The scientific angler. Being a general and instructive work on artistic angling

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Chapter I. The Habits And Haunts Of Fish

POWER OF VISION, HEARING, ETC., POSSESSED BY FISH.* PERI- ODIC MOVEMENTS AND HABITS OF SALMON, BROWN TROUT, CHARR, GRAYLING, AND PIKE.

The habits of fish depend in no small degree on the power of their senses, and to these we will briefly allude before dealing with the subject in detail. The first faculty to claim our attention is that of

Sight. — The clearness with which a grayling, lying

* The subject of the senses of fishes is the cause of much curious comment and speculation among angling naturalists, who do not willingly consent that the class Pisces shall be placed upon a plane below that of the insects. The belief that fishes possess qualities which reach a standard beyond the instinct of self-preservation has recently gained in strength and interest, owing to the increased facilities that fish culture has given us to observe their habits. It is conceded by naturalists that certain insects, and many of the lower animals, have the power of imparting mutual intelligence by processes unknown to us. The little ants hobnobbing with each other ; the cooing dove wooing its mate vocally ; the hen clucking her brood under protecting wings, are familiar instances of vocal intercourse among insects and birds, and no one who has watched the minnows of a shallow pool, has failed to see equally sure indications that fishes have a way of their own in communicating with each other. I have often seen them dart swiftly towards each other, putting nose to nose, and in a moment or two scull leisurely away with what looked to me like a self-congratulatory flirt of the tail, as if the matter communicated was of the utmost importance to fish life in general.

at a depth of eight or ten feet of water, can distinguish a small speck of a midge, invisible almost to the human eye, is often a matter of comment and surprise. All fish, however, are not equally well endowed in this respect; but it may be safely affirmed that their organs of sight are quite as well adapted to their native element — water — as arc those of birds and respiratory animals generally to the atmosphere. But, on the other hand, experience tends to prove that the more suited the eye of the fish may be to his particular element, the more indistinct is his vision beyond it. "We have an instance of this in the grayling, which, although more cautious and timid, and possessed of keener visual organs than the trout, will rise much nearer the rodster, and is not so easily disturbed and affrighted. The inferiority of a fish's perception of objects in the air, as compared with what is m or upon the surface of the water, partly arises from the fact that the eye adapts itself to the medium through which the rays of light arc transmitted. We have frequently observed the pupil of a fish's eye contract considerably in the course of a second or two after it has been taken from the water, from the same principle which causes the pupil of the eye of the domestic cat to expand or contract as the light diminishes or increases. Observation shows that it is the moving object that frightens the fish.* We have seen trout suddenly cease feeding and return to their accustomed retreat upon our merely raising an arm; and when their "holt" has proved to be near the opposite bank, and we have been

* Fish arc startled by shadows to a degree hardly understood or valued, as cause and effect, by the angler in his search for a successful 6Core. A moving dark line reflected by an uplifted arm. or by an overhanging rod, or the dense and sharply-cut shadow cast by the pier of abridge, will cause them to sheer off affrighted; especially in the latter instance, when shad, in their upward swim to their spawning grounds, have been seen to turn tail-fin and dart down stream pell-mell, as if a demon shark was anion? them.

THE HABITS AND TIAUNTS OF PISH. 9

in full view, in clear relief upon a high hank, on keeping perfectly stationary for fifty to seventy minutes,* they have again ventured into the open to take our fly. From a constant repetition of convincing experiments, we have been led to infer that the crystalline and various other humors of a fish's eye are capable of reflecting only a vague and distorted image of any object that may be even a yard from the water's surface. We have stood over the center of a stream, upon a narrow plank, placed within a few inches of the surface of the water, perfectly motionless, just as the fish have turned out of their usual haunts to poise near the surface, and feed on the flies which have suddenly become plentiful. So long as our perpendicular position was maintained, the fish rose fearlessly all around to our very feet, but the least movement had the effect of affrighting all the fish in the immediate vicinity.

But, notwithstanding all this, it must not be forgotten that the organ of sight is the most important in their possession, and not only their food supply, but their very existence is dependent upon its proper exercise. True it is that constant practice, in a measure, develops their ocular faculties; and as acuteness of vision increases the natural timidity of the trout, so surely does he gradually decline surface feeding, preying upon fry and the smaller yearling fish, as also upon the larva of aquatic insects, etc., thus showing reliance on his greater powers of discernment in his own element. In comparatively clear and still water, the old corpulent denizens of the limpid depths thus exhibit the most provoking discretion, defying frequently the rodster's best efforts to allure.

The superior power of vision the fish has in its own

*This is certainly a misprint, for we have noted that trout will return, under like circumstances, to their feed, after a lapse of from three to five minutes.

element* is partly due to the fact that light, like sound, on penetrating water suffers an alteration, both of the rate of progress and the direction of the rays. Kefraction enables the fish to see an approaching or moving object, even when a projecting bank or overhanging rock or other substance intervenes. Mr. Ronalds illustrates this by a familiar scientific experiment with a coin and vessel of water, by which the former, when placed in the bottom of the latter, is seen at an acute angle, when the side of the vessel intercepts a straight line between the coin and the eye of the spectator. ^Ye have known cultivators of domesticated trout, who, being unacquainted with the laws of refraction, have attributed this to various other causes.

Sense of Hearing. — That trout are not wholly devoid of this sense is now a well established axiom. There is nothing about the exterior of the head of a fresh-water fish that would indicate that it is provided with an ear. Our leading physiologists and anatomists assert, nevertheless, that fish and other aquatic creatures have the internal organ in a state of perfection. In animals of higher grade the mechanical apparatus of hearing consists of two connected portions, external and internal. Fish appear to have the internal part, which is in direct communication with the brain. The organs of hearing possessed by terrestrial animals are designed for the reception of the more delicate vibrations of the atmos-

* A few summers ago, when fishing for black bass, using a small gray and black palmer as a point fly, I made a cast at the tail of a shallow reach, just above an old fish weir. The water, for a stretch of at least fifty yards, was not more than two feet deep. As my fly touched the water, a whistle from a fishing chum attracted my attention, and I glanced up stream. At that moment I saw the swirl of a bass thirty feet away, and immediately after the wake, as the fish "struck a beeline" for ray fly. The pluck was instantaneous aud sure, and in a few moments a two-pounder was creeled. This incident convinced me that the sense of sight in fishes, when exercised in their natural element, Is much greater than that with which they are credited.

phere, while those of the fish are better adapted to the stronger pulsations of a denser element. Thus, though the inhabitants of the waters are insensible to atmospheric sound, they are very susceptible to vibrations of the earth which are communicated to the water, and are undistinguishable by us.

Who has not observed the terrified agitation of the fish, as far as the eyes can penetrate the water, at the least perceptible vibration caused by the stamp of the foot on the bottom of a punt or boat? We have frequently ourselves seen fish clear the water altogether in ponds and lakes at a distance of forty yards from the point or focus of concussion. That sound is not communicated only by the. external ear may be seen by the following experiment: Take an ordinary tuning fork, strike it, and take the full volume of the sound quite close to the ear, then strike again and place the handle against or between the teeth, when, though at some distance from the ear, the sound will not be found to be diminished. Vibrations vary in intensity according to the degree of solidity and density of the conductive bodies. Thus, we are told that in the atmosphere sound travels at the rate of something like one thousand feet per second on bright, clear days, but eleven hundred in murky, dull and hazy weather. In water, however, sound travels very much quicker, being at the rate of five thousand feet per second, and where wood is the medium quicker still, sixteen thousand feet per second being its rate of progress. If, therefore, a solid substance is the conductor of sound, it naturally follows that the sound will be more distinct. The operator upon the violin has a keener perception of the various strains of the instrument than the ordinary listener, since wood is the sole conductive body in his case. The organ of hearing being enclosed in the hard case of the head is, in the case of fishes, susceptible therefore to no slight variation of sounds; no noise that does not occasion a vibration of the element which they inhabit reaches them. Thus the effects of approaching heavy foot-falls will be perceived, when a loud acclamation will have no visible effect on them. A learned doctor of divinity, once known to the writer, used to include in his category of angling requisites a gigantic musical-box, which, for bottom fishing, it was supposed, served the double purpose of being a convenient seat and a charming substitute for ground bait. So far as the latter object was concerned, the effect was purely imaginary, as, to the impartial mind, results amply testified.*

We have now dealt Avith the two chief organs possessed by fish, namely, those of sight and hearing, a knowledge of both of which is highly important to the angler. With regard to the senses of taste and smell, we may briefly state that from what we have been able to ascertain they are very slightly developed; that of taste we do not believe is possessed in the faintest degree by the majority of fish.f Roach, grayling, and the smaller species of deli-

* It is conceded by observant anglers, that fish hear no sound originating in the air ; but step, as lightly as you may, upon the margin of a stream and the fish will scatter like shot from the shallows where they are feeding or frolicking. The larger the fish and the less the depth of water the greater and wilder the scattering will be. Security seems to lie with them in the relative depth of the pools, as the light steps of the angler only disturb them in a foot or two of water. A fish lying in a hole three or four feet deep, close to the banks is not perturbed by any ordinary concussion.

fin this connection intelligent anglers are apt to query : "Granted that fishes are only slightly, if at all, endowed with the sense of taste or smell, why do trout, black bass and other fish reject the artificial lure if the hook is not instantly fastened in their jaws or throat?" 1 answer : Fresh- water fishes, such as trout, bass, etc., feed as a rule upon soft food. The shell of the Crustacea of our inland lakes and streams is edibly tender, and suggests no anomaly to the feel of the tongue or jaw of the fish. Not so with the fatal hook. Its gritty impact with the closing jaw or tongue suggests a foreign subtance. Jt is foul food and as such is instantly rejected. Again, the sheep'shead, drum and other saltwater species, feeding upon clams and muscles, crunching the shells with their massive teeth and strong jaws do not eject the lure ; on the

THE HABITS AND HAUNTS OF PISH. 13

cate organism we have found display fastidiousness in this respect, but the mass of voracious fish we believe to be totally devoid of all sense of it. The nostrils are doubtless the medium by which impurities in the water are detected. Certain it is that such impurities are perceived, and whenever possible avoided, as is plainly exemplified in these days of river pollution.

Apart from the above causes the movements of fish, both migratory and non-migratory, are generally determined by one of two causes; first, by the search after suitable places for the deposit of their eggs, a certain temperature of water being necessary to vivify them; and secondly by the quest of food. The movements of all animals which feed on living creatures are greatly influenced by the habits of the creatures preyed upon, and fish offer no exception to this rule. We shall now proceed to lay before our readers a comprehensive view of Avhat has taken us well nigh fifty years of patient application to acquire, namely, the characteristic habits and movements of anadromous and non-migratory fish, a knowledge of which it is incumbent upon every fisherman to possess.

The Salmon* — (Salmo solar,) — As is well known, these fish, with other orders of the same family, elsewhere described, pass a portion of each year in salt water, descending to the sea after they have deposited their spawn on the gravelly beds of the higher portions of rivers. The time of migration varies in different waters; thus we hear of early and late rivers. The spawning

contrary, to ensure a probable capture, they are permitted by the angler . to move off without restraint until the shell is crunched or the naked bait pouched — a decisive moment— when the strike must be made in stanter. These dsh are accustomed to mouthing hard substances, hence do not "spit out" the hook, if felt, when taking the naked or shellcovered hook.

* The Salmon (Salmo solar) of Great Britain is similar in its habits, coloration, etc., to the salmon of American Atlantic waters.

season ranges from March to November. The majority of mature fish ascend and descend at fixed periods, the time chosen generally being during a flood. The early spring floods bring the first and main instalments to the sources of the rivers; but in the event of these failing, the fish often prolong their stay in salt water bays and in the mouths of rivers until the first rising of water will admit of a passage. There are in most salmon rivers numerous weirs so constructed as to render the passage of fish an impossibility, except during a heavy flood. In waters where these artificial obstructions do not exist, migratory fish pass frequently to and fro, these periodic ascents being doubtless occasioned by the quest of food. For a salmon to remain in good condition for a protracted period in fresh water would appear to be an impossibility. Their ova are vivified and their young flourish in the inland streams, but after attaining a given size their growth stops, and they sicken and die if the passage to salt water is obstructed. The cleansing influence of the marine trip is necessary at least every two years, even when the supply of food in fresh water is ample, which is seldom the case. The freshly run fish may be said to be invariably fat, and in the best possible condition, not only in the substance of the flesh, but in the large quantities of adipose matter which is found on the pyloric appendages, which secret store serves as an internal source of sustenance, supporting the fish during its summer stay in fresh water, where food is comparatively scarce.

It is often asserted that anadromous fish will not feed except in salt water, and that their internal fat sustains them when absent from it. This is most certainly erroneous, as migratory fish are not more given to fasting than are any other fresh water species when food is plentiful. The young of both grayling and trout suffer greatly from the presence of salmon in the tributaries of our rivers, the former particularly are sought after and taken by them.

A salmon in its young state is commonly called a parr, smolt, smelt, or samlet. When at this stage they rise boldly at the artificial trout-fly, but it is unlawful to take them. The terms for the young of other migratory fish (Salmonidce) are scad, shed, black-tip, blue-fin, kipper, etc.* When the young of these fish attain a length of about six inches, which they do in from eighteen months to two years from the time of hatching, they descend to the sea, where their stay is, generally speaking, about four months. Upon the first return of the young fish, after a sojourn of about this period, it is commonly termed a grilse or salmon-peal. The term "kelt" is applied to male or female after spawning time, the male being also specially distinguished by the appellation, " kipper." The fish then assume the color and form of the fully developed fish. With regard to the hard and fast rules usually given for their growth and development, their stay in their native or in salt water, we may state that, great variation exists among individuals living under the same apparent conditions. The pisciculturist well knows that a portion of every brood or hatch of fish are larger, stronger, and more vigorous than the remainder, and the same thing is exemplified when the fish attain maturity. We cannot endorse the statements of some who affirm, though they never attempted to prove, that the fry mature so quickly and grow so rapidly, when at liberty, as to be able to descend to the sea

* As a curious illustration of the fecundity of popular nomenclature as applied to fishes, I append a partial list of names by which the salmon is, or has been, known in Great Britain : Baggit, beikat, bluecap, blue poll, brandling, brandlin, chine, cudding, shoe, farthing trout, fransck, fork-tail, gravelin, gibflsh, grilse, gresle-kelt, gouries, half-fish, heppar, kelt, kepper-grisle, kilty, kipper, laspring, lax, lewin, ligger, pink, pug, rawner, salmon-sprint, samlet, sewin, simen, skeggar, skirling, smelt, smoot, sparling, sprag, sprod, summer-cock, trotter, etc.

within twelve months from the hatching period. Of their rapid growth during the marine trip we have had ample proof; this is perfectly rational, the sea being the feeding ground for the whole family of migratory fish, the abundance of small animalcule therein contained forming a never-failing supply to the immigrants.

In ascending rivers, salmon usually keep near one side of the bottom of the water, but when their tributaries are being ascended, they take the middle of the swiftest streams. When a stream forms the outlet of a lake, or any sheet of water known to be the annual resort of migratory fish, it is of the most vital importance that no obstruction be erected to arrest their passage. There has been a considerable falling off in the takes of salmon during the last twenty years or so. This may be attributed to three combined causes; (first) the erection of weirs and flood gates; (second) river pollution; (third) the depredation of the fungoid growth, termed the salmon disease.

With regard to the first and second causes here given, we will take the particular case of the Trent. This river was formerly one of the most important for salmon yields in the United Kingdom, and it still ranks next to the Thames for its yields of other fish. The river itself, devoid of tributaries, is of the following extent: In Lincolnshire, twenty miles; in ^Nottinghamshire, fifty-five miles; in Derbyshire, thirty miles; and in Staffordshire, forty miles. The tributaries take their rise at fifteen hundred to nineteen hundred feet above the sea level, and are pure. They extend as follows: The Dove and Churnet. sixty-three miles; Wye and Derwcnt. sixty-seven miles; the Soar and Wreck (Leicestershire), sixty-five miles, the Idle, forty-five miles; the Blythe and Anker, thirty-five miles; the Terme, twenty-five miles: the Tame, twenty-five miles: the Erewash, Sow (Staffordshire), and Devon river, each twenty miles. The whole of the above streams, owing to the rapid fall in most cases, and the purity and cool temperature of their waters, were the annual resort of salmon and other migratory fish in immense numbers a few generations back. What do we find to be the case to-day? The salmon are debarred from ascending even the main river, except during heavy floods, by senselessly contrived weirs at different points, and with the same exception, the passage up the Derwent is entirely shut off by weirs below Derby. In respect to the Dove, being swift and of excessively rapid fall, it was originally the favorite resort of Trent salmon, many of which would ascend as high as Dovedale. There are some four or five weirs that are rendered passable only Avhen the river is bank-full, after a very heavy shoot of water from the hills, until Eocester is reached, where there is situated a weir that is impassable at all times from its peculiar construction. All this may seem strange to those of our readers who have been led to imagine that the natural buoyancy and strength of anadromous fish enable them to overcome both ordinary and extraordinary difficulties in the way of impediments to their upward course. It is, nevertheless, the fact that salmon are to be annually seen for weeks and even months vainly trying to ascend an obstruction, known to be an effectual bar to their upward progress, until finally they deposit their spawn at the point where the passage is arrested, whether suitable or not. Salmon leap to a great height to surmount a cascade or perpendicular fall, but the long slanting weirs are not to be stemmed when they exceed a given length and angle.

But to return. The Tame is now polluted to such an extent that even pike fail of late to flourish in it. The main river, too, is now also polluted so as to admit only of the presence of fresh run migratory fish when flooded by its tributaries. Thus, out of five hundred and seventyfive miles of water only a very few can be accessible to the salmon as spawning ground. It will, therefore, be seen that, taking the noble Trent as a type, salmon in English waters, unless more urgently looked to by the district conservators and other responsible bodies, will soon be a thing of the past. .

The fungoid disease, named as the third cause of the falling off of the product of salmon in our largest and most important rivers, is most disastrous in its results, and when it attacks the fish in the spring or early summer months its depredations are great. Owing to the circumstance of its being unknown to salt water, the gradual growth of fungus over the fish is speedily arrested, and finally cleansed away when the fish leave the rivers. This fungoid growth, so detrimental to the well-being and life of fish, has been termed the salmon disease, which is anything but a correct appellation, seeing that its deadly effects are often even more marked in the case of trout and other fish. This disease is a choleraic disorder, and we are told owes its immediate origin to animal or vegetable substances, one or both, in a state of poisonous decomposition in the water. Effectual remedies there would appear to be none. The only safe and efficient remedial course would appear to be to avoid river pollution, and thus purify instead of putrify water containing fish. Occasionally, however, this deadly disorder is found to be rife in waters that cannot have been polluted by any of the numerous impurities to which the waters of populated districts are exposed, and in these instances it may be assumed that the presence of decaying vegetable substances is owing to protracted unhealthy weather.

Salmon frecpient only the northern and temperate parts of the earth. It is a noteworthy fact that the inhabitants of the more southern latitudes, when mature, are much inferior, both as regards size and gameness of disposition — this at least in the eastern hemisphere — to those of colder regions. In Norway these fish are capable of attaining a prodigious size and weight, eighty to ninety pounds occasionally, whilst in the waters of Britain, the adult fish very rarely attain to one half that weight.

The Common Teotjt* — (Salmo fario). — For variety of size, color, and disposition, the brown or common trout may be said to eclipse all other species. Every loch and river, and almost every tributary, has its variety. The geological formation of the bed of the river, the aquatic vegetation, and the quality and description of the food obtained by the fish, have much to do with this variation. No fish can be said to be so widely distributed, or so capable of affording more variety of sport, from the lordly Thames fish to the game little denizens of the Devon streams. Trout will flourish in almost all waters capable of sustaining fish, but their chosen resorts are rapid, clear mountain streams, the jostling waters of which, foaming amidst fragments of rock, whirling and surging in their rapid course, form numerous cascades and caverned banks. Such are the favorite haunts of the trout. The merest rill of clear and rapid water will often contain vast quantities of these fish, when from its appearance it would be deemed incapable of sustaining a single fin. Under shelving banks and submerged substances, amongst roots of trees bordering the banks of

* The common brown trout of English waters is described by Ronalds as follows : " The back fin has a pale brown color, with dark spots upon it ; the other fins, including the tail, have a red tint. The color of the back, when in perfect condition, is usually a dark olive-green, studded with a mixture of black and brownish spots. The sides are shaded off from the olive to a greenish-yellow, studded with red spots, the black spots gradually vanishing. Lower down the yellow tint approaches a salmon color, and the belly is nearly white, without any spots." It will be seen at once that the English congener of our own brook trout wears quite a sober livery in comparison with that of the American mountain beauty ; their habits, however, are closely allied to those of our native fish.

the streams, trout secrete themselves when not feeding. A casual observer, after a careful and prolonged inspection along its banks, may often affirm that a length upon a noted trout stream is wholly devoid of fish, when the subsequent appearance of surface food will prove the water to be alive with them, and they may as suddenly disappear when the insects leave the water's surface to secrete themselves before an impending atmospheric change. In some districts trout spawn in winter, in others in October and November, or in December, and elsewhere in January and in February, or in March. The precise time depends also in a measure on the prevailing state of the weather and water. In the close season, trout leave the larger streams, ascending the brooks and rivulets, in the gravelly bottoms of which they deposit their spawn. When this operation is effected, they disperse to their wonted haunts, the tails of currents, lying for the most part above and below pools and slow running deeps, behind any impediment to the running water, such as thick piles and sunken timber. As they get into condition they move to stronger water, occasionally for this purpose ascending brooks whose waters may be turbulent and strong to their very source. Here they linger by the edges of streams that flow into the throats of the pools, and at this period rise boldly and unsuspectingly for a time, and can then be allured by the novice in a comparatively easy manner. After the lapse of a few short weeks, as the water and weather become clearer and brighter, the trout grow cautious, where heavily fished over, they having now entirely recovered their customary vigor, and with it their beauty of form and color. They now take up their old positions, vacated prior to the commencement of the spawning season. These are chosen as vantage ground for food, the largest fish occupying the best feeding ground; and when one of these has been extracted, the next best fish in the immediate vicinity takes possession of the vacated post. These fish will often fight desperately for a favorable situation, hence it is that the larger tenants occupy the best positions. Near circulating eddies, behind large stones, in side and mid-stream, below jutting portions of banks, etc., ever near the main volume of water, and the perpetuated line of bubbles wherever it may tend, the trout lie assiduously observant of passing objects, whether in or on the top of the water.