ii8 SALT-WATER FISHES 



the flowing or ebbing tide, which is slacker under either bank. 

 At other times, however, there is noticeable, particularly in 

 the larger fish, a lazy, rolling action, suggestive rather of 

 playing or bodily exercise, and without any apparent desire 

 to feed. This view is corroborated by the fact that a 

 " rolling " bass will not take a bait as a rule, though this is 

 purely anglers' evidence, for a fish may often be feeding on 

 its natural food, and yet decline baits that at other times prove 

 attractive, and, on the other hand {vide a since qualified 

 Report of the Scotch Fishery Board), it may take the fly or 

 worm when not feeding at all. 



How far, in an account that treats mainly of its life-history 

 under more natural conditions, it is legitimate to discourse of 

 the behaviour of a fish when hooked is open to question. It 

 may, however, in passing, be mentioned that the tactics of a 

 large bass in difficulties show evidence of much cunning. It 

 is generally accounted a stupid fish in taking the bait, but an 

 exceedingly skilful one in escaping the results of its folly. 

 Much of its wariness in the first instance must certainly 

 depend on the state of the water. In the clear, still waters 

 of Cornish bays it is often possible, from a vantage point on 

 the overhanging clifi^s above, to watch large bass routing 

 around the baits on set lines, smelling the hook, taking the 

 bait between their lips and blowing it out again. If they take 

 a baited hook without these preliminary enquiries, it can only 

 be when, as in swift and muddy rivers, the water is thick and 

 they themselves are hungry. It is not, of course, possible to 

 watch the behaviour of the fish in dirty water, and the fisher- 

 man's only clue to the conduct of the fish is the behaviour 

 of the line. When a large bass takes the bait, the line moves 

 off slowly and hesitatingly at first, until the hook is struck 

 home, and then of course the fish, maddened by the pain, 

 makes a dash for liberty. It always makes, in a river, for the 

 deepest water, and invariably gets out into the strong sluice 

 tide that swirls beneath a bridge or round a moored buoy, and 



