JUNE 95 



as he says, " the fish have gone off their feed." He, 

 therefore, either spends his day in idleness, or fishes 

 patiently on to capture infant and unsophisticated finger- 

 lings, which alone appear to notice his lures. The 

 question has often occurred to my mind whether it is 

 really a fact that during the hours of heat fish do not 

 feed. Some years ago I became sceptical, and, there- 

 fore, have never missed an available opportunity, when 

 the water has been clear, of watching from some place of 

 concealment the movements of freshwater fish during 

 these hours of brightness. 



The first fact that I noticed was that, instead of being 

 listless and idle during the day, roach, dace, chub, aud 

 even perch seem to be for ever roaming about in search 

 of food ; and when they find it, instead of refusing it, 

 they feed greedily on whatever seems in best condition. 



Well do I remember one bright July day how, 

 crouched behind a bush on the top of an 8ft. bank, I 

 watched a dozen large roach busily engaged in stripping 

 the confervoid growth, with its myriads of small animal 

 and vegetable inhabitants, off the surface of the ribbon 

 weed, which waved its 7ft. or 8ft. tresses in the cool 

 running water. The modus operandi was simple : each 

 fish swam upstream among the waving ribbons, and 

 seizing a frond with its lips about 2ft. from the root, 

 allowed the current to carry it down stream for a foot 

 or two, the blade of weed being drawn through its 

 mouth. These evolutions they kept repeating by the 

 hour together, and a prettier sight I never wish to see. 

 The great fish, some of them well over 21b. in weight, 

 plunged amongst the weeds, their silvery sides and red 

 fins contrasting with a wealth of waving green, the 

 brilliant sun illuminating the brightly-glancing crystal 

 water so that every blade of weed and every scale was 

 as distinct as if placed behind glass in an aquarium. 



Another simple proof that fish feed in the hours of 

 sunshine is known to all of us. How often, when we 

 stand on the road-bridge over some favourite fishing 

 river, do we see the dace close on the bottom, head to 

 stream, making little darts along the gravel I Try them 



