Astley Henry Baldwin

“ A jack or a trout will eat his own weight of food in forty-eight hours, and be ready for more.
It has been asserted that there is no better bait for a perch than a perch’s eye, which I am not at all unwilling to believe, having myself caught whitings with a whiting’s eye. Mackerel will bite at a piece of a mackerel, as will sanddabs at a piece of a dab, and cod and pike swallow their own young wholesale. It is difficult to account for this unnatural voracity on the part of fish, inasmuch as their supply of proper food is inexhaustible. ”

“ It is astonishing that people do not see that the real reason for the scarcity of sea-fish is the want of protection for the brood-fish at spawning-time. I will not here repeat all that I said before on the subject, but I will say that as long as the salmon, trout, perch, and all fresh-water fish are protected by law at the spawning-time, it is extraordinary that our lawgivers cannot see the urgent necessity of protecting the cod, herring, haddock, and in fact all sea-fish, in like manner. ”

“ After watching the curious spectacle some ten minutes (the rat all the while watching both myself and the flounder) , I was so pleased with the sagacity shown by the prisoner, that I pelted the great whiskered robber away, and rescuing the little fish from its forced retreat, took it out to deep water and security. It is not often one has the good fortune to witness a striking piece of sagacity on the part of a fish. ”

“ Whiting, like most of their congeners, are gregarious, and I might almost say, sociable fish, as they congregate thickly in groups containing many score; when they bite freely it is not difficult to take a hundred or two in a very short period, for they are voracious fish; but, notwithstanding, they are dainty feeders, and will not look at a stale or indifferent bait. Whiting fishing with a hand-line, from September to January, is an amusing pastime, for then the herrings are in season, and a whiting is sure to be tempted by the silvery and delicate bait. ”

“ Henley, Marlow, Wargrave, Reading, Walton, Shepperton, Shiplake, Sunbury, and Kingston-on-the-Thames are excellent places for sport, and the intending perch-angler may note that from September to February a deep pool near a mill-stream, a clay-hole under a bank, and the piles beneath the arch of a bridge are certain haunts for this bold and beautiful fish. I have taken (in October) from ten to twelve brace of good fish, none under half a pound, under the wooden piles of old Walton Bridge; and should a skilful angler get amongst a shoal at this season of the year he may catch every fish. ”

“ Cheeks simply blushing with the wind’s caresses,
Eyes bright, and sometimes “silky-looking tresses;”
Lips that may sometimes kisses “half invite,”
But not “like Cupid’s bow”—that simile’s too trite.
She knows that Heaven never meant
An “angel” should on earth be sent;
Such impious flattery she scorns,
And woman’s proper sphere adorns.
This is the helpmate that will please a true man,
No “angel,” but a simple, loving woman.
No “goddess” she, and well, right well, she knows it,
In every daily act of life she shows it;
A “goddess” cook! ”

“ The pilchard-fishermen often experience great drawbacks from the destructiveness of the conger and hake, which tear their nets desperately in the effort to get at the pilchards glittering within like a heap of newly-coined silver. The value of the nets being several hundred pounds it is no slight loss to the owners when they are seriously injured, to say nothing of the waste of time occasioned by the delay in mending and repairing. ”

“ I might, if I would, bring forward many arguments to prove that the sprat is neither more nor less than the young herring, but such is not my object at present. I may, however, be permitted to add, that when we know that such a creature as a tadpole becomes a frog, and recollect the changes of the salmon in its “parr,” “smolt,” and “grilse” states of existence, we have very good ground for supposing the sprat to be no exception to that universal rule of change in growth which is common to the young of all the species of creation, even to man himself. ”

“ Congers are great nuisances, as they bite very greedily at a white bait and keep other fish away. Most fish have a mortal dread of the conger, who devours all and each with most obliging impartiality and in wholesale fashion. The luckless herring, however, is a victim to all other fish—a wise dispensation, no doubt, of Providence to keep down its incredible numbers ”

“ The wholesale fishery is carried on by small fishing smacks or “bangers,” as the fishermen popularly term them, each of which is constructed with a large deep well, into which the fresh sea-water is allowed to enter by means of a grating. This is for a double purpose, viz., to keep the fish alive after taken as long as possible, and also to enable the cod-smack to remain at sea as long as may suffice to catch a good supply of fish before proceeding to that part of the coast where there may be a market for them. ”

“ I prefer myself—and so I am sure do all true sportsmen—to give the animal or fish I endeavour to capture a fair chance of escape, or, in other words, fair play, which is the true principle of all sport. In live-bait fishing for jack the same means are used as for perch, only that your cork float must be larger, as must the hook, and this latter must be gimp-fastened, as the jack would make short work of gut. Of course a larger bait is used for jack than for perch, and, indeed, at this period of the year, a large bait is rather “killing” than otherwise. ”

“ Perhaps no individual member of the animated kingdom, all things considered, possesses so insatiate an appetite as the most noted of our fresh-water fish,—for example, the pike, perch, and trout. I remember, some eight years ago, when at college, meeting with a singular instance of the gluttony of the pike. ”

“ I have been often told of persons having seen them as heavy as seven or eight pounds in the water I mention, but I never saw any so large myself, though a pretty accurate observer and constant angler. The truth is, that a very large fish in the water looks even larger than he really is, and mere lookers-on, who have not been in the habit of judging the weight of fish by the eye, are apt to be deceived, and hence often grossly, though not wilfully, exaggerate. ”

“ It is not often, however, that sprats are found inside the mackerel; as that fish, like the salmon, immediately it finds itself in danger of being caught, disgorges the entire contents of its stomach. The river-perch has the same habit of disgorging; and of all fish, I think the trout and cod are oftenest found to contain a great variety of food. Both cod and trout in the death-agony will throw up the greater portion of the food in their stomachs, but the salmon and perch will do so as soon as they feel the hook. ”

“ Wears the glad heart-smile of maternity.
Take courage, then, for when in life’s high noon
Faints the strong man upon his sultry way,
Faith with her out-poured vial pointing on
Lets fall the rain-dew of a July day! ”

“ Few boats go to sea more than three nights per week, and some not so often. A boat often loses much time in getting to shore with her fish if the wind be unfavourable, or there be a calm; she also loses time in landing her cargo, for a mackerel-boat must discharge her fish, and cannot salt them and put to sea again directly without landing them, as the herring-boats do on emergency. Salting would spoil mackerel for the market, whereas it simply prepares herrings for curing. ”

“ The flesh of a very large conger is somewhat rank, but the smaller fish—say those of two to four pounds weight—when either fried in bread-crumbs, or stewed in wine as the river eel, are, in my own opinion, little, if at all, inferior to that fish. When congers are taken with hook and line, the bait used is a piece of fresh herring (a bait, by-the-way, that no salt-water fish, to be caught with a hook, will refuse) . The greatest caution must be used in taking a conger-eel off the hook, as it is an excessively cruel, crafty fish, and will snap like a dog at the first thing that offers. ”

“ A grass-hopper, a humble bee, a cockchafer, and a white moth, have all been used with success on hot evenings in July and August for taking very large chub, but these baits are of no use unless the fish are known to run heavy. When the angler fishes thus he must keep quite out of sight, taking care not to throw his shadow on the water, which would scare the fish. He should keep behind the trees bordering the river bank, and let his bait drop gently on the water in the eddy of the stream where the largest fish always lie. ”

“ Even the cruel and voracious pike is slow to attack the perch, and when urged to it by extreme hunger usually gets the worst of it. The formidable fin on the back of the perch, armed as it is with excessively sharp spikes, causes it to be much feared by other fish, and a roach or dace of a pound weight will often fly from a perch not one quarter the size. It is not at all uncommon for a baby-perch not two inches in length to attempt to swallow a minnow, and, as the perch has a most capacious mouth, the attempt is sometimes successful. ”

“ The first-blush of that opening rose—
Who dreams what in the casket grows?
VI.
A solemn trust!—and yet how dear!
Ah! but for children blooming here,
This earth a joyless earth would be,
And life itself a vacancy! ”

“ To the pilchard fishermen “a good season” is synonymous with a full cupboard and prosperity, and a bad one equivalent to ruin and discomfort. The apparatus for taking pilchards is certainly an expensive one, and requires the outlay of a good deal of capital, as these fish are mostly caught in the “seine net,” which, as it is generally used, necessitates the services of three boats. The “seine” net is floated by corks, as are the herring-nets, and is leaded at the bottom in the same fashion as the casting-net used in fresh water for taking small fish to serve as baits for anglers. ”

“ The eel-buyers are an exceedingly sharp set, and can calculate to a fraction what a lot will be worth at a glance, knowing as they do the exact state of the street-market, and the prices to which (and no further) their street-customers will go. The day of the week also to a great extent influences the street-markets. On Catholic fish days, for instance, the demand with Irish labourers will be greater; and it must be remembered that fish being a stock in trade that will not keep, the street-seller must needs look very sharply to the probable demand. ”

“ The great, noble Dutch plaice is a magnificent and handsome fellow—far handsomer than any others of the family—and plaice, either boiled or fried, are by no means so insipid as some assert, that is, if they are in proper season. The very large ones, cut in strips, or fillets, fried in fine bread crumbs, and served with fennel, or shrimp sauce, are white, delicate, and excellent. ”

“ The Dutch pilchards are much esteemed, and, indeed, the inhabitants of the Low Countries are very successful in catching and curing all sorts of fish, the supply of which from the North Sea is inexhaustible. The Dutch cure red-herrings better than any other nation under the sun, and cure them so well that they are usually eaten without cooking, the smoking being deemed a sufficient preparation. In Scotland herring-curing is also carried to great perfection. Herrings there are sold fresh by the cran to the curers. In England they are sold by the last, which is 10,000 fish-merchant-measure. ”

“ Cornish men have an idea that they are the most skilled fishermen in the world, and in this they are not far wrong, as there is really scarcely any fish with which the inhabitants of the sea-side towns of Cornwall are not familiar, the ground from the Land’s End to the Scilly Islands being very prolific in all sorts of fish, especially ling, cod, congers, skate, gurnards, and hake. ”

“ It is almost useless to reason with them; but I have saved many a poor fish from a lingering and torturing death by ransoming it, and then stipulating it should be killed outright. As some little extenuation for this barbarity on the part of the fishermen, it is only fair to state that the dogfish are really a fearful pest and scourge to those who gain their livelihood by their nets. ”

“ Let the fisher use for his bait a well scoured red lob-worm, and throw his line gently twenty yards a-head of the boat as if fly-fishing, the rower halting at every cast for about half a minute, which is sufficient time, for if a large chub intend to bite, he will do so at once, or not at all. ”

“ Like all other fish except cod, herring, and mackerel, the whiting is not caught alone—that is, the whiting fishery is not pursued by itself, but the fish are caught promiscuously with many other varieties, such as codling, plaice, turbot, soles, &c., &c. ”

“ In the months of September, October, November, and so on until February, there is no fresh water fish that affords the angler more sport than the perch—perhaps none that affords so much—as he is a very greedy feeder, and, when the rivers and ponds begin to get clear of weeds, may be taken with almost any bait at any hour of the day. When the days are warmish, very early and very late is the best time for perch-fishing ”

“ It is only in large cities that there is a ready sale for this fish, as it is by no means a cheap article of food. For my own part, I think turbot overrated fish; but, it is reasonable to suppose, that their noble appearance has done something for their reputation. It is rarely that this fish has any fair chance of being duly appreciated, as it is mostly served up at large dinner-parties, where twenty or thirty people have to be helped, and where only two or three can get their fish hot. All fish are apt to spoil, and get sodden and insipid as they cool. ”

“ The sprat, like the herring and plaice, is essentially a poor man’s fish; and it is quite impossible to overestimate its enormous utility as an article of food to the labouring-classes. The sprat-season is looked forward to with far greater anxiety by the poorest sort of Irish than is the venison-season by the epicure; in fact, but for the sprat, many thousands would often go dinnerless. ”

“ April’s sunshine, April’s rain,
April ne’er to come again.
Boyhood! sun-kiss’d summer hours,
Fragrant with a thousand flowers,
Smiling ’neath a tearless sky,
Chasing life’s bright butterfly.
Manhood! ”

“ From Maidenhead to Henley there is first-rate chub and jack fishing, and the little river Loddon, approaching Wargrave and Shiplake, contains some very heavy fish of both sorts, as well as good perch. The summer months are the best, I think, for chub-fishing, as they may then be taken well with either the natural or the artificial fly in most rivers. In the winter months the best bait is a fine paste, or bullock’s pith and brains—the latter exceedingly killing in cold clear weather. ”

“ The sole is to be found on a sandy or muddy bottom, the reason of which is obvious.
For sweetness and flavour the small soles or “slips” are superior to the larger ones, but a dish of hot fillets cut from a large thick sole and fried in fine crumbs of bread with an egg, is one of which the equal is hardly to be found, especially when your anchovy sauce is good, and your shrimp ditto well flavoured. A boiled sole, though often seen at table, is, I think, a “mistake,” as would be a boiled smelt or sprat. ”

“ Pike in the Canadian and northern lakes run as high as forty pounds weight, and the supply of trout and salmon-trout (Salmo ferox) is unlimited. The weight of the chub in English waters varies from half a pound to nine pounds, and the finest fish are taken in the lake districts and in the Thames. A gentle yet rapid stream is the best water in which to fish for chub. They delight to haunt old sunken stumps of trees, preferring the willow and the pollard-oak. Osier-beds, such as are found by the side of eyots and small islands, are also favourite resorts of the chub. ”