442 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



"It is just SO with these old bait- fishers. A motion of 

 your hp, although voiceless, and they would cry out (if they 

 dared), 'Watch out for my coming bite!' They are right in 

 thinking that the least motion of the boat is apt to frighten 

 the fish, but 'I won't go home till morning,' by a dozen bass 

 voices is less disturbing to a pool or a bank than the twitch- 

 ing of a toe on the bottom of a boat." 



Anglers generally agree on the subject of the sense of sight 

 in fishes. A fish can see in water but not out of it. 



The shadow of a split-bamboo rod thrown across a pool 

 will create in a fish the same skittishness as would be caused 

 by an elephant browsing upon the bank. 



A passing cloud over a shallow and pellucid pool protects 

 the angler and puts another fin or two in his creel, where a 

 moment before each cast of his drove the fish to deeper 

 pools or behind protecting rocks. 



An old angling friend once said to me that fish were like 

 ostriches in some of their ways, notably in that they seemed 

 to feel safe when their noses were hid behind a tuft of grass 

 or in the crevices of a sunken rock. 



"Fish facing the sun, and forget not this rule, even when 

 the twilight is over the waters, by casting toward the west," 

 was the law enacted by his knowledge, based upon experi- 

 ence, of the effect of shadows upon the wary fins, who are 

 more startled by unusual appearances on the surface of a 

 pool than they are by strange things below. 



Vision and hearing, in fishes, being the senses most impor- 

 tant to the angler, in his water sports, those next in value 

 are smell and taste. The possession of these by fish seems 

 to be a disputed point. They have evidently taste in a mod- 

 ified degree, as they will reject the artificial lure if the barb 

 of the hook is not immediately imbedded in their flesh, but 

 on the other hand, they will take a leather or rubber imita- 

 tion of the natural bait with as much gusto as a live minnow 

 or bug — hence the question is a see-saw one. 



