THE TENCH 185 



Like Carp, Tench can live for some time out of 

 the water, and they have been known to live buried 

 in the mud at the bottom of a pond which had dried 

 up during a hot summer ; unlike Carp, however, 

 they are not particularly cunning, and readily fall 

 victims to the angler who knows how and where to 

 fish for them, whilst the method employed by the 

 fishermen on the Norfolk Broads has been thus 

 described by the Rev. R. Lubbock — 



" Tench catching, as it is justly termed, originated 

 with a family of the name of Hewitt, at Barton, all 

 the members of which were fishermen and gunners. 

 One of them, observing the sluggish nature of this 

 fish, attempted to take them with his hands, and often 

 succeeded. The art has spread, and the system is 

 better understood, so that at this time there are in 

 Norfolk fishermen who, upon shallozv waters — for in 

 deep nothing can be done thus — prefer their own 

 hands, with a landing-net to be used occasionally, 

 to bow-nets or any other engines. The day for this 

 operation cannot be too calm or too hot. During 

 the heat of summer, but especially at the time of 

 spawning. Tench delight in lying near the surface 

 of the water amongst beds of weeds ; in such situa- 

 tions they are found in parties, varying from four 

 or five to thirty in number. On the very near 

 approach of a boat they strike away, dispersing in 

 different directions, and then the sport of the tench- 

 catcher begins. With an eye like a hawk, he per- 

 ceives where some particular fish has stopped in his 

 flight, which is seldom more than a few yards ; his 

 guide in this is the bubble which rises generally 

 where the fish stops. 



" Approaching the place as gently as possible in 



