1 8 The Field Naturalist 's Quarterly Feb. 



Fish and Gurnards at all times. The inclement weather, 

 with those terrible winter gales that have lately ravaged our 

 coasts, more even than in earlier years when the winters were 

 much harder than they are now, may also interfere with the 

 operations of the nets, particularly in shallow water ; and the 

 total catch in winter will therefore be no gauge of the actual 

 abundance of fish. 



There are those who tenaciously hold to the opinion that 

 the Bass, even the larger individuals, are as plentiful in our 

 estuaries in winter as in summer. Keeping always the open 

 scientific mind on such subjects, I am by no means in a 

 position to deny the statement. All I can say is that the 

 Sprat and Herring nets rarely, if ever, take them, though 

 worked on all their favourite summer grounds, and no one 

 tries to catch them on the hook, as the best baits, such as 

 Sand-Eels, are not to be had. Personally, I should not be 

 surprised if the Bass are not in our estuaries at all between, 

 say, the last week of October and the middle of April. I 

 have caught small Bass in the western Mediterranean dur- 

 ing the first week of March ; but the thermometer is higher 

 in those latitudes than on our coasts, and, for all I know to 

 the contrary, Bass may hug the beaches of Tangier and the 

 jetties of Marseilles throughout the year. 



With the fishes of our rivers the winter brings its changes 

 as much as with those of the salt water, perhaps even more. 

 A few favourite Thames fish are at their best in winter. 

 Enthusiasts regard winter chub -fishing, I believe, with a 

 hook bait of pith and groundbait of brains, as among their 

 finest chances of real sport. Pike-fishing, too, is absolutely 

 at its best in the coldest months of the year. There are 

 pike-fishers so keen that they swathe the rod rings in oiled 

 wool to prevent the freezing wet line sticking, and they will 

 fish, and catch specimen Pike too, between the miniature 

 ice-floes and with their bait-kettle below zero. The famous 

 and somewhat apocryphal Thames Trout, too, which almost 

 rival those of the Rotorua district in New Zealand, are also 

 taken in hard weather, and one authority has pointed out 

 that the angler equipped with lively Bleak for bait stands a 

 very first-rate chance on a cold April day when there are no 

 Bleak in the weir-pools, for the Bleak repair under such con- 



