SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



the time the river had been absolutely depleted 

 of fish, but it was afterwards ascertained that a 

 quantity of small fry had survived, and within 

 ten years the normal condition of the river was 

 practically restored. 



The principal rivers of Suffolk are bordered by 

 marshland, banked out by river walls from two to 

 four feet high. The marsh levels are divided off 

 into enclosures of about ten to fifteen acres, sepa- 

 rated by minor drains and dykes some six to 

 fifteen feet wide. The water is pumped into the 

 river by wind or steam power, as the level of the 

 marshes is slightly below that of ordinary high- 

 water summer tides. In these dykes are found 

 almost every variety of coarse fish, particularly eels ; 

 one method of catching them called ' lamming ' is 

 peculiar to the locality, but as it cannot be re- 

 garded as of interest to the angler, description 

 must be omitted. 



Tench are common and much esteemed. 

 Where they were plentiful in ponds and weed- 

 choked meres, two old scythes welded together, 

 back to back, were used from the stern of a boat 

 to cut passages in likely places through the weed 

 beds ; these passages were locally called lanes, 

 and in June and July when the tench worked 

 through them they were caught in bow-nets 

 set for the purpose. Some fishermen would 

 suspend inside the nets bunches of flowers, or 

 vials of quicksilver or similar luminous metal, but 

 since the conservators have prohibited the use of 

 such traps tench have become very numerous. 

 They only breed in certain places and under 

 certain conditions. A good example of this is 

 recorded at North Cove near the Norfolk border- 

 land. On a two-hundred-acre level some two 

 or three miles of marsh dykes had not been 

 cleaned out for forty years, and the tench became 

 extinct, except in one hole. At the end of the 

 last century these dykes were all thoroughly 

 deepened, an operation which took two years, 

 and within eighteen months they were literally 

 teeming with small tench. Tench-catching 

 originated with a family of the name of Hewitt 

 at Barton, all the members of which were fisher- 

 men and gunners. One of them, observing the 

 sluggish nature of the fish, attempted to take 

 them with his hands and often succeeded. The 

 art has spread, and the system is better under- 

 stood, so that now there are fishermen who, 

 upon shallow water 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 occu- 

 pation cannot be too calm nor too hot. During 

 the heats of summer, but especially at the time 

 of spawning, tench delight to lie near the surface 

 of the water amongst beds of weeds ; in such 

 situations 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, dis- 

 persing in different directions, and then the sport 

 of the ' tench-tickler ' begins. With an eye like 



a hawk he perceives where some particular fish 

 has stopped in its flight, which is seldom more 

 than a few yards ; his guide in this is a bubble 

 which arises generally where the fish stops. 

 Approaching the place as gently as possible in 

 his boat, which must be small, light, and at the 

 same time steady, the tickler keeps her still with 

 his pole, and lying down with his head over the 

 gunwale and his right arm bared to the shoulder, 

 he gently displaces the weeds with his fingers. 

 If he can determine which way the head lies, the 

 prospect of capture is much increased ; if he 

 cannot, he feels slowly and cautiously about 

 until he touches the fish, which if done gently 

 on head or body is generally disregarded ; but if 

 the tail is the part molested, a dash away is the 

 consequence. Should the tickler succeed in 

 ascertaining the position of the fish, he puts one 

 hand under it just behind the gills and raises it 

 gently but rapidly towards the surface of the water, 

 and over the low gunwale, taking care not to 

 touch the gunwale with his knuckles, as the 

 slightest jar makes the captive struggle. The 

 fisherman then, if he ' marked ' more than one 

 tench when the shoal dispersed, proceeds to search 

 for it. If not, he endeavours to start another by 

 striking his pole against the side or bottom of 

 the boat several are generally close at hand. 

 The concussion moves other fish, when the same 

 manoeuvre is repeated. In the course of :i 

 favourable. day one good tickler will easily secure 

 five or six dozen. 1 



It is very difficult to induce the tench to take 

 any kind of bait ; the season when they appear 

 to feed most readily is when the wheat is in 

 bloom ; then the best bait to use is potato paste. 

 Bream are very numerous ; they migrate in vast 

 shoals from the river to the broads at certain 

 seasons, returning in August. September is per- 

 haps the best month for bream fishing, as they 

 then frequent deep holes in the bends of the 

 river where the tide is strongest, whilst they seem 

 to enjoy the dash of salt in the water of the 

 lower reaches. There are two kinds, the silver 

 and the gold bream. They run to over 8 Ib. 

 in weight and are usually caught legering. Eels 

 occur everywhere and are persecuted all the year 

 round. Lamperns also ascend the rivers, and on 

 one occasion in the eighties an eel-catcher at 

 Somerleyton took just upon a ton of these fish 

 at one haul ; some of them scaled upwards of 

 2 Ib. in weight. Roach, rudd, and dace are 

 plentiful. The quantity of roach that survive 

 is remarkable in view of their persecution by 

 predatory fish and the very reprehensible practice 

 of some anglers whose habit it is to see how 

 many dozen they can take in a day. In the 

 Waveney, roach grow to a very large size, 

 fish of 2 Ib. to 3 Ib. being quite common. 

 Rudd run larger. These spawn in shoals in 



1 Rev. Rich. Lubbock, Observations tn the Fauna of 

 Norfolk. 



379 



