8 ANGLING FOR COARSE FISH. 



at a depth of, perhaps, eighteen feet instead of inches. Two 

 reasons probably bring fish into shallow water when the 

 river is coloured : First, because in the deeps, light cannot reach 

 the bottom, and food cannot be seen; and second, because 

 many varieties of fish prefer shallow to deep water when 

 they can safely come into such places without being seen by 

 man and their other enemies. The best hours for fishing in the 

 winter are from eleven to three, but a good deal depends on 

 the temperature of the air, the fish feeding best during the 

 more genial poi-tion of the day. 



When rivers rise in flood, and the water spreads over the 

 meadows, the fish flock on to the grass, and feed on the drowned 

 insects and worms. At such times it is, as a rule, of not 

 much use to go fishing, owing to the gi-eat difficulty of finding 

 the quarry ; but an angler may unexpectedly stumble on a place 

 where fish are collected together in great numbers, and have 

 good sport ; and local fishermen, who know the river thoroughly, 

 can generally point out a spot or two where some fish are to 

 be caught. On the whole, however, fishing when rivers are 

 well over their banks is unsatisfactory work. 



What I have said concerning floods and coloured waters 

 applies nearly as much to summer as to winter fishing, the 

 only difference being, that in summer the fish work out of the 

 eddies into the stream rather sooner than they do in winter. 



Concerning the haunts of fish at various seasons in lakes 

 and ponds there is not much to be said, beyond that in 

 summer the fish are to be found in water of moderate depth, 

 shifting to somewhat deeper quarters in the autumn. Where 

 the bottoms of such places are variously of mud and sand, 

 or gravel, more fish will be found on the gravel or sand 

 than on the mud; as in rivers, the fish will always be found 

 near weeds. The most successful method of pond and lake 

 fishing is to feed the fish regularly at certain places, and 

 there angle for them. My experience of the Shannon lakes, 

 which are like small inland seas, is that no coarse fish, except a 

 few pike, are to be caught in winter (from November to February). 

 In places these lakes are very deep, and to the deeps the fish pro- 

 bably repair on the advent of cold weather. It may be the same 



