The Teesdale Angler Part 7

RODS.

The three distinguis.h.i.+ng characteristics of a really good fly rod are strength, elasticity, and lightness, such rods are to be bought in the London tackle shops for a pound; these rods are perfect as three or four piece rods, but I much prefer one for my own use in only two pieces, such a rod is more readily put to, and taken from together than one consisting of three or more joints; not so liable to get out of order, and has a truer bend with it when subjected to pressure. I recommend a rod having a root 9 feet, and a top of 5 feet, making together 14 feet in length, as the most useful; a fir root, and top of good sound lance wood, well painted, ringed and varnished, makes a neat and serviceable rod. For trolling, your top should be stiff and strong.

For worm not so pliable as your fly top.

LINES.

Lines composed entirely of hair, are lighter on the water than those made of silk and hair mixed, perhaps the latter is the stronger line of the two, but it both carries more water and is more expensive. A winch line should be for Trout from 25 to 35 yards in length, and may be bought at all tackle shops, at the rate of a 1d., 1-1/2d. and 2d. per yard, according to quality; at so cheap a rate, it is scarcely worth while to make your own line, which you may do by the purchase of a little machine for twisting, or you may use goose quills, which is however but a slow and tedious process.

HOOKS.

The best hooks are Kendal, Limerick, and Carlisle; I prefer the Limerick for fis.h.i.+ng the natural flies, they are all however very good.

Some anglers are partial to the Kirby bend, but perhaps you get better hold of your fish with the sneck bend hooks. If you purchase wholesale, you get 120 hooks for a s.h.i.+lling, if by retail at tackle shops, generally 6 a penny, or 72 for a s.h.i.+lling; so that wholesale you have about 50 more hooks for your money.

REMARKS ON FIs.h.i.+NG GARMENTS.

With Cordings, Fis.h.i.+ng Boots, and Macintosh Coat, you are weather proof; neither the water from above or below can affect you; by the aid of the boots you keep your feet perfectly dry, the coat enables you to continue fis.h.i.+ng during the heaviest showers, and in Summer especially, when the flies and insects are beat down by such showers, the best of fish are then on the move; without the India Rubber Garment, you may get thoroughly wet in ten minutes. If you find shelter you probably loose some good sport, and if not, by continuing your fis.h.i.+ng, you become so cold, wet, and exceedingly uncomfortable, that you generally deem it adviseable to proceed home with as little delay as possible.

When the day is fine, and the water repeller not needed, avoid light, or glaring colours; brown, green, or grey garments are most suitable, particularly when the water is low and clear.

HEALTH,--CAUTION.

If your feet are wet either in Spring or Summer, do not, if you regard your health, sit down above two or three minutes. You may frequently have occasion to wait some considerable time by the water side, looking out for the expected feed, and consequent rising of the fish; at such times keep walking about in preference to sitting, which is the best way to avoid catching cold. When you return home loose not a moment in changing your wet garments. Colds and Rheumatism are the pains and penalties anglers are liable to, who do not follow the above advice.

THE EYE, THE ONLY ACUTE FACULTY IN FISH.

Trout, however quick sighted they may be, are like all the finny tribe, supposed to be incapable of hearing, in consequence of the density of the element in which they exist. Water has long ago been proved to be a non-conductor of sound, and if fish are possessed of any faculty of the kind, it must be the dullest imaginable. From the h.o.r.n.y construction of the palate, their taste cannot be acute, and their sense of smelling (judging from the medium by which all odours are conveyed to them,) must be peculiarly defective. Taking the above suppositions to be correct, it is of course clearly apparent that they must be guided solely by the eye in the selection of their food; for instance, when fish are stupefied or fuddled as it is termed, I do not suppose their olfactory organs are affected by the berry or drugs, used to intoxicate or kill them. I am persuaded, that small b.a.l.l.s of paste or bread would, if offered to them at the same time, be devoured at precisely the same rate as those prepared with unguents or drugs.

The formation of fish is peculiarly adapted to water, through which they glide with the greatest facility; their motions being regulated by the fins and tail; the tail indeed being to the fish precisely what a rudder is to a s.h.i.+p. The air bladder in fish is another wise provision of nature, by means of it they can remain for a long time under water; still they must from time to time take in supplies, for if during a severe frost the ice be not broken on ponds, the fish therein would perish for want of air. Some fish are much more tenacious of life than others; Roach, Perch and Tench, have been conveyed alive, for stocking ponds, thirty miles, packed only in wet leaves or gra.s.s. One thing is quite certain as regards all fish, viz., that they live longer out of their natural element in cold than in hot weather. A clever invention for the transport of fish has come under my notice; an account of this machine may prove interesting to some persons, and therefore I insert it.

THE TRANSPORT OF TROUT AND GREYLING.

The Apparatus consists of a tin case, separated into two parts by an open work part.i.tion. In one of these the fish are placed, and in the other is fixed a mechanical contrivance for keeping up a considerable supply of air in the water.

In November, 1853, 33 Greylings were sent from the Wye at Rowley to the Clyde at Abington, a distance of about 250 miles with the loss of only two fish.

The Apparatus is composed of a zinc cylinder, about three feet high and two feet in diameter, with a strong iron handle running round the middle; to the top, a small force pump is attached, and by this fresh air is forced through a star shaped distributor at the bottom of the cylinder; a ring to bring the fish up for inspection, and a loose concave rim to prevent splas.h.i.+ng over, complete it. A drawing with particulars was deposited with the Society of Arts, in London.

THE NATURAL ENEMIES OF FISH.

Fish have so many enemies that were it not for the millions of embryo or sp.a.w.n deposited by the female, the breed of Salmon and Trout (to say nothing of other species) would long since have become extinct. Eels, fish, birds, water rats, toads, frogs, and last but not least, the water beetle,[8] prey upon the ova, sp.a.w.n and young fry; floods also sweep away and leave on banks, or rocks, a considerable quant.i.ty of sp.a.w.n, which of course comes to nothing. Escaping the above perils and causalities, and arrived at maturity, they become the prey and food of the otter and heron, king's fisher, gull, &c., who emulate man in their destructive propensities. The larger fish also prey upon the smaller.

Luckily otters are not so numerous in any English river as they used to be. Night lines, shackle, rake and flood nets, and other devices not at all creditable to those who use them, and to which I shall not further allude, make terrible havoc amongst fish, and mar and spoil the fair and honest angler's sport, but in most rivers and brooks of Trouting celebrity, such practices are greatly on the wane. Proprietors will not sanction such wholesale destruction; and now almost universally adopts measures for the detection and punishment of such depredators.

[8] The water beetle is chiefly instrumental in conveying the sp.a.w.n of various kinds of fish to waters, where such species had previously been unknown.

LAWS RELATIVE TO ANGLING.

It would occupy too much s.p.a.ce to be diffuse in reference to angling laws; I shall therefore briefly observe that all persons discovered robbing fish ponds during the night, and all persons found poisoning fish are liable to transportation; all persons using nets, listers, snares or other unlawful devices, are liable to the forfeiture of such nets, &c., and also subject to a fine at the discretion of the magistrates before whom such offenders may be brought; and also, that any person angling in any brook or river without the permission of the proprietor or proprietors of such river or brook, is liable to a penalty as a trespa.s.ser, and also to the forfeiture of any fish he may have caught.

OBSERVATIONS IN REFERENCE TO THE EFFECT OF THE WEATHER ON FISH.

Your sport in angling, whether top or bottom, materially depends upon the state of the atmosphere. He who has paid some attention to the effects of weather on fish, knows pretty accurately the extent of the sport to be looked for, when the wind is in particular arts. An East or N. East wind shuts out all hope of diversion, whilst a Southerly or South West wind, is the wind of all winds for the angler. However, as fish must feed at some time, let the wind be as it will, an angler who is particularly in want of a few Trout, may succeed in obtaining small ones with the fly in an East or N. East wind, provided the wind has been in that quarter some days, and there is feed on the water. Any sudden change in the wind affects the fish, and they will sometimes give over, or begin to feed, on such changes taking place, just as it happens to veer into the wrong or right quarter. After white frosts in the Spring of the year, you need not expect much, if any sport. Frosty nights with bright sunny days following, accompanied with East or N.

East winds, are precisely those sort of days, when a man had better refrain altogether from attempting to take fish with the fly, or with any kind of bait. During the Summer months, the colder the wind blows, the better sport you will have with the artificial fly. On cold stormy days in Spring, with wind West or N. West, accompanied with heavy snow, rain, or hail showers, good fish are usually roving about, and then your sport is of the best. Either in Spring, or Summer,

"With a Southerly wind, and a cloudy sky, The angler may venture his luck to try."

WHAT CONSt.i.tUTES A GOOD FIs.h.i.+NG DAY.

It is of the greatest consequence to acquire a correct estimate of what really const.i.tutes a good fis.h.i.+ng day; and not put too much faith in the advice of the author who wrote an article on angling, which is published in _Brewster's Encyclopaedia_, who tells us to follow the example of the navigator, who does not wait for a favourable wind, but goes to sea at once, to seek for one; not to sit at home on the look out, but go to the river in all weathers. The three great essentials of a good Trouting day, are water, wind, and cloud, if there is a failure in all three, you are better at home, at least that is my humble opinion. If a deficiency or partially so in any, expect only moderate sport, but if all three are in unison, then you may fairly calculate on excellent diversion. There is nothing like a South West wind for holding forth a promise of a cloudy day. As to the water, the second day after a heavy fall of rain is often the best. The wind however sometimes (too frequently indeed) veers into the North West, or further on that day, and if the barometer rapidly rises at the same time, there will be too much suns.h.i.+ne; on the third, if the wind veers to the South West, the day will probably be too dark; for a dull day occurring about new and full moon, is seldom a good angling day. A man whose avocations do not permit him to angle in all weathers, will therefore do well to select a day, when the three great essentials of his sport, wind, water, and cloud, are in his favour.

NOTE.--An angler is so dependent on the weather that he should omit no opportunity of acquiring meteorological knowledge. Electric influences guide and coerce fish in a wonderful manner.