THE COMPLETE ANGLER 155 



cause of the errors of those writers who assert that carp spawn half-a- 

 dozen times during the warm months of the year. He says, " The 

 reproduction of carp has occasioned some dispute in later times : to our 

 surprise, Mr. Daniel (' Kural Sports') says, ' they spawn several times in 

 the year/ If at each time six hundred and twenty-one thousand are 

 produced, which is the number of ova stated to have been counted in 

 one roe, what then would be the annual produce ?" Aristotle and Pliny, 

 dealing in fable also, after the custom of their times, assert that they breed 

 six times in the year, and the over-credulous Walton, influenced by their 

 testimony, says, " carp and loaches are observed to breed several months 

 in one year, which pikes and most other fish do not. And this is the 

 rather to be believed, because you shall scarce, or never take a male carp 

 without a melt, or a female without a roe, or spawn, and for the most 

 part very much. We think it not improbable [It is not only probable, 

 but the fact] that carp do not deposit the whole of their spawn at once ; 

 and, indeed, from some observations made by ourselves on a pond stored 

 with carp only (where we could every day by a casting-net take as many 

 as we pleased, and after subjecting them to examination, we could return 

 them without injury), we have been led to suppose that these fish do not 

 complete the spawning process at one time : on the contrary, we think 

 it not improbable that they eject portions of ova only, at several distinct 

 periods, and that some weeks even intervene between the first and last 

 ejections/' I assure the reader, that none of our river fish deposit their 

 ova at a single sitting, no more than hens or other female birds do. The 

 ova are not all mature at the same time. Those near the vent are the 

 first matured and expelled. Examine the roe of any female fish, and you 

 will find the ova of the lower part larger than those of the upper ; more 

 particularly so a short period before spawning time. The larger the 

 collection of ova, the longer they require for ripening, and consequently, 

 the longer the process of deposition lasts. A grilse or young salmon., in 

 its second year, will deposit its ova in two or three days, because the 

 quantity is small ; whereas, a large, mature, female salmon, with several 

 pounds of ova, cannot deposit the whole of it in less than a fortnight. 



The carp is the wariest of all fresh-water fish, and none but the 

 wariest angler can catch it of large size. A correspondent not long since 

 wrote to me for advice. He said, he had a pond, in which were many 

 large carp ; and although he had angled for them in due season from 

 February to October during seven years, he had not succeeded in cap- 

 turing them. I advised him to line with hurdles the bank of the pond 

 at the spots where he meant to fish to ground-bait those spots with 

 red worms, gentles, and especially with sweet paste, for three or four 

 days to then take his rod, and supporting it on a bifurcated prop (cut 

 off the branch of a tree,) inserted in the bank behind the hurdles, to place 

 on his line a hook broken off at the bend, that is, without barb or sharp 

 point to bait this harmless hook with sweet paste, and to sink it nearly 

 to the bottom of the already ground -baited water. The carp will soon 

 take this bait ; and finding they can do so with impunity, they will 

 become bolder hourly. Replacing the bait every time it is nibbled off, 

 and continuing to do so for three or four days, commence then angling 



