116 AX ANGLER'S REMINISCENCES. 



through our lungs, so is the cold, red blood .of fish by passing through their gills ; 

 and as by the process of breathing we extract the oxygen and vitiate the air, in 

 like manner do fish taking the water in their mouths, extract from it the air held 

 in suspension, and pass it out under the opercles, or gill covers, in a vitiated state. 

 A fish can be drowned in the water almost as easily as an animal, when the water 

 is prevented from passing over the gill covers in the usual way. For this reason 

 fish seldom swim down stream for any great distances at a time, and always 

 "heave to," as sailors would say, head up stream. Anglers take advantage of this 

 knowledge and kill their captives secundem artem. Often fish actually die in smaller 

 lakes and ponds when closed by ice simply for want of air, and when their dead 

 bodies are found floating on the surface in the spring, after the ice has broken up 

 and melted, people wonder at the mortality, and speculate upon the cause of the 

 mysterious ( ?) epidemic. If they had thought to cut holes in the ice at intervals 

 throughout the winter this great waste of fish food might have been prevented. 



It is this constant drain upon the fish supply at all seasons of the year, in and 

 out of spawning time, which excites a well-founded apprehension that it will soon 

 give out, especially in Lakes Erie and Michigan, where the shores are favorable for 

 fishing and the fishing stations numerous. 



As in the great lakes, so in the rivers and creeks, the small lakes and ponds, 

 fish will be found where the conditions already specified are the most favorable. 



Black bass spawn in May, seeking some retired spot in shallow water where they 

 scoop out nests in the sand and gravel, and glue their ova to pebbles on the bottom, 

 standing guard meanwhile near the deposit to keep off predatory intruders. It is 

 this fidelity which makes the black bass so prolific. Other fish usually lose 95 per 

 cent of their spawn. After ten days or so the young fry hatch out and scatter into 

 deep water, where they are comparatively safe from predatory fish. This is a 

 masterly precaution. Most fish fry keep near the shore, and thereby fall a prey 

 to skulking pickerel, perch and sunfish. Bass are not the spawn destroyers which 

 some suppose them to be. They are omnivorous and content themselves with 

 larvae, beetles, crayfish, water fleas and helgramites, varying their diet with occa- 

 sional meals of fish but not always on Fridays. 



From June to August the best fishing places are in deep pools of rivers or under 

 the shadows of dams and falls. From the middle of September to the end of October 

 they seem to resort more to the deep currents of the midstream. In lakes they lie 

 under the brush of fallen trees or along the edge of lily pads which line the shore, 

 and near submerged points of rock. Very often they are found near sunken ledges 

 of rock in the middle of the lake. They take the fly, grub, minnow or trolling spoon. 



Trout are well scattered during May and June, both in lake and river. In 

 streams and rivers they are most surely caught where the current is obstructed by 

 boulders. Later in the summer they are found in deep holes where there are cold 

 bottom springs, and by September they seek their spawning beds. They take fly, 

 grub, worm and minnow. 



It is pretty hard to tell a novice where to find trout. An expert angler will lose 

 no time in testing doubtful or impracticable places, but seems to know the correct 

 spots by an intuitive perception. In May or June, if he discovers a clump of over- 

 hanging bushes such as certain ephemera would use to deposit their eggs on, he 

 will be apt to cast his line there, knowing that the pupa cases are ripe and liberat- 

 ing the flies, and that there the trout will congregate to feed. If he detects a 

 stream trickling down the bank, carrying the landwash from the muck and rotten 

 leaves above, he will put in his hook there, because a good supply of larvae and 



