THE FLOUNDER 



The flounder is naturally a salt-water fish, but 

 by habit he sometimes becomes an inhabitant of 

 rivers.^ I have caught perch, brook-trout, roach, 

 and flounders, in the same swim when baiting with 

 worm, and have seen little flounders, about the 

 size of a five-shilling piece, miles away from the 

 sea, where one would least expect to find them. 

 In tidal waters, I have had really excellent sport 

 with big fish, filling my basket several times over 

 on a single tide. 



My experience of flounder-fishing shows that a 

 large live shrimp beats all other baits, but 

 the shrimp must be alive, and, for heavy 

 fish, the bigger the better. Next to the shrimp 

 comes the lugworm, which is dug out of the sand 



1 A Trentside friend assures Mr. Wheeley that flounders 

 do spawn in fresh water, in proof of which he states 

 that he has seen flounders the size of threepenny pieces 

 sixty or seventy miles from the sea. This is, however, 

 evidence of nothing more than that the post-larval flounder 

 ascends estuaries at a very tender age. It is quite out of 

 the question for any fish- with floating spawn to take up its 

 residence permanently and reproduce its species in fresh 

 water. The flounder is shown by all the latest researches 

 to breed only in the sea. The so-called " river" eel probably 

 comes under the same category. — F G. A. 



