CHAPTER XXII. 



WHY FISH DON T ALWAYS BITE. 



THE subjoined extract is made from an anonymous letter printed in 1885. It 

 is a most instructive contribution, as the facts gleaned have been obtained from 

 continuous observation of the habits of fish in feeding. The fish in question are 

 black bass confined in a large glass tank or aquarium nine feet long by two feet 

 wide, and two and a half feet in depth. The writer describes their manners and 

 methods when served with live food, such as shiners or minnows. He says : 



"Such a meal is always a most interesting scene. If the fish are very hungry 

 they will show it by an increased restlessness. They are then more alert and 

 active, swimming back and forth, sometimes chasing and attacking each other. 

 These encounters may be mere fish play, yet there seems to be too much temper 

 in them too much promptness to strike back for that. 



"But when the bucket of live shiners is served to them they at once come to 

 order. They await no grace, only the lesser fish are supposed to await upon the 

 greater, which they do with just as much filial obedience as the big fish can en- 

 force. It is but a display of human selfishness on a more unreserved scale, where 

 might or muscle makes the law. The large bass make the water boil as they 

 dash on the huddling and terrified shiners that try in vain to elude them. Again, 

 they will charge on the smaller bass to hold them back till their own wants be 

 satisfied. And it takes a great deal to satisfy them, for their selfishness makes 

 them gluttons, or else their honest capacity is amazing. They will gorge them- 

 selves and then lay off, often for several days. Frequently those as small as two 

 pounds have been observed to take from ten to fifteen two to three-inch shiners 

 at one meal. This makes it tolerably safe for the shiners for at least three days. 

 Their favorite feeding time is early in the morning." 



From the foregoing the reasons are made sufficiently obvious why fish bite 

 freely at one time and not at another in the same water and the same locality, 

 and why some anglers have "good luck" today and some have bad tomorrow. 

 The fish gorge themselves and take a rest. It explains also why small fish only 

 are taken at certain times when large fish are known to be abundant. It is be- 

 cause they have been made to wait until the big fish have fed. Their opportunity 

 comes while the latter are lethargic and quiescent with surfeit. The duration 

 of the intervals between good fishing and poor fishing is ascertained, for the bass 

 are frequently off their feed for several days. Meanwhile the shiners have oppor- 

 tunity to multiply and develop; at least they are improved by accessions from 

 other localities, for it is notorious that they do not seem to diminish from year 

 to year as a rule. There is another reason which may be added to explain good 

 fishing one day and poor fishing the next, to wit: the nomadic habits of the 

 minnows, which shift their locality from time to time, the big fish, of course, 

 following them. Good judgment would therefore instigate an observant angler 

 to try a different stand in another part of the fishing ground, if he gets no bites 

 today where he had success the day before. 



We find also from our friend's observation what experience had already 

 taught us, that the morning is the proper time for fishing. Indeed, of late years 



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