similar bulk and species.
He further observes, that the great fruitfulness of
fishes is not, upon examinations of this nature, the
only thing that affects the imagination : the extreme
disproportion of their first appearance in the water
after being hatched, and that of their full growth, as
well as the difference between the magnitude of fish of
various kinds, and that of their eggs, are striking
curiosities. The egg of a smelt, ^ for example, which
weighs at its full growth but three or four ounces, ap-
peared larger than that of a cod of twenty pounds*
weight, and which might have grown to forty ; whilst
that of a stickleback 2, the smallest of all known fish,
was found to be above six times bigger than the largest
egg he had ever noticed in a smelt.
(1) In Latin, Osmerus eperlanus.
l2) In Latin, Gasterosteus pungitius.
NATURAL FOOD.
29
From the investigations which Mr. Harmer made
upon these principles, he drew up a curious tahle, of
which I shall here give the portion that refers to fresh
water fishes only.
Weight
Weight
t.
•S -6
No. of
Names of
of the
of the
II
§i|
eggs
Time of
the Fish.
fish.
whole
S 0.-S
to a
examining.
spawn.
^ O
^-^
grain.
Nos.
Oz. Dr.
Grains.
Grains.
CARP ll
16 12
1265
101,200
46
80
May 25.
25 8
2571
203,109
65
79
April 4.
Perch. {\
8 9
765^
28,323
86
37
April 5.
5 10
502
20,582
85
41
6.
1
56 4
5100|
49,304
70
9f
April 25.
Pickerel. 2
3248
80,388
76^
24|
November25.
3
48 10^
3184
33,432
43
10^
March 19.
1
2 0
114
9,604
April 4.
Roach (or 2
6 8
671
43,615
68
65
May 4, 1764.
what was 3
3 8
346^
29,799
42^
86
ditto
taken to 4
2 2
153
9,486
42^
62
5.
be of that 5
10 6^
361
81,586
39
226
2, 1765.
species) 6
9 lOf
417
113,841
42
273
6.
7
3 8
213^
45,475
20
213
24.
1
2 0
149^
38,278
30
256
February, 21.
2
286^ gr.
50
14,411
—
288
Mar.21, 1764.
Smelt. 3
1 14
1571
29,925
40^
190
27, 1765.
4
1 12
145^
30,991
20
213
28.
5
1 7
149
24,287
20
163
ditto
6
1 5
136
23,800
20
173
ditto
1
40 0
383,252
May 28, 1764.
2
28 8
533^
280,087
25
252
3, 1765.
3
8 14f
224
83,104
20
371
10.
Tench 4
9 8
284^
108,963
20
383
ditto
5
12 8
366
138,348
22^
378
ditto
6
27 91
1969
350,482
26
178
June 1.
7
14 15
866
138.560
20
160
ditto
so FOOD OF FISHES.
Voracity and Cannibalism of Fishes.
The innumerable swarms of fishes thus produced,
constitute, particularly when young, the chief portion
of the food of those that are full grown, and even these
often meet each other in fierce opposition, when the
fish which has the widest throat comes off victorious
by devouring his opponent. They even make no dis-
tinction of their own species, and char kept in a pond
are observed to devour their young. The great lake
trout 1 also, according to Sir William Jardine, is ex-
ceedingly rapacious, and, after attaining the weight of
three or four pounds, appears to feed almost exclusively
on small fish, not sparing even its own young. A small
trout of this species, not weighing more than a pound
and a half, will often dash at a bait not much inferior
in size to itself; and instances are recorded of larger fish
following with eager eye, and attempting to seize upon
others of their own kind after they had been hooked,
and were in the act of being landed by the angler. It
may readily be inferred from this, that the smaller fish
must make good baits, as they certainly do, for catching
the larger.
The most voracious fish on record is the pike, which
though it can, by spare feeding, be habituated to sub-
sist on very little aliment, will, when full dieted, acquire
the power of devouring thirty or forty roaches a day.
One of these fish has been known to choke itself in at-
tempting to swallow another of its own species, that
(1) In Latin, Srt^mo/eroiT, Jardine.
NATURAL FOOD. 31
proved too large a morsel; and it is well authenticated
that in Lord Gower's canal, at Trentham, a pike seized
the head of a swan as she was feeding under water, and
gorged so much of it as to kill them both. Gesner re-
lates, that a pike in the river Rhone seized the lips of
a mule while it was drinking, and was in consequence
dragged out of the water ; and Walton says, ^^ I have
been assured by my friend Mr. Seagrave, who keeps
tame otters, that he has known a pike in extreme
hunger fight with one of his otters for a carp that the
otter had caught, and was then bringing out of the
water. In December, 1765, a pike was caught in the
river Ouse, which weighed about twenty-eight pounds,
and , on opening it, a watch with a riband and two seals
belonging to a man that had been drowned in the river
a month before, were found in its stomach. The most
circumstantial details, however, respecting the voracity
of the pike, are given by Bowlker.
" My father," says he, " caught a pike in Barn-Mere,
a large standing water in Cheshire, an ell long, and
thirty-five pounds weight, which he brought to Lord
Cholmondeley. His Lordship ordered it to be turned
into a canal in the garden, wherein were abundance
of several sorts of fish. About twelve months after
his lordship drew the canal, and found that this over-
grown pike had devoured all the lish, except one large
carp that weighed between nine and ten pounds, and
that was bitten in several places. The pike was
then put into the canal again, together with abundance
of fish with him to feed upon, all which he devoured
in less than a year's time, and he was observed by the
32 FOOD OF FISHES.
gardener and other workmen there to take the ducks
and other water-fowls under water; whereupon they
shot magpies and crows, and threw them mto ihe
canal, which the pike took before their eyes. Of this
they acquainted their lord, who thereupon ordered the
slaughterman to fling calves' belUes, chickens' guts, and
such like garbage to him to prey upon, but being soon
after neglected he died, as supposed, for want of food."
Instances are mentioned of the pike having attempted
to swallow too large a fish, part was left hanging out
of the mouth, till the rest was digested; but some
remarks of Professor Jurine of Geneva may serve to
explain this upon a different principle. In the lake of
Geneva, perches fished in the winter from a depth of
forty or fifty fathoms frequently have their stomachs
crammed up to the very mouth, a circumstance some-
times, though more rarely, observed in the burbot K
This the author endeavours to explain, by referring to
the sudden diminution of pressure upon the air con-
tained in the swim-bladder, and in the abdominal
cavity, when the fish is dragged rapidly to the surface
of the water. The dilated air bursts through the
envelopes, and, unable to find an exit, it pushes before
it the organ which presents the least resistance, namely,
the stomach, which it reverses, and heaves up to the
mouth. The swim-bladder is not, in such cases, burst,
but usually flaccid. If this be correct, the perch is not
so much of a glutton, as to a careless observer it might
at first appear.
U) In Latin, Gadus Lota,
NATURAL FOOD. 33
WATER INSECTS.
Next to spawn and young fish, there is a considerable
supply of food derived from insects which frequent the
water, more particularly the grubs and maggots that
live in water, and often in great abundance. The
grubs are the young of beetles, of day flies and caddis
flies with four wings, and the maggots are the young
of gnats and crane flies with two wings. As these
grubs themselves lead a predatory life, and are exposed
to the attacks of their own kindred as well as of fishes,
they are provided with various means of eluding their
enemies, either by living in the recesses of water plants,
under stones, or at some depth in clay or mud; or by
constructing for themselves a dwelling place into which
they can retire securely, when danger threatens.
Though these grubs and maggots, therefore, may be in
great profusion, the fish can only take them by surprise,
and would fare but scantily if they had no other
resource.
It consequently opens up a fine variety of baits to
the angler, who can easily dislodge these grubs and
maggots from their lurking places in the waters, and
employ them to entice the fish that are fond of them,
but have not the means of securing such prey at their
pleasure. It may on this account be useful to describe
and figure a few of these, to enable the beginner to find
and to recognise them in the water; and I shall begin
with what are well known to anglers under various
names.
34 FOOD OF FISHES,
Caddis-worms i Cad-bait, or Ruff- coats.
The grubs, which are known by the name of caddis-
worms, case-worms, cad or cod bait, and rujff-coats, are
the young of flies, which are usually of considerable
size, with four large dull-coloured wings, lying in a
sluggish like manner along the back. The various
species are known to anglers by the nam-e of stone
flies, dun-cut, granam or green-tail, alder fly, willow
fly, spring fly, and caddew fly; and to naturalists
as PhryganidcBy Leptoceridce, Philopotamidcs, of which
above one hundred and fifty species have been found in
Britain.
One of the grubs in question forms a pretty case of
withered leaves glued together lengthwise, but leaving
an opening sufficiently large for the inhabitant to put
out its head and shoulders when it wishes to look about
for food. Another employs pieces of reed cut into
convenient lengths, or of grass, straw, wood, &;c., care-
fully joining and cementing each piece to its fellow, as
the work proceeds; and he frequently finishes the
whole by adding a broad piece longer than the rest to
shade his door-way over head, so that he may not be
seen by any fish above. Another of these aquatic
architects makes choice of the tiny shells of young fresh
water muscles, and snails, to form a moveable grotto^
and as these little shells are for the most part inhabited,
he keeps the poor animals close prisoners, and drags
them without mercy along with him. These grotto
building grubs are by no means uncommon in ponds ;
and in chalk districts, such as the country about Wool-
NATURAL FOOD.
35
wich and Gravesend, they are very abundant. One of
the most surprising instances of their skill occurs in
the structures of which small stones are the principal
materials. The problem is to make a tube about the
width of the hollow of a wheat straw, or a crow quiU,
and equally smooth and uniform. Now the materials
being small stones full of angles and irregularities, the
diflSculty of performing this problem will appear to be
considerable, if not insurmountable: yet the little
architects, by patiently examining their stones, and
turning them over on every side, never fail to accom-.
plish their plans. In other instances, when the mate-
rials are found to possess too great specific gravity, a
bit of light wood, or a hollow straw, is added to buoy
up the case. The grubs themselves are admirably
adapted for their mode of life, the portion of their
bodies which is always enclosed in the case, being soft
like a mealworm, or garden caterpillar, while the head
and shoulders, which are for the most part projected
beyond the door-way in search of food, are firm, hard,
and consequently less liable to injury than the protected
portion, should it chance to ])e exposed. These grubs
Figures of foiur caddis worms in variously formed cases.
D 2
86 FOOD OF FISHES.
when taken from their cases, make excell^t baits for
almost every sort of fish ^
Grubs of Day Flies, and other Insects,
The grubs or young of the various species of day
flies known to naturalists by the term Ephemeridce, and
to anglers by the various names of duns, drakes, and
may flies, such as the dun drake or march brown, the
blue dun, the green drake or green may fly, are often
found in considerable abundance about the roots of water
plants, and in the clay forming the banks of ponds and
canals, in which they excavate burrows for themselves
under the level of the water, an operation well described
by Scopoli, Swammerdam, and Reaumur. The exca-
vations are always proportioned to the size of the
inhabitant ; and consequently, when it is young and
small, the hole is proportionably small, though, with
respect to extent, it is always at least double the length
of its body. The hole being under the level of the
river, is always filled with water, so that the grub
swims in its native element, and while it is secured
from being preyed upon by fishes, it has its own food
within easy reach. It feeds, in fact, if we may judge
from its egesta, upon the slime or moistened clay with
which its hole is lined. In the bank of the stream
at Lee, in Kent, I found an old wiUow stump full of
holes stuffed with clay, in which the grubs in question
nestled securely.
(1) For other details respecting these, see my Insect Archttecturet
chap. X.
NATURAL FOOD.
37
a, grub of Ephemera j b h, perforations of Ephemera Grab ; d
grub of Dragon-fly.
Several grubs which do not excavate holes like the
preceding, are not very unlike them in general appear-
ance, though usually much larger, such as the grubs of
various species of beetles, and of dragon flies, of which
the one marked d in the figure is an example. These
usually trust for safety to the protection of the roots of
weeds or a temporary covering of mud; and what are
usually termed blood-worms, are found in the same
circumstances.
I mean here water blood- worms, and not the smaller
bright red earth-worms sometimes so named in books
on angling. These water blood-worms, which are not
much thicker than a stocking thread, are the maggots
of a small gnat^ very abundant near water. These
(I) In Latin, Chironomus plumostts, Meioen.
38
POOD OF FISHES.
blood-worms are an excellent bait, and it is no doubt
on account of their general resemblance in colour to
these, that most fish will eat earth-worms, which can-
not possibly be their natural food, since they can only
come into the water by rare accident. The same may
be said of the beetle grubs of the cockchafer and of
the dung beetle.
, Blood- worm; ft, the gnat {Chironomus plumosus) which springs
from it magrnified.
Shell Fish,
In most rivers, lakes, and canals, no less than in the
sea, there are several species of shell fish, more particu-
larly those usually termed muscles, of which every
species of fish seems to be fond; probably on account
of the difficulty of procuring them, for though the shell
must be opened when they feed, it is closed with the
NATURAL FOOD. 39
Utmost celerity on the approach of an enemy. These
muscles, then, or other shell fish taken from their shells,
form excellent bait, both for salt and fresh water fishes,
though nothing of this kind is in common use with
fresh water anglers, besides a paste made from shrimps.
It has been supposed, that by feeding on three or four
sorts of shell fish, the common trout has its stomach
altered from a soft and membranous, to a hard and
fibrous texture, inaccurately said to be similar to a
fowl's gizzard. These trouts, which are called gillaroo,
are found in Loch Melvin, near Bally shannon, and
Loch Con, near Ballina,in Ireland, and differ little from
the common trout, except in being of a bright golden
yellow on the belly and fins, with more red spots on
the sides, and somewhat broader and thicker in form.
The following remarks of Sir H. Davy show that
the common opinion respecting the origin of this
difference, is at least very doubtful. Speaking of Loch
Melvin, he says, "the common trouts of this lake have
stomachs like other trouts, which never, as far as my
experience has gone, contain shell-fish; but of the
gillaroo trout, I have caught with a fly some not longer
than my finger, which have had as perfect a hard
stomach as the larger ones, with the coats as thick in
proportion, and the same shells within ; so that this
animal is at least now a distinct species, and is a sort of
link between the trout and char, which has a stomach
of the same kind with the gillaroo, but not quite so
thick, and which feeds at the bottom in the same way.
I have often looked in the lakes abroad for a gillaroo
trout, and never found one."
40 FOOD OF FISHES.
Water Flies.
Besides the insects or their young which live in the
water, there are many others which are fond of playing
on, or near, its surface, and in that case are eagerly
watched and pursued by fishes. Among these may be
reckoned water spiders, water bugs, water measurers,
water beetles, but, above all, numerous species of two-
winged and four-winged flies, including several moths,
all of which are greedily seized by fishes when they
can effect their capture. Some of these just mentioned,
such as the spiders, beetles, and bugs, may be found at
most seasons, whereas the appearance of particular
species of flies is periodical, and their existence in the
winged state of very limited duration.
Of these flies, the most celebrated amongst natural-
ists, and little less so amongst anglers, are what I have
above termed day-flies ^ M. Reaumur says, it is usually
about the middle of August that they are expected by
the fishermen in France, and when their season is come
they talk of the manna beginning to appear, calling the
insects by this term on account of the quantity of food
for the fish, which falls as the manna is recorded to
have done in the desert. On the 1 9th of August,
Reaumur, having received notice that the flies had
begun to appear, and that millions of them were coming
out of the water, got into his boat about three hours
before sunset.
'' The countless numbers," he says, " of the flies
(1) In Latin, Ephemendce.
NATURAL FOOD. 41
which swarmed over the water can neither be conceived
nor expressed. When snow falls thickest and in the
largest flakes, the air is never so full of them as that
which we witnessed filled with ephemerae. I had
scarcely remained a few minutes in one place, when the
step on which I stood was covered in every part with
their bodies, from two to four inches deep. Near the
lowest step, a surface of water, of five or six dimen-
sions every way, was entirely covered with a thick
layer of them, and those which the stream swept away
were more than replaced by the multitudes that were
continually falling. I was compelled to abandon my
station from not being able to bear the shower of insects,
which, not falling perpendicularly Uke rain, struck me
incessantly, and in a manner extremely uncomfortable,
pelting against every part of my face, and filling my
eyes, nose, and mouth almost to suffocation. On this
occasion it was no pleasant post to hold the light, for
our torch-bearer had his clothes covered with the in-
sects in a few moments, which rushed in from all
quarters to overwhelm him."
I am not aware that we ever have such numbers of
those flies in any part of Britain, but I have seen them
on the Rhine in immense swarms ; and I once observed
the great square at Wiesbaden, in Nassau, strewed
with their dead bodies, and their white wings spread
out, as if a shower of snow had fallen during the night.
Besides these there are many hundred species of
flies, both with four wings and two wings, that fre-
quent water, or the banks near water, all of which
become, more or less, the prey of fishes, being either
43 FOOD OF FISHES.
sprung upon while they are aUve, or taken when they
are dead or dying, while they float down the stream.
Amongst these are beetles that haunt trees hanging
over water, and hence often fall into it ; and in some
localities, grasshoppers, which are frequently drowned
by making a false spring. Of these, trout and other fish
are very fond; and though it is obvious they can sel-
dom obtain them, yet it is surprising to see how many
of them, when caught and opened, have their stomachs
crammed with grasshoppers and other land insects.
These are accordingly found to be excellent bait, and a
number of them may be easily dried in autumn and
preserved to fish with in the spring, when they are not
to be had in the fields. Even crickets, which may
always be had at a baker's, will form excellent bait,
from their similarity to grasshoppers.
ANGLERS IMITATIVE DEVICES.
It is a very simple and obvious contrivance to offer
to fish any of the sorts of food above mentioned, with
one or more hooks, so concealed in it as not to create
alarm till the whole be swallowed, or gorged, as it is
termed by anglers. For this purpose, as we shall after-
wards see, small fish, shell fish, worms, caterpillars,
grubs, beetles, flies, and all sorts of insects, are em-
ployed to lure particular species of fish to the hooks.
It is still more common, however, for anglers to use
artificial baits, made in imitation, or pretended imi-
tation, of those that are natural.
ANGLERS IMITATIVE DEVICES. 43
I have used the phrase "pretended imitation/' as
strictly applicable to by far the greater number of
what are called by anglers artificial flies, because these
very rarely indeed bear the most distant resemblance
to any living fly or insect whatever, though, if exact
imitation were an object, there can be little doubt that
it could be accomplished much more perfectly than is
ever done in any of the numerous artificial flies made
by the best artists in that line of work. The fish,
indeed, appear to seize upon an artificial fly, because,
when drawn by the angler along the water, it has the
appearance of being a living insect, whose species is
quite unimportant, as all insects are equally welcome,
though the larger they are, as in the case of grasshoppers,
so much the better, because they then furnish a better
mouthful. The aim of the angler accordingly ought
to be to have his artificial fly calculated, by its form
and colours, to attract the notice of the fish, in which
case he has a much greater chance of success than by
making the greatest efforts to imitate any particular
species of fly. As this doctrine will, I am aware, be
accounted heretical and erroneous by all routine anglers,
I shall show that I am not singular in its adoption, by
quoting what appear to me the unanswerable remarks
of a clever writer on angling, in the new edition of the
Encyclopaedia Britannica.
M
FOOD OF FISHES.
a, natural Dragon-fly ; b, imitative Dragon fly.
" It may be asked," he says, " upon what principle
of imitative art the different varieties of sahnon-fly can
be supposed to bear the most distant resemblance to
any species of dragon-fly, to imitate which we are fre-
quently told that they are intended ? Certainly no per-
ceptible similarity in form or aspect exists between
ANGLERS IMITATIVE DEVICES. 45
them, all the species of dragon-fly, with the exception
of one or two, being characterised by very clear, lace-
like, pellucid wings, entirely unadorned by those fan-
tastic and gaudy colours, borrowed from the peacock
and other ' birds of gayest plume,' which are made to
distinguish the supposed resemblance. Besides, the
finest salmon-fishing is in mild weather during the
colder seasons of the year, and in early spring, several
months before any dragon-fly has become visible on the
face of the waters, as it is a summer insect, and rarely
makes its appearance in the perfect state till the month
of June. If they bear no resemblance to each other in
form or colour, how much more unlike must they be,
when, instead of being swept down the current, as a
real one would be, the artificial fly is seen crossing and
re-crossing every stream and torrent, with the agility
of an otter, and the strength of an alligator ? Now, as
it is demonstrable that the artificial fly generally used
for salmon bears no resemblance except in size, to any
living one; that the only tribe which it may be sup-
posed to represent, dofes not exist in the winged state
during the period when the imitation is most generally
and most successfully practised ; and if they did, that
their habits and natural powers totally disenable them
from being at any time seen under such circumstances
as would give a colour to the supposition of the one
being ever mistaken for the other ; may we not fairly
conclude that, in this instance at least, the fish proceed
upon other grounds, and are deceived by an appearance
of life and motion, rather than by a specific resemblance
to any thing which they had previously been in the
46 FOOD OP PISHES.
habit of capturing ? What natural insect do the large
flies, at which sea-trout rise so readily, resemble ?
These, as well as grilse and salmon, frequently take the
lure far within the bounds of the salt-water mark;
and yet naturalists know that no such thing as a salt-
water fly exists, or at least has ever been discovered by
their researches. Indeed, no true insect inhabits the sea.
What species are imitated by the palmer, or by three-
fourths of the dressed flies in common use ? An arti-
ficial fly can, at the best, be considered only as the
representation of a natural one that has been drowned,
as it is impossible to imitate the dancing or hovering
flight of the real insect over the surface of the stream ;
and, even with that restricted idea of its resemblance
to nature, the likeness must be scarcely perceptible,
owing to the difference of motion, and the great variety
of directions in which the angler drags his flies, accord-
ing to the nature and localities of the current, and the
prevailing direction of the wind.
" The same observations apply, with almost equally
few exceptions, to bait-fishing. The minnow is fastened
upon swivels, which cause it to revolve upon its axis
with such rapidity, that it loses every vestige of its
original appearance : and in angling with the par-taU,
one of the most killing lures for large trout, the bait
consists of the nether half of a small fish, mangled and
mis-shapen, and in every point of view divested of its
natural form. The accomplished angler does not con-
descend to imitate specifically, and in a servile manner,
the detail of things ; he attends, or ought to attend,
only to the great and invariable ideas which are inhe-
ANGLERS* IMITATIVE DEVICES. 47
rent in universal nature. He throws his fly lightly
and with elegance on the surface of the glittering
waters, because he knows that an insect, with outspread
gauzy wings would so fall ; but he does not imitate (or
if he does so, his practice proceeds upon an erroneous
principle), either in the air or in his favourite element,
the flight or the motion of a particular species, because
he also knows that trouts are not very conversant in
the peculiarities of species, and that their omnivorous
propensities induce them, when inclined for food, to
rise with equal eagerness at every minute thing which
creepeth upon the earth or swimmeth in the waters.
On this fact he generalises— and this is the philosophy
of fishing."
It would be easy to prove these sound scientific re-
marks by the actual practice of the best routine anglers,
who will, no doubt, treat them as arrant heresy ; for
all their success must depend upon these very princi-
ples_^ even when they imagine they cannot angle with-
out a great variety of flies — without flies adapted to
each particular river, as well as to each season of the
year, and to the morning, noon, and night of the same
day. I cannot better illustrate the principle, indeed,
than by the following narrative from ^'Barker's De-
light." In treating of the Hearing of Fish, I have
mentioned that Barker went out in the dark and had
good sport, by baiting with lob-worms.
"The night," he goes on to say, "began to alter and
grow lighter* I took ofi* the lob- worms, and set to my
rod a white palmer-fly, made of a large hook ; I had
good sport for some time, until it grew lighter ; so I took
48 POOD OP FISHES.
off the white palmer, and set to a red palmer, made of
a large hook; I had good sport until it grew very Ught:
then I took off the red palmer, and set to a black pal-
mer ; I had good sport, and made up the dish of fish.
So I put up my tackles, and was with my lord at his
time appointed for the service. These three flies, with-
out the help of the lob-worms, serve to angle all the
year for the night; observing the times — as I have
showed you — in this night-work; the white fly for
darkness, the red fly in medio, and the black fly for
lightness. This is the true experience for angUng in
the night, which is the surest angling of all, and
killeth the greatest trouts."
Barker, it may be remarked, acted throughout on the
principle of contrasting the colours of his flies with that
of the water, and never once dreamt of ascertaining
whether there were white or red palmers on the water,
any more than whether there were lob-worms swim-
ming in it when he commenced.
It tends strongly to corroborate our principle, that
Bainbridge, who is the best authority on the species of
flies, expressly says, respecting a gaudy artificial fly
for salmon, that, " however fanciful or varied in shade
or materials, it will frequently raise fish when all the
imitations of nature have proved unsuccessful; indeed
so fastidious and whimsical are the salmon at times,
that the more brilliant and extravagant the fly, the
more certain is the angler of diversion." Sir H. Davy
again says, ''I imagine salmon take the gaudy fly, with
its blue kingfisher and golden pheasant's feathers, for
a small fish. I never saw a dragon-fly drop on the
TIMES OF FEEDING AND HAUNTS OF FISH. 49
water or taken by a fish/' *' We have known the sal-
mon," says another intelligent writer, " as well as the
trout, so capricious, as often to prefer a fancy fly,
without having any prototype in nature, to all others,
whether real or imitative i."
TIMES OF FEEDING AND HAUNTS OF FISH.
Most fish are peculiarly night-feeders, and though,
hke other night-feeding animals, they occasionally feed
in the day time, it is not their constant or usual habit ;
and hence the very common disappointment of anglers,
who often find, in spite of their most alluring baits, that
*' the fish wiU not bite.'* I have frequently remarked,
that spiders, all of which feed in the night, are tempted
to come abroad when the weather is dull and overcast,
so ac to resemble twiHght, and it is precisely the same
with most fish ; with this farther peculiarity, that even
in bright sun-shine, the muddy state of the water, from
recent floods or other causes, will darken their light,
and entice them to look out for prey. This, though
one of the most important principles upon which the
angler must rely, has not hitherto, that I am aware of,
been brought into prominent notice in books on ang-
ling, but is left to be gathered from vague and diffuse
accounts of the water and the weather.
In bright weather, accordingly, during the greater
part of the day, even in more dull weather, at least
when the water is very clear, most, if not all sorts of
(1) Brewster's Eucycl. Art. An^qling.
so FOOD OF FISHES.
fish. Keep to their places of retirement, some amongst
reeds and other water plants ; some under banks, or
the shade of overhanging trees ; some under stones ;
and some squatting close to the gravel, sand, or sludge,
at the bottom of the water.
When the sun begins to set, they quit their hiding
places for the more open parts of the water, the river
fish almost uniformly making for the centre of the
stream, or the edges of a current or eddy where they
find other fishes resort, and by coming behind the
smaller ones, they often succeed in swallowing them
before they are aware of their enemy's approach. It is iii
such eddies and currents also where the more precarious
supply of insect food is to be met with; and here of
course the angler is most certain of finding good sport,
which, if he choose to follow it up, will continue all
night, and for some time after sun-rise next morning,
this depending, of course, on the brightness or dulness
of the water and the weather, as I have already ex-
plained.
In different waters, however, there are peculiarities
of currents, eddies, and pools, that fish arc fond of
haunting, concerning which no practical general rules
can be laid down. The angler must therefore find
these fish-haunts out by repeated trials, and store up
the experience he may thus acquire in his memory. In
the Ayr and the Lugar, I used to know every corner
where I was Hkely to raise a trout ; but on going to
streams of a different character, such as the Cart, in
Renfrewshire, I had to make many trials before I
found out the pecuUar haunts of the fish.
51
STRENGTH OF FISHES.
Having thus discussed the chief points with respect
to food, that it is requisite for the angler to be ac-
quainted with, it may be useful to notice a subject
uniformly omitted in books on angling, — the peculiar
strength which fishes can, or may exert, when they
find themselves hooked. This is important from the
consideration, that if the angler's Hues are not strong
enough to stand the shock, or unless some device is
used to weaken its force, they must inevitably snap
and the prize be lost. At the same time, it is no less
certain, that if, in order to be secure from such acci-
dents, he use a very thick line, he runs the chance of
scaring the fish, and preventing them from taking the
bait. The strength of fish in the water, must, it is
obvious, depend on their power of swimming.
THE SWIMMING OP FISHES.
The tail, with its peculiar fin, more or less plaited, is
the principal instrument used by fish for making their
way through the water. It acts very much like the
sculling oar of a boat, and though it in part, Uke such
an oar, serves to direct the line of motion, this is only
a secondary circumstance, and not, as is the case with
the tail of birds, its primary function.
A long and broad tail, therefore, and large fins,
are favourable for acting upon the resistance of water,
e2
52 STRENGTH OP FISHES.
and consequently for swimming. The bulk of the
body in fishes increases from the tail to the head,
while the extent of surface, on the contrary, follows
an opposite principle ; for, the tail, in consequence of
its least thickness, the magnitude of its fin, and the
other fins on the back and the vent which act as
auxiliaries, has more surface, in proportion to its
bulk, than the body. It is owing to the difference of
bulk, which exists between the body and the tail,
including the tail fin, and to the extent of surface
which the tail and its fins present, that fishes find
a point of support to direct all their strength, and yield
a necessary mobility to the anterior parts of their
bodies.
It may be remarked that the jointed, gristly rays of
the tail fin, as well as of the other fins, perform a simi-
lar office of spreading out or of narrowing the surface,
as the sticks of a fan ; and consequently, the progress
which is made by the fore part of the body, by the
spreading out of the tail fin, may, to a certain point,
be independent of the will, in the same way as the out-
stretched limb of a man, who is standing up, will
involuntarily incline to the ground. Let us suppose
that a bow, the ends of which are of unequal thickness
and proportions, be bent and unstrung in the water,
there wiU be more Influence exerted by the water upon
the end which has the greater surface in proportion to
its bulk, than upon that whose mass is more consider-
able, and the bow will be displaced and carried farther
on the heaviest side.
It is in this way that, the water offering resistance
THE SWIMMING OP FISHES. 63
to the quick strokes of the tail fin behind, progressive
motion is wholly caused by the extension of the cur-
vature of the body, or, in other words, by the unbend-
ing of the bow, including, of course, the bending of
the tail as a portion thereof. The fore part of each
curvature, or bending, having more weight and pro-
portionally less surface than the hinder part, turns
round the point of support furnished by the last.
The order of the motion is this: the fish extends the
tail towards g, so that while 6, c, is turning round the
centre b, it is not straight like the rays^ of a circle, but
makes a sort of wavy sweep, the first d, e, being at the
same time contracted. When arrived at g, it pushes
backwards against the water, and is of course pushed
on in the direction of 6, a ; by which motion it is
brought straight again at b, c,/; after which a similar
stroke is made on the other side at h.
The fins of the breast and belly assist the fish m
maintaining the balance or level position of the body.
Cl) In Latin, Radii,
64f
STRENGTH OF FISHES.
Accordingly, when Professor Borelli of Naples, by way
of experiment cut off with a pair of scissors, both the
breast and vent fins of fishes, he found that all their
motions afterwards were unsteady, and that they
reeled from right to left, and up and down, in a very
irregular manner.
f/
^^^
{t
'
^>«
b
c
^^3«,
f z Tr::T-
Fish raise themselves in the water by expanding
their swim bladder, and consequently lessening their
weight 1, as is shown in the figure, where the squares
a, b, c, represent the relative expansion of the swim
bladders, d, e^f. Mf, represented by the square c, the
swim bladder is greatly compressed, and the fish is
U) Technically, Specific gravitt/ .
THE SWIMMING OP FISHES. 65
near the bottom ; at d, represented by a, it is much
expanded, and the fish is near the surface.
The rapidity with which fish swim, and the conse-
quent strength which they must exert, are well illus-
trated by the whale K When struck with a harpoon
or spear Avith a line attached thereto, the leviathan of
the waters darts down into the deep with such velocity,
that if the line were to entangle, it would either snap
asunder or overset the boat Upon a whale being struck,
therefore, one man is stationed to give his whole atten-
tion to the line running out clear, and another is em-
ployed in continually v^retting the place it runs over,
to prevent the wood from taking fire by the friction.
On the same principle, but after a much smaller
scale, the angler, when he has hooked a large fish,
which from its mode of action he infers would easily
snap his line asunder were he to pull it up tight,
allows his line to run out as the whale-fishers do, and
for this purpose he is provided with a long hne wound
on a reel 2, or winch, called, by Dame Juliana Barnes,
Reel, Winch, Pirn, or Troll.
(1; It maybe well to state that modern naturalists do not rank
the whale amongst fishes, because it breathes like land animals,
has warm blood, and suckles its young.
(2) Provincially, Pirn, or troll.
56 STRENGTH OF PISHES.
" a renninge vyce," and ready to let go at a moment's
notice.
The angling books are full of directions how to
weary out and land a large fish ; but, after all, little
can be taught on this subject without actual experience.
" Never/' says Sir H. Davy, '' allow a fish to run
to the weeds, or to strike across the stream ; you
should carry him always down the stream, keeping his
head high and in the current : if in a weedy river you
allow a large fish to run up the stream, you are almost
sure to lose him/' " If a fish," says Best, " resists very
much, give him hne enough, which will soon exhaust
his strength ; and when you pull him towards you, do
not do it violently; for if you do he will launch and
plunge in such a manner, that though he may not be
able to break your tackle, yet he will tear away his
hold ; but if you feel him come easily towards you,
wind up your line, until you see him ; then if he
struggles very much, give him line again ; and so pro-
ceed till you have killed him."
WEIGHT OP FISHES.
Experienced anglers can tell with miraculous ex-
actness the weight of the individual fish they may
chance to hook, before they have seen it to judge by
its dimensions, and the late Sir H. Davy had extraor-
dinary tact in this way ; but it is impossible to ac-
quire such a tact except by long experience. When a
fish has once been fairly landed, however, as near an
estimate of its weight may he come at by taking its
dimensions and referring them to a given standard, and
WEIGHT OF FISHES 57
for the purpose of measurement, it may be convenient
to have the butt end of the fishing rod marked with a
scale of feet and inches. Sir H. Davy's standard was
a trout 17 inches in length, and 9 inches in breadth,
weighing two pounds. According to this standard,
then, by the mathematical rule, that similar solids are
to each other in the triplicate ratio of one of their
dimensions, a trout measuring about 24 inches will
weigh about five pounds ten ounces.
6B
PRACTICAL LESSONS IN ANGLING.
The beginner who has made himself acquainted
with what I have above stated respecting the food,
haunts, and feeding time of fishes, will be in some
measure prepared to understand the lessons I now
purpose to give, with reference to particular waters,
and to various species of fish ; for though some prin-
ciples apply generally to all the branches of the art,
there are many peculiarities which require to be studied.
To some of these I shall direct the special attention of
the young angler, and leave him to perfect his skill by
practice and experience. I shall arrange my lessons
under the several heads of river, canal, pond, lake,
ai\d sea-angling.
EIVJER ANGLING.
The peculiar character of a river depends upon the
sources of its waters, and the sort of country it runs
through. The Aar, the Rhine, and other rivers which
rise in the Alps, are of a clear bright greenish blue ; the
Dee, the Tweed, and others which rise in sub-alpine
countries are dark brown, often in floods approaching
to black ; and the Thames, the Seine, the Moselle,
and the Maese, which derive the greater portion of
their waters from a cultivated country, are usually
more or less brownish yellow, in consequence of the
clay that bemuds their waters. The usual smoothness
ANGLING FOR TROUT. 59
or roughness of their current, as well as its rapidity,
will depend on the nature and the slope of the channel
towards the sea.
These varying characters of rivers have great influ-
ence on the sort of fish by which they are inhabited ;
and a species, such as the pike for example, which likes
to prowl about in slow-running, weedy waters, will not
thrive or multiply in the turbulent streams of alpine
or mountainous countries, which are the delight of
trout, and in many instances of salmon. In treating
of River Angling, I think it will, on that account, be
better to confine the attention chiefly to the fish which
prefer swift-running water, and comprehend the fish
of slow-running rivers under Canal Angling. The
fish more pecuUar to swift-running waters then, are
the trout, grayling, salmon, and a few others of infe-
rior value.
ANGLING FOR TROUT.
As this is the most abundant river-fish, as well as of
excellent quality, trout fishing is perhaps more univer-
sally pursued by anglers, than any other, and therefore
I shall be more particular in detail. There are a great
number of varieties of trout which different naturalists
have deemed to be distinct species ; but Professor
Jurine of Geneva, who studied their changes for many
years, under very favourable circumstances, came to
the conclusion that there is only one species ^ The dis-
tinctive marks usually taken from the under jaw pro-
jecting beyond the upper ; the colour of the flesh,
white, yellow, or red ; the shades of the skin with the
(1) In Latin, Salmo fario.
60 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING.
number and form of the spots thereon ; the form of
the tail, forked or even, and the like, he found were not
to be depended on, — and hence the various names of
common trout, sea trout, salmon trout, alpine trout,
and numerous others, apply only to differences arising
from sex, age, season, the character of the waters, and
the sorts of food which they can procure. These
differences, however, are often very considerable, even
among trouts in the same waters, or at least in the
mountain brooks and the rivers into which these
brooks run, as I have observed myself, when angling,
ill numerous instances, and as is well known to every
angler.
Spawning Seasons, and Haunts of Trout.
It is of much importance for the angler to attend to
the spawning time of trout, as, contrary to what occurs
in other fish, it is never good when about to spawn,
but in some rivers, such as, according to Bowlker, the
Arrow in Herefordshire, the Teme in Radnorshire,
and Clunwater, Shropshire, there aie barren females
which continue good all the winter.
In some rivers, trout begin to spawn in October, but
November is the chief month of spawning. About
the end of September they quit the deep water, to
which they had retired during the hot weather, and
make great efforts to gain the course of the currents,
and seek out a proper place for depositing their roe.
This is always done on a gravelly bottom, or where
gravel and sand are mixed among stones, near the tails
ANGLING FOR TROUT. 61
or sides of streams. At this period they turn black
about the head and body, and become soft and un-
wholesome. After the trouts have spawned, they look
sick, and lean, and big-headed, are bony, and not
good till the spring returns to animate them. In
February, when the weather gets milder, the trouts
leave their winter quarters in the deeps, for shallow
waters and swift streams. They first settle in the eddies
of a stream ; and, as they gain strength, they advance
nearer the head. They settle for the most part in
whirlpools and holes, into which swift streams and
shallows fall ; and, growing strong, feed in the largest
and swiftest current, especially in the sides and deepest
part of them near to their holes. If they are large,
they commonly lie under hollow banks, that are worn
so by the stream bearing on them ; under the roots of
trees, boughs, and bushes, aiid behind large stones,
blocks, and banks, that jut forth in the water, on which
streams pressing cause an eddy or whirUng back of
the water. In such places they delight themselves to
lie, constantly waiting and watching for the stream to
bring something down to feed upon, either at top or
bottom. Sometimes, for want of a better covering, they
lurk under sedges and weeds, the better to surprise
their prey; in mill heads and dams; and in those streams
where the dam runs into the river, and in deep swift
streams at floodgates and weirs. " Large trouts," says
Sir H. Davy, " always hide themseh es under the same
bank, stone, or weed, and come out from their perma-
nent habitations to feed. A\^hen they have fled to their
haunt, they may be taken there by the hand ; and on
62 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING.
this circumstance the practice of tickUng trout is
founded. A favourite place for a large trout in rivers,
is an eddy, behind a rock or stone, where flies and
small fishes are carried by the force of the current, and
such haunts are rarely unoccupied, for if a fish is taken
out of them, his place is soon supplied by another, who
quits for it a less convenient situation." •
Trouting Rods,
As without good instruments the best skill will often
prove unavailing in the art of angling, I shall here
give some directions respecting these, to aid the begin-
ner, till he acquire experience ; or if he have the curi-
osity to make his own rather than buy them at the
tackle makers, which is undoubtedly the best way.
All the directions for making rods in the angling
books are founded on the one originally published by
Dame Juliana Barnes, in the Book of St. Albans, who
says, '^ how ye shall make your rodde craftily, here I
shall teche you. Ye shall kytte [cut] betweeneMychel-
mas and Candlemas [Feb. 2nd.], a fayr stafFe, of a fa-
dom and a halfe longe and arme-grete, of hazyll, wyl-
lowe, or ashe ; and bethe [bake] hym in an bote ovyn
and sette hym evyn; thennelete hym coole and drye a
moneth." Dame Juliana then proceeds with much
minuteness to direct how the several pieces are to be
rendered taper, and fitted to join into one rod when
wanted for use ; " and thus," she concludes, '' shall ye
make your rodde so prevy that ye may walke therwyth
and there shall no man wyte [know] where abowte
ANGLING FOR TROUT. 63
ye goe." Such rods, fitted to put up as walking sticks,
are now common enough, but are generally too small
for river angUng; and those which are made to put up
in a bag, are in too many pieces to bend well.
The best rods, according to Bainbridge, are made of
ash for the bottom piece, hickory for the middle, and
lance- wood for the top-joints. If real bamboo can be
procured of good quality, it is preferable to lance- wood.
Rose- wood and partridge-wood, from the Brazils, may
also be used for the top-pieces. The extreme length of
the top-piece is usually composed of a few inches of
whalebone. The rings for the reel Kne may be made
by twisting a piece of soft brass-wire round a tobacco-
pipe, and soldering the ends together. They ought to
diminish in size as they are made to approach the top,
and must form a straight and regular line with each
other, when the rod is put up for use.
As the top of the rod is apt to be broken by acci-
dent, many anglers carry with them a spare top; but
if this is not done, a broken rod may be spliced by
cutting the two broken ends with a long slope so as to
make them fit neatly together, spreading some shoe-
makers' wax 1 very thin on each of the cut surfaces, and
binding them firmly with waxed thread. To fasten
off, lay the fore-finger of your left hand over the bind-
ing, and with your right make four turns of the thread
over it; then pass the end of your thread between the
under side of your finger and the rod, and draw your
finger away; lastly, with the fore-finger and thumb of
(1) Provincially, Rozet,
64 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING.
your right hand take hold of the first of the turns,
and, gathering as much of it as you can, bind on till
the three remaining turns are wound off, and then
take hold of the end which you had before brought
through, and then draw close.
The length of a rod must be regulated in a great
measure by the character of the river. A trouting rod
is usually made from twelve to fifteen feet, which will
enable the angler to cast twelve yards of line with one
hand. It should be as light as is consistent with
strength and durability, as a heavy rod is cumbersome,
fatiguing, and unwieldy, while a light one gives greater
faciUty of casting under hollow banks or among trees
or bushes. Care should be taken to have rods suffici-
ently strong in the middle, where they are otherwise
apt to bend too much. As it requires a finer top for
fly-fishing than for trolling or ground-fishing, the butt-
end may be so constructed as to fit tops of different
sizes, and it is useful to have it with a spike screwed to
it by which to stick it occasionally in the ground.
Rods are stained and varnished in a variety of ways,
as with copal varnish, or caoutchouc dissolved over a
dow fire in linseed oil i. Ash or other wood is easily
stained of a cinnamon colour by warming it before the
fire and putting over it some aquafortis with a feather.
Trouting LineSt
For fly-fishing the line should be about thirty yards
O) See a variety of the best receipts for varnishes in ray "New-
Supplement TO THE PhARMACOP(EIAS."
ANGLING FOR TROUT. 65
long, and wound on a small brass reel fixed to the butt-
end of the rod, and running through rings or staples
placed at suitable distances along the rod to the top, so
that it may be shortened or lengthened at pleasure, ac-
cording to the convenience of throwing. The line
should run taper from the top of the rod down to the
fly, that is, if the first link is composed of thirty-five
hairs, the next must be of thirty-four ; so leaving out
one hair in each link till the whole is completed ; then
comes the silk-worm gut, on which you should whip
all your hooks on to the bend. But the best lines for
artificial fly-angling are those that are wove, and are all
in one piece, and are to be bought at any of the shops
in London where fishing-tackle is sold, and run taper
like the lash of a coach-whip, and may be had of any
length from thirty to forty yards or more. These are
the only lines that can be used on a winch, because
they have no knots to prevent them running gUbly
through the rings of the rod. By the line being made
taper, it may be thrown into any place with a greater
exactness, and it will fall much lighter on the water,
which will very much increase the sport.
To make a fly-line by hand-twisting when a winch
is not used, horse hair from a young grey or white
stallion is the best, which must be round and not flat,
and sorted in sizes, free from blemishes, laid in clean
water for twelve hours, then dried and again sorted
with the root ends together. With a view of making the
line taper, begin with three hairs, put them level at top
and knot them, cut off* the other ends so far as they
appear faint, leaving all of the same length ; then hold
66 PHACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING,
them over the top between the thumb and finger of'
the left hand, and begin twisting with the right hand,
stroking them frequently below the hand that holds
them to keep them from entangling, then proceed to the
end and knot it ; when four of these are finished, make
four with four hairs each, four with five hairs, and
continue increasing a hair until the quantity requisite
to complete the line is done. These links should be
then put into cold water for half an hour, which will
show whether the hairs shrink in any of the links,
and such as do must be retwisted: the four smallest are
to be tied together in water knots, leaving the finest
(should there be any difference) lowermost. The water
knot is thus made : — lay the end of one of the hairs
four or five inches over that of the other, and through
the loop which would be made to tie them in the
common way, pass the long and short ends of the
hairs, which will lie to the right of the loop, twice, and
wetting the knot with your tongue, draw it close, and
cut off* the spare hair.
As many inconveniences attend the use of hairs,
cither open or twisted, for hook-lines, these are usually
made of silk-worm gut, or Indian grass or weed, im-
ported from the East. The gut is more transparent
than the grass, and is not so thick, nor in general so
round ; but is otherwise preferable.
Gut may be had of any degree of fineness; for the
same skein is formed of various sizes, as well as of
different degrees of quality ; some threads being long
and round, while others are shorter and flatter. The
latter are very exceptionable where a choice can be
ANGLING FOR TROUT. 67
made, as they are not only weaker, but streak the
water in moving through it, and frighten the fishes.
Choose such gut as is round and smooth, of a clear
and semi-pellucid appearance, and that is free from
yellowish spots, very much like iron-moulds. The
best proof of the strength of gut is its hardness ; bite it,
and if it resists the teeth like wire, that is, does not
easily give way, it is good. This should always be
done when a thread of gut is taken from the skein ;
for such as are quickly bitten through, and make little
resistance to the teeth, will not hold a fish in a proper
manner. Weed is much thicker, and is of a duller,
though of a whiter appearance. At first it is very
strong, but does not keep so well as gut. Choose your
weed as has been directed regarding gut, and take
especial care to keep them both in situations free from
damp ; for, if once mildewed, they are never after to
be trusted, though they may bite tough.
Some object to grass, as being apt to grow brittle
and to kink in using, but with proper management
this may be obviated in the following manner: — Take
as many of the finest as can be got ; put them into
any vessel, and pour therein the scummed fat of a pot
wherein fresh, but by no means salt, meat has been
boiled ; when they have lain three or four hours, take
them out one by one, and stripping the grease ofi* with
the finger and thumb (but do not wipe them) stretch
each grass as long as it will yield ; coil them up in
rings, and lay them by ; and they will become nearly as
small, fully as round, and much stronger than the best
single hairs. To preserve them moist, keep them in a
F !2
68 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING.
bladder well oiled; and before using them let them
soak about half an hour in water ; if your grass is coarse
it will fall heavily in the water, and scare away the
fish ; on which account gut has the advantage. But
after all, if the grass be fine and round, it is the best
thing that can be used.
Trouting Hooks.
It must be obvious that it is of the highest import-
ance for the angler to have hooks well-tempered, that
is, which will not readily break or bend. The way to
prove this is, by taking the shank of the hook in one
hand, and putting the thumb-nail of the other under
the bend, when, if it has a spring and returns to the
same position, the temper is good. If it be too much
tempered, it will snap; and if too little, it will not
spring back, but remain in the position to which it has
been forced.
It is reported, that the German Prince Rupert, well
known for his experimental skill, in the reign of our
Charles I., communicated to Charles Kirby a method
of tempering hooks, which remained from that time a
secret with Kirby's descendants, and even now the
Kirby hooks are esteemed. Neither the London, the
Birmingham, nor Dublin hooks are good, because they
are manufactured to sell cheap. Kendal hooks are in
considerable reputation as to temper, and hold well,
though they are not so readily fixed by the pull in the
mouth of the fish. *' Many anglers," says Carroll, ''do
not approve of the Kirby bend, particularly in large
hooks ; they prefer the hook that is bent in a line with
ANGLING FOR TROUT. 69
the shank, as being the best for holding a large fish."
A hook ought never to be chosen whose point stands
much outwards, as it often only scratches the fish
without laying hold. The celebrated Limerick hooks
made by O'Shaughnessy, by far the best tempered of
any in the market, being capable of holding a fish of
SOlbs., stand a very little outwards, which is certainly
an advantage.
abed
b U u L
«, Limerick hook j b, Kendal hook j c, Sneck-bend ; d, Kirby-bend.
The soft steel for making hooks is made by cement-
ing with charcoal good soft malleable iron, such as is
procured from the nails of old horse shoes, till it is con-
verted into steel. It is then formed into bars, or small
rods, of a thickness varying according to the size of the
hooks intended to be made. The bars for the fine
hooks are a little flattened; those for the larger sorts
are cut into lengths of from three to four inches, suf-
ficient for two hooks, and are then in the form of a
double-pointed spear.
The artist requires a hammer, a knife, a pair of
pincers, an iron semi-cleam, two files, one finer than
the other, a wrest, a bender, long and short tongs,
and an anvil. Let the rod be heated in a charcoal
fire, when the barb or witter may be raised with the
knife, taking care not to cut too deep. The point
h then, after cooUng, sharpened by filing it on a piece
70 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING.
of hard wood, with a dent to receive the bar. The
shank is next thinned, flattened, the upper part made
square, and the whole worked off with the polishing
file. Again let it be put in the fire, and bent by a
turn of the wrest round circular pincers. It is now
cut from the bar, put into the fire a third time, and
brought to a slight red-heat, and taking it out sud-
denly, it is plunged into cold water. The temper is
given by placing it on an iron heated in the same
fire till it becomes bright blue, and while still hot it
is surrounded with candle grease, which gives it a
black colour. This completes the process. The sizes of
hooks are numbpred from No. 1, which is the largest,
to No. 13, the smallest.
Arming-, Whipping, or Doping.
For fixing the hook to the gut, grass, or hair, which
is termed arming or whipping S use small but strong
silk, well rubbed with shoemaker s wax, after having
smoothed the shank with a whetstone, to hindei its
fretting. From a straw's breadth below the top of
the hook, wrap the silk about the bare shank until it
comes to the top, which will prevent its shpping, or
cutting the line from frequently using ; then lay the
hair or gut on the inside, never on the outside, as that
(1) Provincially, Whooping^ or Doping.
ANGLING FOR TROUT. 71
will chafe it, and whip with the silk downwards,
almost to the bend of the hook. The colour of the
arming silk should be as near that of the baits used as
may be, and its size regulated by the thickness of
the wire, hair, or gut, to which it is joined. " For
whipping on a hook," says Hawkins, "take the fol-
lowing directions ,* place it betwixt the fore finger and
thumb of your left hand, and with your right give
the waxed silk three or four turns round the shank ;
then lay the end of the hair on the inside of the shank,
and with your right hand whip down ; when you are
within about four turns of the bend of the hook, take
the shank between the fore-finger and thumb of the
left hand, and place the silk close by it, holding them
both tight, and leaving the end to hang down ; then
draw the other part of the silk into a large loop ; and,
with your right hand turning backwards, continue the
whipping for four turns, and draw the end of the silk
(which has all this while hung down under the root
of your left thumb) close and twitjih off."
Artificial flies for Trouting.
Since the time of Cotton, minute directions are
given in most of the angling books how to make
artificial flie«J ; but the greater part of these are not
very intelligible. An hour's instruction from an artist
in this line, would be better than all the printed
directions ever published; but that my little work
may not be considered altogether wanting on this
point, I shall mention what I deem requisite, pre-
mising that, like most anglers, I have rarely used any
72 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING,
flies besides those of my own dressing ; and so far from
troubling myself to imitate the forms and colours of
any natuial fly, as Best and others advise, I have
always killed more fine trout with flies altogether
unlike nature.
There are in artificial flies three different parts
to attend to ; the body, the wings, and what is
called the hackle, meant to represent the legs; and
according to the sort of materials used, and the colours
of these, the various flies are produced. A sharp pen-
knife and a fine pair of scissors are requisite.
For the body, the materials are soft shoemaker's
wax, and silk of all colours and degrees of fineness,
for binding or whipping, with gold and silver fine
wire flattened or twisted. The long plumelets or
beards, called herhy of ostriches' and peacocks* feathers,
are also used in the same way for binding along with
silk or gold thread.
Dubbing.
The principal materials, however, for making the
body, and which go under the general term duhbing,
are various sorts of wool, fur, or hair, the finer sorts
ANOLINO FOR TROUT.
of which are, before using, spun loosely around the
binding silk, by twisting it between the fingers.
The sorts of wool are procured from carpeting or
worsted of all colours, untwisted and sorted in parcels.
Hogs' down is combed from the roots of the bristles, and
dyed of various colours. This, as well as bears' hair,
is good for mixing with sheep's wool, as it repels the
water better. Besides these, the bodies of flies are
dubbed with camels' hair, badgers' hair, spaniels' hair
taken from behind the ear, seals' hair to be procured at
the trunk-makers'; the furs of the squirrel, hare, rabbit,
fox, otter, ferret, mole, mouse, rat, hamster, and, in
short, every other fur that can be procured, may be
used, either of their natural colours or dyed.
Artificial wings made of feathers.
For the wings of the flies, the only material is the
feathers of birds of all colours, both dull and gaudy, a
few of the plumelets being stript from the shaft of a
feather for this purpose, as may be seen in the figures
above. The feathers in most repute among anglers
are those from the back and breast of the mallard or
wild drake ; the wing of the starling, the jay, the field-
fare, landrail, blackbird, thrush, watercoot, pheasant,
grouse, woodcock, and plover ; the neck and wings of
74
PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING.
the heron ; the tail of the turkey-cock ; the crest of
the lapwing, and, in short, almost every sort of feather
that can he procured.
Hackles for the legs of artificial flies.
For the legs, which are the least resembling nature
of any other part of an artificial fly, a similar variety
to the preceding, or what are termed hackles, are used.
These hackles are the long loose feathers which form
the tail coverts of the cock and pheasant, and which
also hang down from the head and back of the neck.
The black and bright reddish brown hackles are the
best, but they may be dyed of any colour required.
The artificial flies called palmers, pretended to imitate
the tiger caterpillar, are chiefly made of these hackles,
with various dubbings without any wings.
Mode of fixing the hackles.
ANGLING FOR TROUT. 75
Fly-angling for Trout.
-The usual way in fly-fishing is to have one fly on
the end of the line, termed a stretcher, and one or
more, termed droppers, hainging from the line behind
the stretcher by a length of link sufficient to let them
just tip the water when the line is a little raised and
drawn along.
As considerable art is required in throwing the line,
so as to make the flies fall lightly on the water, and
not scare the fish, I would recommend a beginner to
observe some good fly-fisher, and then practise as
nearly as he can, after him, at first in a purling stream
or rapid current, till he can cast dexterously in stiller
water. It is useful, also, to commence with a short
line, increasing it by degrees, for it is impossible for a
beginner to throw eighteen yards at first, and he can-
not consider himself out of his apprenticeship till he
can throw twelve or fifteen yards without cracking off
his flies or entangling his tackle. ,
** In casting your line and flies/' says Carroll, '^ob-
serve to make a semicircle with your rod, in order to
avoid snapping your flies, and after you have made
your cast, raise the point of your rod to prevent too
much of your line from falling into the water ; properly
no more should fall than what your flies are attached to.
Manage so as to let your flies drop lightly on the water,
which, with a little well directed practice, you will soon
attain. Begin to fish at the head of a stream, and use
caution, for there generally the best game lies, parti-
cularly when there are flies coming down the river.
T6 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING.
When you cast your flies across the stream, keep them
in gentle motion to prevent the trouts from perceiving
the cheat ; if you give them too long a time they dis-
cover it, or if they take it, when they perceive the
fraud, they quickly disengage themselves. If it is a
slow-running water, let your flies sink a Uttle as you
draw them towards you."
If a trout may be observed to rise at any insect
that may chance to be on the water, let the artificial fly
be offered him, by throwing it, not directly over the
spot, but about a yard higher up the stream ; and, if
he is inclined to rise again, he will probably meet it
half way. A dexterous angler, however, who can
throw a fly within a hair's breadth of the spot he
wishes, will cast as near to the trout as possible, so as
not to alarm him.
The beginner will often be tantalised with trout
rising at his fly without taking it, and if any of these
chance to be pricked with the hook and get away, they
will not again rise readily at the artificial fly, any more
than a bird will allow itself to be caught twice in a
fowler's net. In such cases I think there is some-
thing in the smell, or rather the want of smell in the
artificial fly, more than in its appearance, which deters
the fish ; for I have often, in such cases, succeeded in
raising and hooking pricked and shy trout which refused
my fly, by putting a smaU caddis-worm, the body of a
large gnat, or other insect on the hook. Sir H. Davy,
however, says, ^^ I have known very shy fish refuse
even a hook baited with the natural fly."
In striking a fish that rises at the fly, some skill is
ANGLING FOR TROUT. 77
required not to lose the fish or break the line, and this
ciust be regulated by what appears to be the size of
the fish ; for if small, it may be at once swung out on
the bank, which is the most successful way in par
fishing ; while the attempt to do this with a trout of
any size would be vain. When a fish, on being hooked,
descends beneath the surface, and struggles below in
the deep water, it may be safely inferred that he is
securely hooked ; whereas when he flounders on the
surface, and tries to leap out of the water, the hook is
seldom very deep. With larger troul, the rod should
be kept bent, so as to prevent him from running to the
end of the line. The strength of the line or rod should
never be trusted to without the assistance of a landing
net When the angler is in the midst of the stream,
if from the moment the trout is struck, it is prevented
from redescending, in such a manner, that the upper
part of its head and eyes are retained above or on a
level with the surface, it will for the space of a good
many seconds be so much astonished as to be incapable
of any active exertions, and will frequently allow
itself to be drawn in that position, and without resist-
ance, straight ashore. "When a fish," says Sir H.
Davy, '' is hooked in the upper part of the mouth by
the strength of the rod applied as a lever to the line, it
is scarcely possible for him to open the gills as long as
this force is exerted, particularly when he is moving in
a rapid stream ; and when he is hooked in the lower
jaw, his mouth is kept closed by the same application
of the strength of the rod, so that he is much in the
same state as that of a deer caught round the neck by
78 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING.
the lasso of a South American peon, who gallops for-
wards, dragging his victim after him, which is killed
by strangulation in a very short time. When fishes
are hooked foul, that is on the outside of the body, as
in the fins or tail, they will often fight for many hours,
and in such cases are seldom caught, as they retain
their powers of breathing unimpaired ; and if they do
not exhaust themselves by violent muscular efforts,
they may bid defiance to the temper and the skill of
the fisherman."
Seasons for Fly-fishing, with their peculiar Files.
The changes of colour caused in rivers by rains and
flood, render a change in the mo'des of angling indis-
pensable. During a flood the water is too thick for the
fly to be seen ; but when the water becomes of a clear
brown it is the best for the fly. When the water and
weather are clear, small flies are to be used ; and larger
ones early in the morning and evening, or when the
water is dark and the weather cloudy or windy, so as
to curl the water.
As experienced routine anglers are very particular
in selecting flies for particular months, I think it will
be convenient to mention a few of these, though the
principles which I have above laid down will show
that much of what is supposed to be attractive, or, as
it is termed, killing, in those particular flies, is alto-
gether imaginary.
Flies for February,
This month is rather early for fly-fishing ; yet some
ANOLINO FOR TROUT.
79
enthusiastic anglers begin even on fine days in January.
The palmers or hairy caterpillars may be used, either
the natural — found on warm banks and amongst nettles
— or the artificial palmers or hackles, having the body
made with black ostrich herl alone, or interchanged
with peacock herl, whipped with red silk, or inter-
changed with gold or silver flat wire. Round this the
red or black hackle of a cock is worked so as to stand
out all around, as is shown in the figure. The palmers
may be varied in colour at the pleasure of the artist.
The hooks used are No. 5 and No. 6. Without wings
the hackle from the wild duck or the light part of a
fieldfare's wing may be added, when they are called
spring blacks and spring herls.
a, one of the natural palmers j 6, one of the artificial palmers.
The great dun {Phryganea) is also a February fly,
and has the body dubbed with mole fur and dark-brown
mohair, with dun wings from a wild duck, and a dark
grey hackle. The other flies which are named for
this month are the little red brown, the dark brown,
the small dark brown, and the prime dun.
80
PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING.
The prime dun. a, the natural fly -, b, the artificial fly.
Flies for March,
The season now improves, and in the warm cloudy
days, which sometimes occur, good sport may be ob-
tained. The leading fly of this month is the dun
drake or March brown, and, by corruption, Moorish
brown {Ephemera). The body is dubbed with hare's
ear fur and yellow worsted, or with black wool whipped
with red silk ; the wings are taken from the mottled
feather of a partridge's tail ; and the hackle is taken
from a grey cock. The hooks used are No. 7 and No.
8. Carroll says the trouts refuse every other fly while
this is on the water.
The dun drake, orMarch brown, a, the natural fly ; 6, the artificial fly.
Another March fly, which does not, however, belong
to the water except by accident, is the cow-dung fly.
ANGLING FOR TROUT.
81
{Scatojyhaga Stercoraria, Meigen). The body is
made with a dubbing of lemon yellow mohair and a
yellow feather, whipped with yellow silk ; and the
wings of the greyish blue feather of a hen, a land-rail,
or a mallard. The hook is No. 7.
The cow-dung fly. a, natural fly ; 6, artificial fly.
The other flies named for this month are the palm
fly, the great whirling dun, the dark brown, the early
bright brown, the late bright brown, the little black
gnat, and the blue dun or violet fly (^Ephemera), found
on almost every river. The latter has the body dubbed
with light violet worsted, mixed with down combed
from the neck of a black greyhound, or the roots of a
fox cub's tail ; the wings from the pale part of a star-
ling's wing, whipped with pale yellow silk. The hooks
No. 9 and No. 10 are used.
The blue dun fly. a, natural fly ; 6, artificial fly.
Flies for April.
The blue dun and the dun drake continue to be the
o
82
PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING.
favourites throughout this month likewise, as are the
various hackles or palmers. A good fly for this month
is the stone fly {Fhryganea), the body of which is
dubbed with dark wool, yellow under the wings and
tail; or with the dark-brown hair of a bear or the
darkest parts of a hare's ear, mixed with yellow worsted
or mohair ; two or three hairs from the whiskers of a
black cat are also useful ; the wings from the mottled
feathers of a pheasant or peahen, and the hackle from
a grey cock. The hooks No. 2 and No. 3 are used.
The stone fly. o, natural fly; h, artificial fly.
Another April fly is the thorn or hawthorn fly, the
body of which is formed of black ostrich herl, or seal's
fur died deep black, and mixed with light yellow or
buff" mohair ; the wings may be made with horn shav.
ings, the thin membrane where the pips lie in the core
of an apple, or with the palest feather in a snipe or
mallard's wing. The hooks No. 9 and No. 10 are used.
The hawthorn fly. a the natural fly -, 6, the artificial fly.
ANGLING FOR TROUT. SS
Another well known April fly is the granam or green-
tail {Phri/ganea), which has the body dubbed with
fur from a hare's face or ear, whipped with grey or
green silk ; the wings from the wing of a partridge or
hen-pheasant, and the hackle from a grey cock. The
hooks No. 7 and No. 8 are used
Granam or green-tail fly. a, natural fly j b, artificial fly.
Amongst the other April flies are named the yellow
dun, the horse-flesh fly^ the little dark brown, the red
fly, the sand fly, and the black gnat- fly, the latter of
which has the body made thick and short, with a strip
from a black ostrich's feather, and the wings from a
pale starling's feather.
Flies for May,
This is an excellent month for fly-fishing, the weather
being now mild and pleasant. A good fly, called the
ruddy, has the body dubbed with red wool, whipped
with black silk, and wings from a black cock's feather.
The dun-cut (JPhryganed) is a well known fly for
this month, the body of which is dubbed with brown
bear's hair mixed with a little blue and yellow worsted
and whipped with green or yellow ; the wings from the
o 2
84
PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING.
wing of a landrail or brown hen ; and some add, for
antecLBSB, hairs from a squirrel's tail.
The dun-cut fly. a, natural fly; b. artificial fly.
A common fly on the water at this season is called
the green drake or green May fly {Ephemera), the
body of which is dubbed with hog' down or light
bear's hair mixed with yellow mohair, whipped with
pale flos silk, and a smaU strip of peacock's herl for
the head ; the wings from the rayed feathers of the
mallard, dyed yellow ; the hackle from the bittern's
neck ; and the tail from the long hairs of the sable or
ferret. The hook No. 7 is used.
Green drake, or green May fly. o, natural fly ; b, artificial fly.
The grey drake {Ephemera) is similar, but different
in colour, having the body dubbed with whitish hog's
down mixed with black spaniel's fur, or white ostrich
ANGLING FOR TROUT.
85
herl, whipped with black silk ; the wings from the dark
grey feather of a mallard ; a black hackle with silver
twist ; and the whisks of the tail from a black cat's
whiskers. The hook No. 5 is used.
Another May insect has long been famous under the
various names of the oak fly, the camlet fly, down-hill
fly, and canon fly. The body is dubbed with dark
brown shining camlet, whipped with very small green
silk, or is made with a bittern's feather; and the wings
from the double grey feather of a mallard, or of a.
woodcock.
The oak fly. a, natural fly ; b, artificial fly.
The orle or alder fly {Phryganea) has the body
made of peacock's herl whipped with very dark red
silk; the wings of a dark grey cock's hackle. The
hooks No. 6 and No. 7 are used.
Alder fly. a, natural fly j 6, artificial fly.
86 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING.
Among other May flies I may mention the small
black gnat, the early spider-fly {Tipuia),a.n6i the small
yellow day-fly {Ephemera),
Flies for June.
The water being, in this month, in general clearer,
the angler requires to be more artful in order to induce
the fish to bite.
The red spinner {Pyrochroa) is a well-known fly
this month, and may be made either larger or smaller.
The large sort has the body dubbed with seals' fur,
dyed red, mixed with brown bears' hair, whipped with
gold twist ; the wings from a starling's feather ; the
hackle from a red game-cock. The hook No. 7. The
small sort has the body dubbed with yellow fur from a
spaniel's ear, whipped with gold twist ; the wings and
hackle as in the large sort. The hooks No. 8 and
No. 9 are used.
The red spinner, a, natural beetle on the wing ; b, artificial fly.
The other flies for this month are the barn fly, the
owl fly, the flesh fly, the peacock fly, the green grass-
hopper, and various species of gnats.
ANGLING FOR TROUT.
87
Flies for July,
The greater abundance of insect food renders the
fish very shy of biting, and now little sport can be had
except with a very fine line, and in windy or showery
weather. Besides the various species of small gnats and
ant flies, the spider fly {Tipula oleraced) is mentioned
in books of angling, though it is much too large, except
in dark water or windy weather, or on rough currents.
The body is dubbed with bears' hair or fox cub down
whipped with yellowish or reddish silk; the wings
from a partridge or landrail's feather. The hook No. 6
is used.
Spsder fly. a, natural fly ; A, artificial fly.
88 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING. /
The other flies for this month are the wasp, the
badger, the orange, the July dun, and the shell fly.
Flies for August.
The flies continue numerous this month, and may
be varied according to the state of the water and the
weather. The spider-fly, usually called the jenny-
spinner or hairy long-legs (Pedicia rivosd), may be
made similar to the spider-fly for July.
What the anglers term the hazel fly, or Welshman's
button, is a small brown beetle, and has the body made
with a peacock's herl ; the wings from the red feathers
on the rump of the partridge ; and a fine black cock's
hackle. The hook No. 7 is used.
Hazel fly. a, natural beetle on the wing j b, artificial fly.
The other flies for August are the fern fly {Melo-
lontha horticola), the heath fly, the pale blue, and the
white hackle.
Flies for September.
Fly-fishing draws to a close this month, and is sel-
dom pursued after October begins, as the trout begin
then to go out of season. Among the flies of this
month we may reckon the September dun, the camel
brown, the late badger, and the ant-fly {Formica),
ANGLING FOR TROUT. 89
which is the female of several species of ants. This
has the body dubbed with blackish brown cow's hair,
whipped with silk of the same colour ; the wings from
the brown feather of a hen or landrail.
Ant-fly. a, natural fly ; b, artificial fly.
Night Fly-faking.
The interesting account which I have given in a pre-
ceding page, from ''Barker's Delight," will show better
than any didactic precepts the principles upon which
night-angUng ought to be practised. The flies require
to be large and light-coloured, and the more clumsily
they are dressed the better. I would always recom-
mend a live caddis worm, or the body of some natural
fly, to be put on the hook at the same time.
The flies are usually termed owl or moth flies, and
the body may be dubbed with light bear's hair or any
whitish fur, or white ostrich herl ; the wings from the
feathers of a white owl, or of a tawny owl ; the hackle
from a white or pale yellow cock.
" These flies," says Taylor, " are most killing in
warm, gloomy nights, after hot days ; and when you
angle this way, let out your line to be but a little
longer than the rod. You may hear the fish rise as in
the day time, and feel them when they take."
90
PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING.
Moth or owl fly. a, natural moth j b, artificial raoth fly.
Ground or Bait-Ashing for Trout,
Though hait-fishing is not so elegant an art as fly-
fishing, those who are fond of angling often practise it,
because it will succeed when the water is too dark or
thick for the fly ; and for many years I had every
spring what I considered very good sport in this way,
chiefly using the common earth-worm for bait.
It is requisite to lead the line so as to make it touch
the ground without resisting the force of the current,
the lead being fixed about eight or ten inches above
the hook. A good hook for worm angling ought to
have rather a long than a short shank, with a moderately
deep beard, or witter; hooks No. 2 or No. 3 are good.
ANOLINO FOR TROUT.
91
In whipping the hook on the line, the link is to he kept
on the inside of the hook, and along it a hog's bristle,
to prevent the bait from slipping down over the bend.
Earth-worms of various sorts are to be procured by
digging in garden ground, turning up stones or the
droppings of cattle, amongst rotten thatch and in dung-
hills. Gentles, again, are the maggots of flies, which,
as well as the maggots of bees and wasps, the grubs
of beetles, and the caterpillars of moths and butter-
flies, may be all used as bait. The earth-worms
should be of middle size, and are not so good when
they have a knot near the head. They are improved
as bait by keeping them without any earth, in moss
wetted with milk; but this is not necessary for the
brandling, a worm streaked with rings of red and
yellow, found in rotten tan, leaf mould, or hog*s dung.
a, the grub of the cockchafer, called by anglers the earth bob ;
bt the brandling -worm.
It is for ground-fishing also that the pastes and roe
which I have formerly mentioned are employed with
success; but nothing exceeds the caddis worms, and
good red earth-worms.
92
PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING.
The line may be a foot or two longer than the
rod when the stream is gravelly and open, and the
water rather clear ; but where there are many bushes
or trees, or when the water is thick and muddy, the
line may be as much shorter than the rod. In an open
river it is best to let the point of the rod go before the
body, keeping the lead upon the gravel. Carry the top
of the rod even with the hand, beginning at the head
of the stream, and letting the bait run downwards, as
far as the rod and line will permit, the lead dragging
and rolling on the ground. No more of the line must
be in the water than will permit the lead to touch the
bottom, yet the line is to be kept as straight as possible.
In ground-fishing, as well as in most sorts of angling,
the line is apt to get entangled among weeds or rubbish,
in which case it is necessary to run down the line
what is termed a clearing ring, for the purpose of dis-
engaging it.
ANGLING FOR TROUT 93
Minnow-fishing for Trout
This is perhaps a still more active, though not so
lively a sport as fly-fishing. The rod required must
be stouter and stifFer, and the line about the length of
the rod, and stronger than for fly-fishing, with a strong
silk-worm gut next the hook, which may be No. 2 to
No. 4, according to the size of trout expected to be
caught, and these are generally of the largest size.
Sometimes two hooks are used, one as small as No. 12,
placed back to back, with lead shot on the line, and a
lead cap for the bait, as may be seen in the figure.
Minnow hook baited.
Artificial minnows, made with mother of pearl, may
be bought at the fish tackle shops ; but the best is the
fresh minnow S which may be caught with the hook
No. 13, baited with a small red worm, or caddis
worm, or with a net; or by embaying a shoal of
them in a small pond, as is often done by boys for
amusement. When the minnow is put on the hook,
the belly fin of one side, and the breast fin of the
opposite side, ought to be cut off, to make it play better
in the water. The minnow should have the hook
entered by the mouth and pointing out at the vent,
so as to keep the tail a little bent, which makes it play
(1) In Latin, Leuciscus Phoxinus.
94 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING.
better. The mouth should be stitched up, unless the
minnow should be so hooked as to close the mouth,
which may be done by first putting the hook in at the
lower side of the under chap, and also quite through
the upper chap, then drawing it two or three inches on
the line, and again putting the hook into the mouth
and bring it out near the tail. It ought then to be
tried by drawing it across the water, and if it do not
turn well, the tail may be bent to the right or left till
it is right.
The minnow is chiefly used when the water is be-
ginning to clear after a flood, or while it is rising, and
a swift stream is best for giving the minnow a natural
motion. It is necessary to have a swivel or two on the
line, to make the minnow play easily and to prevent the
line from twisting. The line is to be drawn pretty
rapidly up the stream, and near the surface. A reel
will be indispensable to let the fish run out when he
has taken the bait; for he will seldom be caught if
struck when he first bites.
ANGLING FOR GRAYLING. 95
Having been so particular and minute with respect
to angling for trout, it will not be requisite to repeat
many of the details for other river fish which are
taken by similar methods.
ANGLING FOR GRAYLING.
According to the Rev. Mr. Low, the grayling is fre-
quent in the Orkney Islands, as it is in Lapland and
Switzerland ; but it is rare in Scotland, and confined in
England to the Avon near Salisbury, the Ure near
Fountain's Abbey, the Wye near Tintern Abbey, the
Dee between Corwen and Bala, and the Dove; also
the Trent, the Wharfe, the Humber, the Rye, and
the Derwent.
Grayling may be angled for much in the same way
as trout, with the exception of minnow fishing, which,
notwithstanding the authority of Walton, is not found
to be good. It is a more gregarious fish than the trout,
though not so much so as the perch and carp. It
spawns in April or the beginning of May ; depositing
the roe amongst gravel at the tails of swift currents.
While trout is a spring and summer fish, grayling
is best in season in autumn and winter. It feeds more
on the ground than trout, and is not so easily scared
though more difficult to deceive than trout, and likes
smaller flies.
*' GrayUng," says Sir H. Davy, '^ provided your link
is fine, is not apt to be scared by the cast of flies on
the water. The fineness of the fink, and of the gut to
which your flies are attached, is a most essential point,
and the clearer the stream the finer should be the tfackle.
96 PBACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLINO.
I have known good fishermen foiled by using a gut of
ordinary thickness, though their fly was of the right
size and colour. Very slender transparent gut, of the
colour of the water, is one of the most important
causes of success in grayling fishing. In the Avon
and Test, May-flies, and even moths, are greedily taken
in the summer by large grayling. Flies, that do not
inhabit the water, but are blown from the land, are
good baits for grayling. There is no method more
killing for large grayling than applying a grasshopper
to the point of a leaded hook, the lead and shank of
which are covered with green and yellow silk, to imitate
the body of the animal. This mode of fishing is called
sinking and drawing. I have seen it practised in this
river with as much success as maggot-fishing : and the
fish taken were all of the largest size; the method
being most successful in deep holes, where the bottom
was not visible, which are the natural haunts of such
fish. In the winter, grayling rise for an hour or two, in
bright and tolerably warm weather ; and, at this time,
the smallest imitations of black or pale gnats that can
be made, on the smallest sized hook, succeed best in
taking them. Throughout the summer and autumn,
in fine calm evenings, a large dun fly, with a pale
yellow body, is greedily taken by grayling after sunset j
and the imitation of it is very killing. In the end of
October, and through November, there is no fly-fishing
but in the middle of the day, when imitations of the
smaller duns may be used with great success ; and I
have often seen the fish sport most, and fly-fishing
pursued with the greatest success, in bright sunshine.
ANGLING FOR SALMON. 97
from twelve till half-past two o'clock, after severe
frosts in the morning ; and I once caught, under tnese
circumstances, a very fine dish of fish on the 7th of
November."
ANGLING FOR SALMON.
The salmon ^ is accounted by anglers the prince of all
fish, and when we consider that they weigh from ten
to fifty, or even seventy pounds, it must be obviously
a dexterous art to catch them with a hook and line,
which one fourth part of that weight would snap
asimder. The salmon is also, when in good season,
much finer for the table than other fish caught by the
angler, and many prefer it to turbot.
Spawning Seasons, and Haunts of Salmon.
The salmon lives a part of the year in the sea, or
at least in the mouths of rivers near the sea, and about
the end of autumn, or beginning of winter, runs up
rivers to spawn. In their ascent, there are scarcely any
difficulties which these fish will not surmount, ascend-
ing rivers for hundreds of miles, being frequently taken
in the Moselle, and even as high as Bale on the Rhine.
They vnll force themselves against the most rapid
currents, and will spring up several feet out of the
water to clear cataracts and mill dams, a feat I have
often witnessed on the river Ayr, during the autumn
floods.
When they have got as high up as they can find
(1) Id Latin, Salmo salar.
H
98 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING.
water to swim in, they select a rather shallow gravelly
stream, in the bed of which, as I have often witnessed
in Ayrshire, they make a trench with their nose, and
deposit their roe, the male and the female, as it is
reported, assisting in excavating the same trench.
The spawn is not hatched till the latter end of
March, and by the beginning of May the yomig
samlets, or smouts, are four or five inches long, and
are swept down by the first flood to the sea. Here
they become salmon in as short a time, says Walton,
*^as a gosling becomes a goose." About the middle
of June some of these come back from the sea, and
about the end of July, they take the name of gilse,
grilse, or graul, and weigh from five to seven pounds
or more.
The salmon delights in large rapid rivers, especially
such as have pebbly, gravelly, and sometimes weedy,
bottoms, and, when feeding, generally prefers the rough
and upper parts of gentle streams, and the tails of large
ones ; after their feeding time, they retire to the deep
and broad water, and swim very fast, usually in the
middle of the river near the ground, and more at night
than in the day, resting at convenient places, under
bushes, weeds, banks, or stones, and then the whole
shoal run again. Salmon bite best from six until
eleven in the forenoon, and from three in the after-
noon until sunset, especially when there is a moderate
breeze upon the water ; the chief months to angle for
them are March, x\pril. May, and June, though they
will take a fly until October, but they are then out of
season.
ANGLING FOR SALMON. 99
Tackle and Methods of Angling fir Salmon,
The rod for salmon fishing may be proportioned to
the size of the river ; but it ought not to be less than
fifteen feet in length. The reel ought to be large enough
to contain eighty or ninety yards, so as to admit of
abundance of Une being given out when required ; for
many fish, when struck, run out to a great distance,
and with such immense rapidity as to prevent the pos-
sibility of the angler's moving in the proper direction
with sufficient quickness, A salmon, for the most part,
darts violently up the stream ; and, as the command
and direction of the fish is more easily kept with a short
than a long Une, it is advisable to prevent his getting
too far ahead, by keeping the rod well back in
the opposite direction, and by running towards him
along the margin of the stream. When he gains the
head of a current, a salmon frequently throws himself
several times out of the water, on which occasions the
angler must yield him freely a little of the line ; but
during his general and less violent manoeuvring, he
will of course be the sooner exhausted the more firmly
he is held. When he appears to be making for some
safe haunt, or secret sheltering place, the great object
is to turn him towards safer ground, either by relying
on the soundness of the tackle, or, if he proves very
powerful, as well as very obstinate, then a pebble or
two may be thrown, so as to fall a little in advance of
his position, and he will probably turn himself round.
Some fish become sulky, and will lie after being hooked,
H ''Z
100 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING.
for a long time, motionless near the bottom. In this
case also the pebbles must be had recourse to ; for the
more a fish is kept in motion, the sooner he becomes
exhausted. When he begins to show his side and ex-
hibits other unequivocal symptoms of exhaustion, a
favourable landing-place should be looked for ; and
when the proper time arrives, which can only be learned
by the lessons of experience, then is he to be drawn by
degrees to the side. Salmon anglers are in general
provided with what is called a gaff, which is a stick
somewhat pliable, with a large barbed hook at the end,
for the purpose of thrusting into the gills of the fish,
and lifting him out of the water, as a landing net is
too small.
The salmon flies require to be much larger— (some-
times as large as a small bird,) and more gaudily
dressed than for trout. Several flies of this description
have been described in books, of which the following
are specimens.
ANGLING FOR SALMON. 101
As a spring fly, make the wings of the dark mottled
brown or blackish feathers of a turkey ; body of orange
camlet mixed with a little mohair ; and a dusky red
or bright brown cock's hackle, plucked from the back,
where the fibres are longest, for the legs. The hook
should be No. 2 : and it has been observed that all
large salmon-flies should be dressed upon two or three
lengths of gut twisted together, and that the silk in
dressing be brought beyond the shank of the hook,
and wrapped four or five times round the gut, so that
it may not speedily be cut by the sharpness of the steel.
This same fly, dressed with the wings of a somewhat
lighter shade, and with the addition of a little gold wire
or thread, wrapped round the body at equal distances,
will also serve for a more advanced season of the
year.
The Quaker fly is of smaller size, and may some-
102 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGUNO.
times be dressed upon very strong single gut. Any
feathers of a coppery or dingy yellow colour, if not too
coarse in the fibres, will be suitable for the wings ; the
body is of lemon-coloured mohair, mixed with a smaU
portion of light brown fur, or camlet, with a pale
dusky ginger hackle, over the whole. The chief object
to be attended to in dressing this fly, is to produce that
uniform hue, devoid of gaudy colouring, from which it
has received its name.
For a summer fly the wings are made from the
plumes of a cormorant, or from the mottled feathers of
a dark mallard : the body is of dark sable, ribbed with
gold wire, over which a dusky red hackle is thickly
wound ; the mottled feathers of a drake are used for
the tail ; and, previous to fastening it off", a small portion
of flos silk should be unravelled, and fastened at the
extremity of the hook.
ANGLING FOR SALMON. 103
The wings of another fly are formed of the extreme
end of a Guinea fowl's feather, not stripped, but
having the fibres remaining on both sides of the
middle stem. A blood red hackle is fastened on with
the wings, and so arranged as to extend beyond them :
the dyed feathers usetl by military men will suit, if
another showy bird, the scarlet macaw, is not acces-
sible. The green feather which forms the eye of the
peacock's tail should be fastened at the head, and left
hanging downwards, so as to cover the body for the
space of half an inch ; and a few filaments of the same
part of the same feather may be fastened at the tail.
Another fly has the wings formed from the darkish
brown speckled portion of a bittern's wing, stripped off*
from the stem: the head ought to be of the same
colours as the body, which is formed of the reddish
brown part of a hares fur, and deep copper-coloured
mohair ; a bittern's hackle is put over the body for legs ;
and a forkeil tail is added, made of a pair of single
filaments of the same feather as the wings.
104 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING.
Another good fly: the wings are formed of the
mottled feathers of a peacock's wing, intermixed with
any fine plain dusky red ; the best mixture of the
body is the light brown inner hair from a bear's skin,
sable fur, and gold-coloured mohair ; gold twist, a large
black cock's hackle, and a red one a Uttle larger, with a
bit of deep red mohair for the head.
ANGLING FOR CHUB. 105
In addition to these, we might enumerate the brown
fly, the blue fly, the kingfisher, the prime dun, the
great palmer, the golden pheasant, the grey mallard,
and many others ; but such as are above described will
suffice.
If small trout or minnow be used to troll with, the
foot lengths ought to be about three yards long, and
furnished with one or two swivels, to prevent the line
from twisting, as well as to enable the bait to play
freely. A lead or shot proportioned to the strength of
the stream, should be fastened to the line, about a foot
above the bait. The top of the rod should be stiffer
than that used for fly-fishing ; and when the hook is
baited, it ought to be thrown first across, and then
drawn up the current.
ANGLING FOR CHUB.
The chub ', chevin, or bottling, neither affords good
sport to the angler, nor a good dish at table, except
when salted, though it may afford a few hours' amuse-
ment by way of variety. The chub is fond of large
rivers with sandy or clay bottoms, and haunts the
deep holes and angles of eddies, where the water runs
slow, and is shaded. The chub spawns about the
beginning of April.
Let the line be very strong, with strong silk-worm
gut at bottom, and use the hooks No. 3 or 4. The
most pleasant way of taking chub is by what is termed
(Ubbing, in the following manner. In a hot summer's
(1) In Latin Leuciscus cephalics.
106 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN HIVER ANGLING.
day, go to any hole where chub is known to haunt,
and probably thirty or forty of them may be seen
basking themselves on the surface of the water. You
must be sure to place yourself out of sight behind some
bush or tree, for the chub will fly to the bottom of the
water at the very shadow of your rod, being the most
fearful of all fish, and will also make instantly to the
bottom on the shadow of a bird flying over the
water, but will presently arise and be floating on the
top again ; at which time move your rod slowly, let
your bait fall softly on the water three or four inches
before him, and he will infallibly take it. As he is a
leather- mouthed fish, out of which a hook scarce ever
loses its hold, you may therefore give him play enough
before you offer to take him out of the water.
There are many baits to take the chub, such as a black
snail, with its belly slit to show the white : sometimes
a worm, or any kind of fly, as the ant fly, flesh fly,
dor or beetle, or a bob, which is a short, white worm,
like to, but bigger than, a gentle, or a cod or case-worm ;
he will take any of these very well, and never refuses a
grasshopper at the top of a swift stream, or a young
wasp-grub at the bottom. These grubs are found in the
holes of banks, and discovered by the old ones going in
and out, and are often found by the mowers while
cutting grass : they must be boiled or baked before
used : the chub will likewise bite at red cherries, pro-
vided you bait the pool with them the night before
you fish. The landing-net is particularly necessary in
angling for chub, as the best spots are generally en-
cumbered by trees or bushes.
ANGLING FOR DACE AND ROACH. 107
ANGLING FOR DACE AND ROACH.
The dace * is a gregarious fish, which haunts the
deeper waters near the piles of bridges, shady pools,
and beneath the masses of collected foam caused by
eddies. In the warmer months of the year they also
congregate in the shallows. They rise at a variety of
flies, and are likewise angled for with red worms, brand-
lings, and the like. Above Richmond, as soon as the
' weeds begin to rot, a grasshopper used as an artificial
fly is found very successful in hot weather among the
shallows. This mode can only be practised in a boat, with
a heavy stone to serve as an anchor, fastened to about a
yard of rope. The boat drifts gently down the stream,
and the stone is dropped whenever the angler considers
himself in the neighbourhood of a likely place. Stand-
ing in the stern, he first throws directly down the
stream, and then to the right and left ; and after try-
ing for about a quarter of an hour in one spot he again
weighs anchor, and proceeds to another station.
Dace may also be taken with flesh flies, or small
house flies, which may be kept in a phial stopped with
a cork. With these, especially about seven or eight
o'clock in a summer's evening, repair to a mill stream,
and having fixed three or four hooks with single
hair links, not above four inches long to your line, bait
them with the flies, and angle upon the surface of the
water, on the smoothest part, at the end of the stream ;
the dace will rise freely, especially if the sun does not
(1) In Latin, Leuciscus imlgaris.
108 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING
shine on the part of the water where you cast your
flies, and you may take two or three at a time. This
sport will continue as long as day light will permit
you to see the flies. In the same manner dace will
also rise at the ant-fly upon the surface of the water, if
used in a morning at the foot of a current or mill-stream.
If you angle where two mill-streams are going at the
same time, let it be in the eddy between the two streams.
First use the plummet ; if the water is deep, angle
within a foot of the bottom, but if it proves to be
shallow, that is, about the depth of two feet, or not
exceeding three, the sport may be better; bait your
hooks with three large gentles, use a cork float, be very
attentive, and strike at the first bite ; if there are any
large dace in the mill pool, they will resort to the eddy
between the two streams.
A species of fish called the graining, similar to dace,
is found in the Mersey in Lancashire.
The roach ' , though very bony, makes good soup.
Roach fishing, in the Thames, commences about the
end of August. Great shoals of them come annually
up the Clyde and into Loch Lomond and its tributary
streams. It is a simpleton of a fish, easily caught, and
therefore affording small sport to the angler when any
other is to be had. It will, however, rise at a fly, and
is to be fished for precisely like dace.
ANGLING FOR BARBEL.
The barbel * is not esteemed for the table ; but af-
(1) In Latin, Leuciscus rutilus,
(2) In Latin, Barbus vulgaris.
ANGLING FOR GDDQBON. 109
fords tolerable sport to the angler. It is a gregarious
fish, and roots among the soft banks with its nose, like
a sow. The angling season commences in May, and
continues till September. The most approved hours
are from day light till ten in the morning, and from
four in the afternoon till about sunset. The line
should be strong and rather heavily leaded, so that the
bait may float about half an inch from the ground.
Considerable caution is required in playing this fish, as
he is apt to run off, when struck, with great violence,
towards some stronghold, and in so doing sometimes
breaks both rod and line. He is rather nice in his baits,
which must be kept clean and sweet, and untainted
by musty moss. Never throw in the bait farther
than can be done by a gentle cast of the rod, letting
the plumb fall into the water with the least possible
noise. It is an error to think that large fish are in the
middle of the river ; experience teaches the fallacy of
this opinion ; they naturally seek their food near the
banks, and agitating the waters by an injudicious
management of the plumb will certainly drive them
away. It is incredible the quantities of barbel caught
by this method.
ANGLING FOR GUDGEON.
The gudgeon ^ is an excellent fish for a beginner in
angling to commence with, as he bites freely, and being
leather mouthed is never lost when once hooked.
These fish delight most in gravelly and sandy ground,
(1) In Latin, Gvbio fluviatilis.
110 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING.
and m a slow stream; though they inhabit large rivers,
and often little brooks, yet they are chiefly to be found
in small rivers of a fine sandy gravel bottom : in the
hot months they lie in much shallower waters, but all
the rest of the year, from about Michaelmas till April,
they dwell in the deepest places that are most sandy.
They spawn in the latter end of April or May, and, as
some say, three or four times in the year. They may
be easily taken with small worms or maggots ; by mud-
dying the water and stirring up the sand with a pole you
may draw them together in shoals, and by now and
then throwing in a few chopped worms or maggots you
may take great quantities of them with a bait on or
near the ground ; they are usually scattered up and
down the shallows of every river in the heat of the
summer, but in autumn, when the weeds begin to
grow sour or rot, and the weather begins to be cold,
they keep together in the deeper parts of the water.
If you angle for them with a float or cork, your
hook must always touch the ground : but many fish
for the gudgeon by hand with a running line upon the
ground without a float, and this is an excellent way if
you have a tender rod and a gentle hand; he bites all
day long from March till Michaelmas, but will not
bite in very cold weather, nor for some time after
spawning, nor immediately after a shower or land-
flood; he bites well in gloomy, warm, or hot sun-
shining weather, but seldom before sun-rising, com-
m6nly beginning at or about an hour after the sun rises,
or after sun-setting, ceasing indeed, about an hour
before the sun sets ; perhaps fearing lest he should be
ANGLING FOR BLEAK AND POPE. Ill
devoured by the larger kind of fish, which are at that
time ranging for food.
ANGLING FOR BLEAK, POPE, LOACH, FLOUNDER,
AND MILLER'S THUMB.
The bleak •, is sometimes called the fresh- water sprat,
and sometimes the river swallow, because, like the
swallow, it is almost continually in action in the water,
and sporting with some little flies and insects that float
on the surface. He is of a bright whitish colour ; his
back is of a pleasant sea-green, and his belly shining
and white as the mountain snow. The bleak, though
generally reckoned of no great value, yet is a good fish
if dressed almost as soon as taken. The bleak is to be
angled for in mid- water with a line called a pater »
noster, with five or six small hooks fastened at the dis-
tance of about half a foot one above another, and
having a bait of small, well- scoured maggots. They
may also be taken with a very small fine artificial black
gnat. It affords good sport to whip for them in a sum-
mer evening from a boat, or standing on the bank-side,
in a swift water, with a hazel-top about five or six feet
long, and a line twice the length of the rod.
The pope or ruff* ^ is a gregarious fish, found in most
but not all, the rivers of England, and is abundant in
the Yare, the Cam, the Tsis, the Tame, and the Mole,
haunting deep slow-running water with a gravelly
(1) In Latin, Leucisctis albumtts.
(2) In Latin, Cernua fluviatilis.
112 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING.
bottom. He will take almost any bait, but a red-earth
worm or small brandling is to be preferred. The
ground ought first to be baited with two or three hand-
fuls of earth. Some use a paternoster line with five or
six hooks according to the depth of the water; but
when a little muddy the ruffs will bite at aU depths.
The loach *, stone-roach, or beardie, is of a delicate
taste and very wholesome ; it breeds and feeds in
little, clear, swift, gravelly brooks or rills. In growth, it
is not above a finger's length, and somewhat resembles
the eel in shape, and has a beard or wattles. This fish
is esteemed very nourishing and grateful to the palate
and stomach of sick persons. He is fished for with a
very small worm at the bottom, for he seldom or never
rises above the gravel.
The bull-head or miller's thumb ^ is an odd-looking
small fish, having much the same habits as the loach.
They spawn in the gravel from April on through the
summer. The hook No. 13, with a red worm, is the
best for taking it.
The flounder ^ or fluke is a small flat fish, not un-
common in the mouths of rivers, but seldom found far
from the sea. It grows to the length of a foot, but is
usually not half that size. The season for fishing is
from April to August. The hook No. 7, whipped on a
single line, and baited with worms or gentles, is used
in this sport.
(1) In Latin, Gohitis barhatula.
(2) In Latin, Cottus Gobio.
(3) In Latin, Platessa fiuviatilis.
lis
ANGLING FOR EELS.
The eel ^ is a migratory "^fish, which breeds in the
aea, and, according to Sir E. Home, is hermaphrodite,
Hke the earth-worm and the snail ; while Colonel Bory
de St. Vincent conceives the opinion of Rondeletius is
correct, that they are male and female, and breed like
serpents, bringing forth their young alive. M. Bory,
however, at the same time tells us they rarely go to
the sea, a mistake for which I am unable to account in
so well-informed a naturalist. Count Lacepede is in
raptures with the elegance, grace, and beauty of the
eel, but few anglers who have had eels come to their
trout-bait, and their lines twisted into Gordian knots
by their contortive writhings/ will probably agree with
the count. The haunts of eels are chiefly amongst
weeds, under roots and stumps of trees, holes, and
clefts in the earth, both in the banks and at the bottom,
and in the mud, where they lie with only their heads
out, watching for prey ; also about flood-gates, wears,
bridges, and old mills, and in still waters that are
foul and muddy ; but the smallest eels are to be met
with in all sorts of rivers. They are taken in great num-
bers by laying night lines, fastened here and there to
banks, stumps of trees, or stones, of a proper length for
the depth of the water, leaded so as to lie on the ground,
and a proper eel-hook whipped on each, baited with
garden worms, or lobs, minnows, hens* guts, fish
(1) In Latin, Anguilla vulgaris,
I
114. PRACTICAL LESSONS IN CANAL ANGLING.
garbage, loaches, small gudgeons, or miller s thumbs,
or with small roaches, the hook being laid in their
mouths.
CANAL ANGLING.
I HAVE already mentioned, that under this head I
mean to comprehend all slow-running and weedy
waters, which, though not canals, have a similar cha-
racter, such as the New River, and the Lea in Essex,
so famous as an angling station since, and, I believe,
before, the time of Izaak Walton. The ditches in fen
countries may also be justly included. In waters like
these we lind none of the best sorts of fish, which
inhabit swift-running streams, such as the trout, sal-
mon, and grayling ; though eels and several of the other
species which have been already mentioned are found
both in slow-running rivers and canals. The fish which
I shall now notice are pike and perch.
ANGLING FOR PIKE.
Next to trout and salmon, tlie pike ' or jack affords
the best sport to the angler; for though it will seldom
rise at a fly (most authors erroneously say " never "),
it will bite greedily and voraciously at almost every
bait which is offered to it, and therefore good sport
may often be obtained by ground-fishing or troUing for
pike.
(1) In Latin, Esox lucius.
ANGLING FOR PIKE. 115
Spawning Seasons^ and Haunts of Pike,
Captain Willi'amson informs us that "the pike
generally spawns in March, though sometimes in the
last week of February, or in the early days of April,
according as the weather may be more or less mild.
At this period the female retires among the heavy
masses of weed generally growing at the edges of the
waters in shallow places, where she casts her spawn,
the male attending her with apparent solicitude. So
soon as the spawning is over, both return for a few
days to the deep water, and during the middle of the
day lie on the surface, basking in a state of torpidity,
enjoying the warmth, and for the most part with
their faces towards the sun. In this state they are
frequently taken by what .is called ' haltering ' or
^snaring/ "
The pike is fond of quiet, shady, unfrequented
water, and lurks in the midst of weeds, flags, or bul-
rushes ; yet he often makes excursions from these, and
ranges about in search of prey. In winter and cold
weather he lies deep, and near the bottom, but as the
weather grows warm he frequents the shallows. In a
very hot, clear, sultry day he may be seen lying on the
surface of the water, but then you cannot tempt him
with any bait. It is observable that pike generally
swim single, as they prey upon each other, and all
other fish, except the perch, fly from them. His best
biting-time is early in the morning and late in the
evening, when there is a brisk wind, and where the
water is clear.
i2
116 rHACTICAL LESSONS IN CANAL ANGLING.
Fbat and Goose-fishing for Pike,
Angling for pilc^ with a float is the one most com-
mended in the Book of St. Alban's by Dame Juliana
Barnes, who directs the angler to " take a codlynge
hoke, and take a roche, or a fresh heeryng, and a
wyre wyth an hole in the ende, and put it in at the
mouth, and out at the taylle, down by the ridge of the
fresshe heeryng ; and thenne put the lyne of your
hoke in after, and drawe the hoke into the cheke of
the fresshe heeryng ; then put a plumbe of lede upon
your lyne a yarde longe from your hoke, and a flote in
mid waye betwene; and caste it in a pytte where the
pyke usyth, and this is the best and moost surest crafte
of takynge the pyke. Another manere of takynge
him there is; take a frosshe [/rog] and put it on your
hoke, at the necke, betwene the skynne and the body,
on the backe half, and put on a flote a yerde therefro,
and caste it where the pyke hauntyth, and ye shall
have hym. Another manere: take the same bayte,
and put it in asafetida, and caste it in the water wyth
a corde and a corke, and ye shall not fayl of hym.
And if ye lyst to have a good sporte, thenne tye the
corde to a gose fote, and ye shall have a gode halynge,
whether the gose or the pyke shall have the better."
Barker in his '' Delight," tells us, that " the princi-
pal sport to take a pike, is to take a goose or gander, or
duck ; take one of the pike lines I have showed you
before ; tie the line under the left wing, and over the
right wing, about the body, as a man weareth his belt ;
turn the goose off" into the pond where pikes are ; there
ANGLING FOR PIKE. H7
is no doubt of sport, with great pleasure, betwixt the
goose and the pike ; it is the greatest sport and plea-
sure that a noble gentleman in Shropshire doth give
his friends entertainment with."
M'Diarmid in his amusing work entitled the *' Scrap-
BooK," gives a similar account of this curious mode of
fishing. " Several years ago," he says, " a farmer in
the immediate neighbourhood of Lochmaben, Dum-
friesshire, kept a gander, who not only had a great
trick of wandering himself, but also delighted in pilot-
ing forth his cackling harem to weary themselves in
circumnavigating their native lake, or in straying
amid forbidden fields on the opposite shore. Wish
ing to check this vagrant habit, he one day seized the
gander just as he was about to spring into the pure
breast of his favourite element, and tying a large fish-
hook to his leg, to which was attached a part of a dead
frog, he suffered him to proceed upon his voyage of
discovery. As had been anticipated, this bait soon
caught the eye of a greedy pike,- which, swallowing
the deadly hook, not only arrested the progress of the
astonished gander, but forced him to perform half-a-
dozen somersets on the face of the water ! For some
time the struggle was most amusing, the fish pulling,
and the bird screaming with all its might, the one at
tempting to fly, and the other attempting to swim,
from the invisible enemy: the gander the one mo-
ment losing, and the next regaining his centre of
gravity, and casting between whiles many a rueful
look at his snow-white fleet of geese and goslings, who
cackled out their sympathy for their afflicted commo
dore. At length victory declared in favour of the
118 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN CANAL ANGLING.
feathered angler, who, bearing away for the nearest
shore, landed on the smooth green grass one of the
finest pikes ever caught in the castle-loch. This adven
ture is said to have cured the gander of his propensity
for wandering ; but on this point we are inclined to be
a little sceptical — particularly as we lately heard, that,
at the reservoir near Glasgow, the country people are
in the habit of employing ducks in this novel mode of
fishing/'
Trolling for Pike.
The mode of angling named trolling^ is precisely
similar to minnow-fishing for trout. The trolling-rod
has several small rings fixed on every one of its joints ;
upon the butt-joint is fitted a reel with its winch. On
the reel are wound twenty, thirty, or forty yards oi
silk line, which pass through the rings on the rod,
and are then fastened to the gimp with which the hook
is armed. The hook itself is a compound of two small
perch-hooks put back to back. Between the hooks
hangs a little chain, and at the end of the chain a
small plummet. The plummet is to be sewn into the
mouth of a dead fish, roach or gudgeon, the hooks
being left without, exposed to sight.
Gorge hook and baiting needle.
(1) From the French, " Trolkr, to walk."
ANGLING FOR PIKE. 119
To bait a gorge hook, take a baiting needle, and
hook the curved end to the top of the gimp, to which
the hook is tied ; then introduce the point of the needle
into a dead-bait's mouth, and bring it out at the middle
of the fork of the tail, by which means the piece of
lead which covers the shank of the hook, and part of the
connecting wire, will lay concealed in the interior of the
bait : the shank will be in the middle of its mouth, and
the barbs on the outside turning upwards. To keep the
bait steady on the hook, fasten the tail part just above
the fork to the gimp, with a silk or cotton thread ; or
a neater method is, to pass the needle and thread
through the side of the bait, about half an inch above
the tail, so as to encircle the gimp in the interior. The
baits used vary in weight from one to four ounces, and
the hooks must be proportioned to the size of fish with
which they are to be baited. The barbs of the hook
ought not to project much beyond the sides of the
mouth, because, as the pike generally seizes his prey
sidewise, and turns it before it is pouched or swallowed,
if he feels the points of the hooks, he may cast it out
entirely.
The bait, thus fastened, is to be kept in constant
motion in the water, sometimes suffered to sink, then
gradually raised ; now drawn with the stream and now
against it, the better to counterfeit Hfe. " After trying
closely," says Salter, '^ make your next throw further in
the water, and draw and sink the baited hook, drawing
it straight upwards near to the surface of the water, and
also to right and left, searching carefully every foot of
water, and draw your bait with the stream, because you
120 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN CANAL ANGLING.
must Know that the jack and pike lie in waiting for
their food with their heads and eyes pointing up the
stream, to catch what may be coming down ; therefore
experienced troUers fish a river down, or obliquely
across; but the inconsiderate as frequently troll against
the stream, which is improper, because they then draw
their baited hook behind either jack or pike when it
is stationary, instead of bringing it before his eyes or
mouth to tempt."
"When the pike cometh," says Colonel Venables,
'^ you may see the water move, at least you may fed
him ; then slack your line and give him length enough
to run away to his hole, whither he will go directly,
and there pouch it, ever beginning (as you may
observe) with the head, swallowing that first. Thus
let him lye untill you see the line move in the water,
and then you may certainly conclude he hath pouched
your bait and rangeth about for more ; then with your
trowl wind up your hne till you think you have it
almost straight, then with a smart jerk hook him, and
make your pleasure to your content."
Spinning for Pike.
A clever writer who signs " Titus " in Blackwood's
Magazine, says, " you may spi7i if you please instead
of trolling ; and, where you have a wide water, not
more than six or eight feet deep, and a great extent,
so that the fish do not haunt particular little spots, but
rove abroad, especially towards mid-day, spin by ail
means; it is the most killing style of fishing in the
world. Here, again, you use the dead-bait, but not
ANGLING FOR PIKE. 121
exactly as you do in trolling ; and, if the weather be
warm, and the season early, if any thing attracts jack,
or a large trout, you seduce them in this way. Put on
two swivels at least. Your bait you must be taught
to fix upon the hook by an adept. Newton could
not give the figure of it on paper. Let your fish spin
rapidly, and as evenly as if it turned upon a spit put
through it, not swerving and wabbling from side to
side as it passes through the water. Throw twenty yards
of line or you do nothing. So !— from the bank here —
right over, under the osiers, (or, as the cockneys call
them ** hosiers,") on the other side ! now draw diago-
nally— half against, half across, the stream towards you !
See how it spins ; — If there is a jack — a trout — a chub
within forty yards either side — if he has but as many
eyes as a tailor's needle, he cannot miss it"
Snap-fishing for Pike,
Though pike is one of the most voracious fishes, it
is found sometimes that it will play with the bait
rather than swallow it, in which case, the snap is to be
used. The snap tackle may consist of a single hook,
larger and stouter than any within the register, which
being fastened to strong gimp, is inserted at the mouth
of a gudgeon, or other small fish, (the smaller, indeed,
the more certain,) and brought out either at the middle
of its side, or just before the vent.
But the treble- snap is by far the best ; being made
of three such hooks tied fast together, and secured to
a piece of gimp ; which being inserted by means of a
baiting needle, at the vent, and carried out at the
122 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN RIVER ANGLING.
mouth, wliich is afterwards sewed up and perforated
by a lip-hook, the three hooks being spread into dif-
ferent directions, it is a thousand to one but that the
pike is hooked.
(^
a, dead snap with three hooks ; b, the same baited.
Let the hook thus baited swim down the current
and when you perceive the float to be drawn under
water, you may conclude the pike has laid hold of it ;
therefore give it a small jerk, and without allowing
him time to play, keep your line always straight, draw-
ing him towards the shore as soon as you can without
breaking your tackle, and then with your landing-net
throw him out of the water. It will always be the
most prudent method to have gimp or brass wire next
your hook, and your line to be rather shorter than the
rod.
Whatever may be the length or thickness of your
line, you will always find it useful to have a small
swivel on it ; if within a yard of the hook the better.
Without this it will not be easy to manage the line
properly.
ANGLING FOR PIKE. 128
Trimming for Pike.
There are several sorts of trimyners. One is made
of flat cork, or any light wood painted, seven or eight
inches in diameter, turned round, vj\\h a groove in the
edge large enough to receive a fine v^hipcord or silk- •
line twelve or fourteen yards, or, at least, five yards
longer than the depth of the water : a small peg, two
inches long, is fixed in the centre, with the end slit; a
small double hook fixed to a brass- wire link. Insert
the baiting needle under the side-fin of the bait, (for
which gudgeons of an ounce weight or more are supe-
rior to all others), and keep it just within the skin of
the side ; bring it out beyond the back-fin, drawing the
Wire after it, and the hook, when drawn home, will be
partly covered by the side-fin. This method, per-
formed carefully, will preserve the fish alive for many
hours longer than any other ; one end of the line is of
course fixed to the cork, the other' to the loop in the
wire ; the Hne is slightly put into the slit of the peg to
keep the bait at a proper depth (from three to four
feet), and to prevent its untwisting the line out of the
groove. The trimmer should always be started on the
windward side of the pond, and the rougher the water
the better sport ; if not seized in one trip, it must be
taken up and re-started from the windward side again.
Other trimmers are also of cork, and are to be
baited and used as above; their form is triangular,
this being best adapted to go easily through weeds
when taken by the pike ; after the Hne is run off thev
124 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN CANAL ANGLING.
will follow in the shape of a wedge, and will not long
be kept from appearing on the surface in the weediest
places : a hole is burnt through one corner of the cork,
by which with a cord it may be made stationary to the
side of any water ; and which method is sometimes
preferred where a boat cannot be readily commanded.
No species of fishing does more execution than this :
in windy weather, at all seasons of the year, and both
day and night, the trimmer presents itself as the pike's
most deadly foe.
Trimmer baited.
Live Bait Fishing for Pike.
"You cannot be supposed," says Titus in Black-
wood, *' to be in the middle of all the brightest and
fairest of the creation, and yet be contented to go
spooning on, dipping in and out, groping the bottom
of the river without an eye for a whole day together,
ANGLING FOR PIKE. 125
without attending for a moment to any of them : why
you should use the ' Live Bait/ make a good gudgeon
^sh for you, while you look on and take the credit of
his exertions : that's the way ! Now this is to me your
real style of fishing, when fishing is worth having ;
that is, when the water is just half bright, just grey,
just the colour of a quaker girl's frock, and on a quiet,
half frosty morning."
Live bait fixed on a hook .
The bait may be, for clear water, either a dace or a
tolerable sized gudgeon ; but, when the water is rather
coloured, a roach with its silvery gloss is most attrac-
tive. When a single hook is used, and one is enough,
either pass the point and barb of the hook through the
lips of the bait, toward the side of the mouth, or
through beneath the base of the fore portion of the
back-fin. \Vlien a double hook is used take a baiting
needle, hook its curved end into the loop of the gimp,
and pass its point beneath the skin of the bait from
behind the gills upwards in a sloping direction, bring-
ing it out behind the extremity of the back-fin ; then
draw the gimp till the bends of the hooks are brought
to the place where the needle entered, and attach the
loop to the trolling line.
126 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN CANAL ANGLING,
ANGLING FOR PERCH.
The perch ^ is a gregarious fish which is found in
slow-running weedy rivers, in canals, and not rarely in
ponds. It frequents hollow banks and deep holes, be-
tween weeds or stumps of trees, and spawns in May
or earlier.
These fish have been found to bite best in the latter
part of the spring; but they may be taken all the
year round. The best times for angling for them are,
in hot and bright weather, from sun-rise till six o'clock
in the morning ; and in the evening, from six till sun-
set. If the day be cool and cloudy, with a raiding
south wind, they will bite all day.
Your bait worms should be either well scoured
brandlings, red dunghill worms, or those found in rotten
tan. Your hook. No. 4, 5, or 6, being well whipped
to a strong silk-worm gut, with a shot or two on
it, put the point of the hook in at the head of the worm,
and out again a little lower than the middle, and draw
it above the shank of the hook upon the gut; then
take a smaller one, beginning the same way, and bring
the head up to the middle of the shank only ; then
draw the first worm down to the head of the latter, so
that the tails may hang one above the other, keeping
the point of the hook well covered. This is the most
enticing method that can be adopted in worm-fishing.
Use a small cork float, to keep the bait about a foot
from the bottom, or sometimes above mid- water.
(1) In liatin, Perca fiuviatilis.
ANGLING FOR CARP. 127
If you are out in a bad day, and the perch will not
bite, slip your float up the line near to the point of
your rod, or take it off, and begin to rove for them
thus : let down the line longer than the rod, or as xong
as you can properly throw it out, without injuring
your bait, (which should be worms,) and throw it
sometimes right across the water, sometimes up, and
at others down, and in all directions, drawing the bait
towards you, and playing it with the same motion as
you would spin a minnow; so keep moving about^
angling in such places as you think proper. When a
fish takes the bait, slacken the line, and give him time
before you strike.
POND ANGLING.
Several of the fish which I have already mentioned
are kept or found in ponds, particularly perch. Trout
will not thrive in ponds unless there is a stream of
water running through them ; and pike and eels are in
general too voracious to permit other fish to hve. I shall
here mention three pond fish, carp, tench, and bream.
ANGLING FOR CARP.
The carp * thrives best in ponds with a rich marly
or clayey bottom, and an overhanging shade of trees.
The best months for carp fishing are from the 10th of
April till July, using for baits red earth-worms, caddis-
worms, grasshoppers, or, what is excellent, boiled
green peas.
(1) In Latin, Cyprinus Carpio.
128 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN POND ANGLING.
The best method is to throw a few slices of bread,
to be carried with the wind, and in a short time it is
probable you will see many fish feeding on them ; if not,
crumble a Uttle very small, and cast it in where the
sHces rest ; which will be the means to make them find
the pieces at top. When you have suffered them to feed
on these some little time, take a very long rod, strong
line, middle-dzed hook, and one shot fixed just above
the hook, and baited with about the size of a large
horse bean, of the upper crust of a rasped French roll,
and you may pick out what size and quantity you
please, by dropping your bait before the largest fish, as
he is feeding on the slices at top. This is a sure means
of getting sport. This fish is very cautious, and there-
fore your float must be small, and you must be sure to
keep out of sight; and because, when hooked, he
struggles in a violent manner, you must take care that
your tackle be very good and strong, otherwise he will
break from you.
ANGLING FOR TENCH.
The tench ^ is considered to be a wholesome and
nutritive fish. When found in rivers, he prefers
weedy pools, and such as are overhung by trees ; the
spawning time is from June till September. It is best
in season from the end of September till the end of
May. The tench is a leather-mouthed fish, and will
bite at a well scoured red worm, a maggot, a young
wasp-grub boiled in milk, or a green worm from the
(1) In Latin, Tinea vulgaris.
ANGLING FOR BREAM. 129
boughs of trees. His best season for biting is from the
beginning of April till the end of May. The hook, from
No. 3 to No. 6, should be whipped on silk- worm gut,
with two or three shots on the line, for pond- fishing,
with a goose-quill float His hours of feeding are
eight, twelve and four. Be sure to throw in a few
maggots at the taking of each fish, which will keep
them together.
ANGLING FOR BREAM.
The bream * is a very coarse fish, and httle esteemed,
being very bony, and the flesh soft and clammy ; but
it sometimes afibrds good sport. They begin to spawn
about the latter end of June, and are most in season
when big with roe. You should have a strong line,
with gut at bottom, the hook for a worm. No. 5, but
for other baits smaller, and swan-quill float. When
you have fixed upon a place to angle in, plumb the
bottom, and let your bait run about an inch from it.
The best baits are red paste, gentles, wasp-maggots,
small red worms, and grasshoppers. The bream is
a Strong fish, and runs hard when first hooked ; but
after two or three turns he will fall on his side, which
enables you to bring him to land with ease. The best
times of biting are from sun-rise till eight o'clock in
the morning, and from four in the afternoon till
sunset
( r In Latin, Abramis brama.
K
130 PRACTICAL LESSONS TN LAKE ANGLING.
LAKE ANGLING.
A NUMBER of the fish already described are found
in lakes ; all fish indeed which haunt rivers are found
in the lakes from which rivers run, with the exception
of migratory fish, when a high fall in a river stops
them from getting higher; hence there are no eels in
the lake of Geneva ; but though they are stopped by the
underground fall of the Rhone, they do get up the
falls of the Rhine into the lake of Constance. The
lake fish which I shall here notice, are the lake trout,
the char, the gwiniad, and the rud.
ANGLING FOR LAKE TROUT.
Sir William Jardine has ascertained that the great
lake trout ', found in Loch Awe, Loch Laggan, Loch
Ard, Ullswater, Loch Neagh, and probably in the
Swiss Lakes, is a different species from the common
trout. The following account, from the Encyclopaedia
Britannica, was drawn up from the MS. of Sir
William Jardine.
" It is said to be by far the most powerful of our
fresh-water fishes, exceeding the salmon in actual
strength, though not in activity. The most general
size caught by trolling ranges is from three to fifteen
pounds ; beyond that weight they are of uncommon
occurrence. If hooked upon tackle of moderate strength,
they afford excellent sport ; but the general method of
(I) In Latin, Salmoferox (Jardinb>.
ANGLING FOR LAKE TROUT. 131
fishing for them is almost as well adapted for catching
sharks as trout; the angler heing apparently more
anxious to have it in his power to state that he had
caught a fish of such a size, than to enjoy the pleasure
of the sport itself. However, to the credit of both
parties, it may be stated, that the very strongest tackle
is sometimes snapped in two by its first tremendous
springs. The ordinary method of fishing for this kind
of trout, is with a powerful rod, from a boat rowing
at the rate of from three to four miles an hour, the
lure a common trout from three to ten inches in length,
baited upon six or eight salmon hooks, tied back to
back upon strong gimp, assisted by two swivels, and
the wheel-line strong whip-cord. Yet all this, in the
first impetuous efforts of the fish to regain its liberty,
is frequently carried away for ever into the crystal
depths of Loch Awe.
'* When in their highest health and condition, and
indeed the whole of the time in which they are not
employed in the operation of spawning, these fish will
scarcely ever rise at a fly. At these periods they ap-
pear to be almost entirely piscivorous ; so that, with the
exception of night lines, baited also with trout, trolling
is the only advisable mode of angling for them. The
young, however, rise very freely at ordinary lake-trout
flies, and are generally caught in this way, from one to
one and a half pound weight. They occur abundantly
near the outlet of the lake.
"About the middle of August, and during the three
following months, the parent fish retire, for the pur-
pose of spawning, to the deep banks of the lake in the
132 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN LAKE ANQLING.
neighbourhood of the gorge, and into the gorge of the
lake itself, where it empties its immense waters, form-
ing the river Awe. They are said to remain engaged
in this operation for two or three months, and at thjs
time their instinctive tendencies are so far changed
that they will rise eagerly at large and gaudily dressed
salmon-flies, and may be either angled for from the
banks, or trolled with a cross line, where the outlet of
the lake is narrow.
" The flavour of this great lacustrine species is coarse
and indifferent. The colour of the flesh is orange-
yellow, not the rich salmon colour of a fine common
trout in good season. The stomach is very capacious,
and on dissection (differing singularly in this respect
from the salmon) it is almost always found gorged with
fish."
ANGLING FOR GWINIAD.
The gwiniad * is a gregarious fish, and is peculiar to
a few lakes, such as the Bala lake and Pembermere in
Wales, Ullswater in Cumberland, Loch Neagh in Ire-
land, arid Loch Lomond, Loch Eik, and the Castle
Loch of Loch Maben in Scotland. It is about a foot
long, and spawns about a month later than the trout.
It is angled for exactly as the smaller sorts of trout,
either with flies natural or artificial, or with ground
bait, or by trolling.
ANGLING FOR CHAR.
There are two sorts of char, the gilt or red char,
(V In Lditm, Coreganus iavaretus.
ANGLING FOR RUD. 133
Otherwise named the turgoch *, and the case char 2, both
of which are highly esteemed for the table, I should
think deservedly so, from those I have tasted in Cum-
berland fresh from the lakes. The turgoch has a
starlet red belly ; the case char has the belly buff orange
with pale red spots. The turgoch spawns in January ;
the case char as early as Michaelmas.
The same flies may be used in angling for char as
those adapted for gwiniad or small lake trout; and
ground bait or trolling may also be tried, but with un-
certain success, as these fish do not bite freely.
ANGLING FOR RUD.
The rud?, broad roach, or tinscale, is found, accord-
ing to Willoughby, in the lakes of Yorkshire, Lincoln-
shire, and Oxfordshire. It is always in season, and
much esteemed, though it is not so good in April,
which is the spawning season. The rud will rise at
the fly, or may be angled for near the bottom with the
red worm ; and, as it bites freely and struggles hard,
it affords good sport.
SEA ANGLING.
The angler who has only an opportunity of exer-
cising his art in salt water, may make sure of sport, if
he can only discover the haunts of fish, as the sea fish
(1) In Latin, Salmo salvelinus.
(2) In Latin, Satmo alpinv^.
(3) In Latin, ^w^finujrfiis:
tilM^-^J^f^
I^^Jb^o
134 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN SEA ANGLING.
are by no means so timid and shy as those in fresh
water.
Near to the mouths of rivers, when the tide is flowing
up, several sorts of fish may be taken, such as whiting *,
base or bass'^, coal-fish ^, the fry of cod *, and haddock ^,
flat fish, eels, and other sorts.
From piers, or a little way out at sea, may be taken
larger whiting, small cod-fish, haddock, small turbot ^,
large plaice '', and others, having a long strong rod and
line, the line well leaded, a large hook, and a large
cork float. Bait for the former with scoured red worms,
shrimps, and gentles ; for the latter with one or two
large well-scoured worms, a raw muscle, the inside of
a small raw crab, whipped round the hook with a little
white wool, a bit of a whiting or other fish, fishing
near or on the bottom, where the water is not too deep ;
at other times a little more than mid-water, according
to the kind of bait that you use.
Mackarel ^ may be taken from rocks, or other places
near the sea, when the tide is in, in parts where they
frequent, by baiting with a bit of new scarlet broad-
cloth, or a small piece of one of their own species,
swimming about mid- water, or lower if you can for
(1) In Latin, Merlangus vulgaris.
(2) In Latin, Perca labrax.
(3) In Latin, Merlangus carbonarius.
(4) In Latin, Morrhua vulgaris.
(5) In Latin, Morrhua tBglefinus,
(6) In Latin, Pleuronectus maximua.
(7) In Latin, Platessa vulgaris.
(8) In Latin, Scomber vulgaris.
SEA ANGLING. 135
the depth, with a good large cork float. The rocks of
Diinleary in Ireland, which are eight or ten miles in
length, and the nearest part about five miles eastward
of Dublin, are remarkable for this way of fishing.
When you fish for haddocks, your line must be deep
in the water, and your hook baited with two or three
lob-worms, or muscles taken from the shell. Your
tackle must be strong, for they struggle, especially if
they have arrived to a tolerable growth.
In sea-fishing, when a ship is under sail, your line
ought to be sixty fathoms in length, having a large
hook affixed to it, and a piece of lead sufficient to keep
it as deep under water as possible. Your line must be
made of hemp, and fastened to the gunwale of the
ship. Cod and large haddocks are the fish usually
taken in this way, and sometimes ling ; the bait for
them is a piece of raw beef, and it is scarcely possible
to feel either of them bite, even though you hold the
line in your hand, by reason of the continual motion
of the ship.
Angling for whitings from a boat affijrds good sport,
and if you have not an experienced fisherman to show
you the fishing-banks, you may know where to cast
anchor from the gulls, and other sea-birds crowding to
the place. At Portsmouth the tradesmen use smelts
as baits for this sort of fishing, but muscles or worms
are equally good. A paternoster line, without any rod,
with half a dozen hooks, at half a yard distance from
each other, may be fastened to the inside of the boat,
and by holding this in the hand, it will be easy to feel
when the fish bite. I have seen them bite so freely at
'36 SEA ANGLING
-jargs, in the Firth of Clyde, as to take two or three
at a haul as fast as I could pull them up.
The whiting pollack * is often caught in rock-fishing,
and from his strugghng hard he affords good sport.
The best baits are smelts, shrimps, muscles, cockles, or
worms. The line from, the boat may be sixty yards
long, with three or four hooks at some distance apart,
and about half a pound of lead above the highest The
line ought to be coiled up in the hand, and then the
lead thrown to a distance into the sea, as is done in
night-Une-fishing for trouts in rivers.
(I) In Latin, Merlangus poUachius.
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