Conditions which Govern Biting of Fish. 3S9 



agitated and ruffled by the breeze, the fish are not so apt 

 to see the angler. 



An east wind is popularly regarded as an unfavorable 

 wind for fishing, but it is not necessarily so. The opinion 

 is of English origin, for in the humid climate of Great 

 Britain an east wind is exceedingly raw, chilly, and dis- 

 agreeable, and is held to be productive of all manner of 

 evils, being particularly dreaded by sufferers from rheuma- 

 tism, neuralgia, or gout. The anglers of England, of 

 course, share in this common detestation of an east wind, 

 and this prejudice is clearly shown by British writers on 

 angling, from whom most of our ideas on fishing were 

 formerly derived. 



But it is only after such a wind has prevailed for several 

 days, so as to lower the temperature of inland waters, that 

 it, in ^any way, affects the "biting" of fish. This, no 

 doubt, is often the case in Great Britain, and has led to the 

 erroneous supposition that an east wind, under any and all 

 circumstances, is most unfavorable for the angler ; and this 

 idea has, to a great extent, been tacitly accepted to apply 

 to our own country as well. 



But unless the fish have an inherited traditionary re- 

 membrance of that " remarkable east wind " which divided 

 the waters of the Eed Sea and enabled Moses and his fol- 

 lowers to pass over dry-shod, which causes them to become 

 suspicious of every east wind that blows, I can not conceive 

 how it affects their feeding, except, as stated before, when 

 it has been of sufficiently long continuance to cool "the 

 water. 



Along the Atlantic coast of the United States an east 

 wind is generally held to be unpropitious for fishing; but 

 in this case 'post hoc is mistaken for propter hoc; in other 

 words, the effect is mistaken for the cause. After an un- 



