ii6 SALT-WATER FISHES 



for, being only seined in such estuaries as those of the 

 Teign and Exe, and not otherwise occupying the attention 

 of the regular fishermen, the bass has been little studied, 

 particularly in reference to its habits, by economic writers 

 like Mcintosh, Cunningham, and Holt, while even Couch 

 and Day have left very meagre accounts of the movements 

 and daily behaviour of the shoals. 



In the Teign, then, bass first put in an appearance during 

 the first week in April, a little earlier or later according to 

 the weather and temperature tor the year. These are, for 

 the most part, small shoal fish, varying in length from 4 

 to 9 in., but a few larger and more solitary fish appear 

 to make their way up the river a little later, tor amateurs 

 occasionally capture these as early as the first half of May, 

 but not earlier. Local opinion even has it that some of the 

 largest old bass remain on the rough ground in the deeper 

 portions of the estuary, about a quarter of a mile from the 

 bar, throughout the winter ; but it is impossible to ascertain 

 by the most careful enquiry on what evidence this theory rests. 

 The local fishmongers never have these large bass for sale 

 during the colder months ot the year. There is, on the 

 other hand, no means of disproving the assertion, short of 

 dynamiting the rocks, for the winter bass, if present in that 

 part of the Teign, are equally immune from the prohibited 

 salmon-nets and from the operations of anglers unable at that 

 season to procure the living sand-eel, the only reliable bait in 

 those waters. 



The smaller shoal, or school, bass, which arrive in April, 

 make their way up on each flood tide to within a mile of 

 Newton Abbot (some five miles from the sea), and to ail 

 appearance return with the ebb. Anyone in a boat can in 

 the early mornings during spring tides watch as many 

 as half a dozen different " schools " pass the Ness in 

 the course of an hour or two, the splashing brit and also the 

 crying gulls plainly indicating the movements of each, while 



