THE FISHING GAZETTE 
59 
% 
I 
i. 
t 
■->• 
Comspontrena 
[TT’e do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions 
expressed by our Correspondentsi] 
“ One of the charms of angling is that it presents an 
endless field for argument, speculation, and experi¬ 
ment.” —T. E. Pbitt. 
THE CENTRAL ASSOCIATION AND 
AMALGAMATION. 
Deaii Sin,—A reply is necessary to prevent mis¬ 
conception as to the letter of Mr. Geo. Chambers 
which appeared in the columns of your last issue. 
I am desired to finally assure him that the 
Central Association of London Angling Clubs do 
not in any way intend to recede from the position 
they have taken up and maintained for the past 
fourteen years (and will continue to maintain) on 
the question of non-amalgamation with any other 
body, being more confirmed than ever in the con¬ 
viction that it is absolutely necessary in the 
direct interest of not only its own members, but 
also that of all members of the London clubs, that 
the present long-tested system of working should 
continue. Thus it is considered highly impro¬ 
bable that any member, however influential, would 
be successful in promoting any pet scheme of 
amalgamation.—Faithfully yours, 
W. J. MAde, 
Secretary Central Association. 
(), Priter-road, Bermondsey, S.E. 
FISH DISEASES. 
Dear Sir, —The carp disease described by 
“ Puzzled ” in the Fishing Gazette, Jan. 14, 
resembles a disease to which roach are subject; 
but the latter have a jelly-like substance (some¬ 
times tinged with blood) underneath the scales, 
which stand out nearly at right angles to the 
skin of the fish. 
I should be glad to know whether any book 
exists which describes and names the diseases of 
fish ? 
I had some roach in a bait can sunk in the 
river last November, a flood came, and the fish 
got rather knocked about. 
I afterwards transferred them to a large box, 
hut soon all those that were damaged were patched 
with a white fungus, resembling that which is so 
fatal to salmon. Does the fungus continue to 
grow after the death of the fish ? 
Last winter I found a dead salmon in the York¬ 
shire Esk which was entirely covered with the 
white fur.—Yours truly, C. J. Keighley. 
Chelmsford. 
“COME OVER AND HELP US A CRY" 
PROM IRELAND. 
Sir,—T he inestimable advantage of a publica¬ 
tion like the Fishing Gazette, devoted to special 
subjects, is that it enables men to find out what 
they require. If such a publication were not in 
existence, numbers of men would remain in ignor¬ 
ance all the days of their lives, of localities where 
sport could be obtained by them. 
Without further preamble, I may state that my 
object in addressing you is to induce your readers, 
who are pike fishers, to come to our assistance in 
Ireland. We are unable to rid our waters of the 
monsters that infest them. We cannot even keep 
their numbers within reasonable limits. Most of 
our countrymen who are anglers devote their 
attentions to trout or salmon, and seldom fish for 
pike. It is very rarely indeed that you will see, 
or even hear, of anyone angling for pike in the 
months of October, November, December or 
•Tanuary. 
Practically there is no such thing as an attempt 
being made to preserve pike : everyone would be 
only too glad to see their numbers reduced. The 
English pike fisher might roam about from town 
to town, from inn to inn, in the counties of 
Monaghan, Fermanagh, Cavan, and Donegal, 
finding any amount of pike water within easy 
reach of his resting place, and meeting with a 
hearty welcome from every man he met, gentle 
and simple. 
Some day or other this may be all changed, 
and these waters, now free to all the world and 
his wife, may be taken up and rented, but I do 
not anticipate that this will happen in our time 
unless our salmon fisheries should be ruined by 
over-netting at the mouths of the rivers. 
Very few Englishmen, comparatively speaking, 
are aware of what an immense amount of free 
trout fishing and pike fishing is to be had in 
Ireland for nothing, and without even going 
through the formality of asking leave. Take 
Lough Sheelin, for instance, which holds pike 
upwards of 401b. weight, on which the writer 
and a friend once killed on one day twelve trout, 
that weighed in the scales of Paddy Clarke, of 
Finea, 82|lb. weight, or an average of nearly 71b. 
weight per fish. In fact, the writer had three 
trout to his own rod, each of which weighed 
81b. 4oz. as nearly as possible. Any angler going 
to Finea can verify the fact. On the same day 
another boat brought in 691b. weight of trout, and 
a third boat had 551b. weight. All these fish were 
killed with the natural fly.—I am, Ac., 
_Innish-Owen. 
STREAM CLEANING. 
Dear Sir, — Your correspondent, “ Fenton 
Hook,” writes in your issue of Jan. 14 : “ Weeds 
we know are fine keepers, but you cannot have 
both in your waters, weeds and fish, that is, if 
you want your fish to rise well. . . . The cleaner 
you keep the bottom of your river the more trout 
you will have, as there will be more food for your 
fish, and they will stop in your water and not 
stray away.” Surely your correspondent cannot 
have had any experience of Hampshire waters. I 
could show him long reaches of gin clear river, 
crammed with fine free rising trout, with only 
here and there a patch of gravel or chalk peeping 
through the dense masses of weed. The weeds 
are fine cover for the fish, and, as for food, the 
amount they grow is something fabulous. No 
bare bottom would give such a supply. — 
Y"ours, &c., __ Val Coxsox. 
SCALE AND THROAT TEETH OF CHUB. 
Dear Sir, —In treating of the family Cipry- 
nidre, Yarrell, in his “ British Fishes,” describes 
and figures the phryngeal bones and dentitions of 
four species of the genera: Cyprinus, Tinea, 
Leuciscus, and Barbus, but not of the chub; and 
I am not aware if a figure is given in any of the 
recent works on British fish, so send a specimen 
and scales from a 8|lb. female taken in the York¬ 
shire Derwent on the 5th inst., in case you con¬ 
sider it worthy of illustration in the Fishing 
Gazette. The teeth in general appearance 
Scale of a Spb. Chub. Throat Teeth ol a Spb. Chub. 
resemble those of the barbel, but differ in being 
biserial. If I may be allowed to make a sugges¬ 
tion, I think a series of wood-cuts of the scales of 
some of our sporting fish would interest many 
anglers and other readers of your interesting 
paper, especially those of some of the rarer 
species, e.g., Pomeranian bream. Crucian and 
Prussian carp, &c.—Faithfully yours, 
R. P. Harper. 
Givendale, Scarborough. 
- [We are much obliged to our correspondent, 
and have had illustrations of the teeth and scale 
made of exact size of the originals. Has our 
correspondent seen the excellent illustrations of 
fish and fish scales in Mr. H. Keene’s “ Practical 
Fisherman ” ?— Ed.] _ 
MISTAKEN WEIGHT OF A PIKE. 
Dear Sir, —Your correspondent “B,” in his 
usual weekly report in last Saturday’s Fishing 
Gazette, is incorrect respecting the weight of 
“The Union Jack”; it was 20|lb., not 25Z5. The 
fish was caught at Shardiloes, and the same night 
taken by Messrs. Rolfe and Sachs to the residence 
of the late Mr. Frank Buckland, Albany-street, 
where I and many other anglers were present at 
a conversazione. 
My friend, the late Mr. H. C. Rolfe, told me 
a “ a 31b. jack had been pushed down the pike’s 
gullet into its stomach.” I saw the pike weighed, 
and, with the small jaeJe inside, it scaled exactly 
23ilb. 
Two plaster casts were made of this fish by 
Frank Buckland, which were painted by Rolfe, 
one was sent to Squire Drake, of Shardiloes, and 
I possess the other.—Yours, Esox, 
SOME REPLIES TO QUERIES. 
Dear Sir, —If these few facts are likely to 
interest your readers, you are welcome, and my 
trouble in writing nothing. 
During a period of years of following sport 
and the nature of animals and fish, I do not know 
any animal in a wild state, either from necessity 
(more often) than choice, that I have not seen 
swim hares, rabbits, snakes, and hedgehogs. 
Boxes I have seen cross the Tweed, but uncTer 
peculiair circumstancGs, wiiicli, in a sportsman^s 
point of view, would be conjectural evidence, 
but still a fact. 
We have a Persian cat presented as a kitten by 
the hou. sec. of the club, and, it having lived 
entirely here, is (not as I took them to be, of a 
soft and delicate nature) hardy and daring—kills 
almost any small animal; has been seen to swim 
the river, more than twenty yards w'ide, in deep 
water; has brought into and near the house dead 
stoats, rats, moles, and birds; is very fond of fish— 
an unexplainable choice in the feline race. I 
have seen him myself mistake his distance or 
oyer-balance himself in springing at a rat, go 
right under the water, but come up with his prey. 
One of your correspondents seeks information 
about crayfish fishing. As many persons know, 
there used to be thousands caught here in a 
season, a hundred per day some years ago, but a few 
years back bushels and bushels were found dead 
in the river, soft shelled. I attribute the cause 
of such a calamity to the fishing interest to the 
attempted purification by chemicals of the water, 
and bad deodorisation of sewage of towns 
situate on the river. I have during my occu¬ 
pation placed quantities in the stream, but up to the 
present cannot answer for any increase of stock; 
for I presume they suffer in conjunction with 
other natural-bred fish in proportion from the 
same cause (bad state of the rivers), or we should 
have seen before this some improvement, for it is 
three years since I placed over one thousand in. 
I have found some in spawn, but have seen no 
young ones. 
I saw in your publication some time back this 
question: “Why do not trout rise as freely as 
they did years ago ? ” The answer to this is that 
the filthy state of the rivers has destroyed all the 
larval of the waterflies. I could instance many 
sorts that have entirely disappeared—at least, in 
this locality. 
Another of your writers states that from up a 
tree he could distinguish male from female fish 
(salmon). I would seek explanation. He also 
states that the female salmon works the redd. I 
would politely ask how he accounts for the gib, 
or horny substance, on the male fish only, and at 
that certain period only (spawning season), if it 
be not a natural provision for the performance of 
such work as redd making.—I am, dear Sir, yours 
T. W. Murray. 
Thorney Weir House, West Drayton. 
OTTER QUERIES. 
Sir, —In answer to one of the above, I think if 
“H. G.” was to arrange an occasional walk with 
Foster, the water-bailiff, he could give him a 
good practical lesson on otter tracks, which 
would be more useful than any instruction he 
might read.—Yours, Ac., F. K. 
“RECOLLECTIONS OF FISHING IN 
WESTMEATH, BY L. S. G.” 
Sir, —My angling friend, Mr. Wm. Thomas, of 
the Fly-Fishers’ Club, who loves a good day on 
Lough Ennell, has been rather surprised to hear 
of “ L. S. G.’s ” tussle with a salmon in this lake; 
and, to tell the truth, so am I, as I have been 
fishing Lough Ennell for over thirty years and 
neither caught one myself nor have I ever heard 
of any other person having taken a salmon until 
I read this account of “L. S. G.’s” in the Pishing 
Gazette. Now, I wish it to be distinctly under¬ 
stood that it is in no unfriendly spirit I criticise 
“ L. S. G.’s” very interesting “recollections”— 
particularly interesting to me, knowing, as I do, 
every nook and corner, and having angled in my 
time many thousands of all kinds of fish, com¬ 
prising (at least) trout, pike, char, (perch, i udd, 
