390 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES 



more as a tour de force when he can net, or as a method of 

 poaching when netting is not permitted. 



By these methods a number of strong, lusty tench can be 

 got in a morning — fish averaging two or two and a half 

 pounds — nor do they take long to capture. But once May is 

 in, and they begin to spawn, the bow-net * is brought into 

 use, being placed in runs in the gladen or reed, or in holes in 

 the dike shores, for a favourite resort of tench at this season 

 is in holes where there is a draught of water. Sometimes 

 flowers are placed in the bow-nets — water ranunculi, cal- 

 ceolaries, and pelargoniums having been used, for it is said 

 these bright-coloured flowers attract the fish. But it is the 

 bow-net that attracts — they like to rub against it, for they 

 do not spawn in shoals, and so have not their comrades to 

 rub against. They choose no particular weed to cast their 

 greenish spawn upon, and seem rather casual, choosing often 

 shallow water in a broken-down gladen-bed or dike. After 

 they have done spawning, they go back to deep water, as do 

 other fish. 



In August most of them will take a worm, and old Broads- 

 men advise you to decapitate the worm, and fish with its 

 tail upwards. Lightning will kill tench in a trunk, and it is 

 the habit with Broadsmen to cover their trunks with litrer 

 during a thunderstorm to prevent this. 



When the frosts come they mud again, and so run their 

 yearly round. 



If a broad grow up too much, the tench will disappear ; 

 but where and how they get away, is a myster}^ — to me at 

 least. 



Golden Tench. 



I have never seen a golden tench taken from these waters ; 

 but some old Broadsmen scout the idea of golden tench, and 

 say any tench, if put into a clear stream with a gravelly 

 bottom, will turn "golden." 



* Vide " Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads." 



