12 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



opinion on an important question to anglers ; still I think 

 anglers, when fishing, need not fear indulging in a little 

 friendly chat. What they want to particularly observe is 

 this : Don't stamp about on the bank close to the water 

 where you are fishing ; that operation is fatal to a roach swim. 

 Can the fish hear the noise 1 or does it cause a vibration in 

 the water 1 perhaps the latter, but one thing is certain, roach 

 will forsake a swim, if the angler indulges in an impromptu 

 Irish jig on the water's edge. Can fish sleep 1 or do they go 

 to sleep 1 is perhaps more correct. I have had this question 

 asked me by various anglers ; my answer has been, " 1 don't 

 know for certain, but I should suppose they do; sleep is 

 necessary to man and animals, and why not to fish?" No one, 

 as the song says, " ever caught a weasel asleep," and I think 

 nobody ever caught a fish asleep. I have been by the water 

 side all night during the summer, and I could hear fish rising 

 till nearly midnight, and then for a couple of hours or so, or 

 till nearly daybreak, they ceased ; and no fish except eels 

 were to be taken during that time, so I should suppose that 

 was the time they enjoyed their nap. 



Can a fish feel pain when hooked ? is another question 

 that has often been discussed by anglers and writers. Fish 

 certainly seem to feel no pain from hooks stuck in their 

 mouths, for I have caught the shy and cautious chub with a 

 hook and little bit of gut attached to their mouths that 

 looked as though some one had hooked and broken off only 

 a few hours before. We have often heard of jack being 

 hooked, played, and lost, and yet take a bait again on the 

 same day. Cold-blooded animals do not feel pain in the 

 same manner that warm-blooded ones do, and the lower the 

 animal organization the less sensibility to pain it has. I once 

 read two or three lines which ought to be set down as a 

 complete untruth : 



" The poor beetle which we tread upon, 

 In corporal suffrance feels a pang 

 As great as when a giant dies." 



That is a tale that won't wash with me ; when a fish is 

 hooked, and is bolting about, and struggling for his liberty, 



