154 BOTTOM FISHING IN THE NOTTINGHAM STYLE. 



'T'he 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 that the carp. 

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

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

 square with corners rounded off; mouth small and toothless, 

 with one barbel at each corner ; 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 

 account, however, of one that was found in a hole among 

 some old roots, in a piece of water, in which old rubbish had 

 been thrown for years; it was ordered to be cleared out, 

 which when done a lot of fine tench were found, and this one 

 in the hole had literally assumed the shape of the place in 

 which he was found ; it weighed eleven pounds nine and a 

 half ounces, and is the largest on record. As a fish for the 

 table the tench is a good deal better than the carp ; his flesh 

 is white and firm, and not at all bad eating. The fish has a 

 very thick skin, and is very slimy. It has been called the 

 " physician of fishes," and the reason, it is said, why the pike 

 will not eat him, is because when the pike is wounded, the 

 pike rubs the injured place against the side of the tench. 

 Pike have been known to take tench occasionally, though it 

 is thought that this is the result of accident, rather than 

 design. 



