THE CARP AND TENCH. 129 



and you have a beautiful well-scoured brandling on your hook, 

 you may perhaps delude one of the big fellows, though hook- 

 ing one would be the signal for the rest to bolt. You should 

 then go to another part of the pond, and operate there in the 

 same manner, and so give the carp in the first swim time to 

 recover from their astonishment. Whatever you do, don't 

 insult the carp by fishing for him with a heavy cork float, 

 a long necklace of chain shot, and a coarse tackle, the self- 

 cocking float, the one split shot, and the fine tackle recom- 

 mended for roach fishing must be the order of the day. 

 Remember that 



" The carp whose wary eye 

 Admits no vulgar tackle nigh, 

 Essay your art's supreme address, 

 And beat the fox in sheer finesse." 



The tench is a good deal nicer-looking fish than the carp. 

 The following is a good description of him : " All fins are 

 rounded at the extremeties, tail fin not at all forked, nearly 

 square with comers rounded ofi"; mouth small and toothless, 

 with one barbel at each comer ; scales very small ; colours, 

 head, sides, and cheeks, golden green, darker on the back and 

 fins, orange yellow under the belly, irides, bright orange red." 

 Tench spawn in May, and seem to go raving mad while they 

 are performing the operation. I have seen them dancing and 

 twisting about in the most absurd manner, rushing and chas- 

 ing one another through the weeds, and then stopping side 

 by side for a few minutes, refusing to be scared by anybody. 

 They are like the carp, very prolific, no less than 300,000 

 eggs have been estimated in a fish of three and a half pounds. 

 They are very tenacious of life, and will live a long time out 

 of water. The tench do not grow so large as the carp, six 

 or seven pounds being perhaps their limit ; and this depends 

 on the quality of the lake or pond they are in ; in small ponds 

 they do not often exceed two or three pounds. There is an 



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