Catching

“ That is not easy, and not every animal could do it, for the water is very cold; but you are a learned animal, Mr. Bear, and you know that the secret of catching fish is to keep your tail in the water a long time. ”

“ To-day's wanderings of a fish in search of food, though perhaps showing by their adjustments to catching different kinds of prey at different hours, a slightly-determined order, are unrelated to the wanderings of yesterday and to-morrow. ”

“ Then we shall quickly learn that there is a proper time for catching fish as well as for all things, and the rest will follow in due course. We can wait for our soles until there is no fear of the trawl-nets disturbing the spawn. And then we shall be in no danger of taking codfish, mackerel, or herrings at a time when they are multiplying themselves for our advantage. ”

“ “I can’t bear fishing. I think people look like fools sitting watching a line hour after hour, or else throwing and throwing, and catching nothing.” ”

“ They always go fishing in numerous bands and after having chosen an appropriate bay, they form a wide half circle in face of the shore, and narrow it by paddling towards the shore, catching all the fish that happen to be enclosed in the circle. ”

“ One of the best modes of catching is by what is called the water-trap; all kinds of birds may be caught by it, and there is always a choice. This sport is very agreeable in the hot summer days, for you have only to sit quietly under the thick shade of the foliage by the side of a running stream. A net of three, four, or six feet long, and three or four wide, according to the size of the place, must be spread over a trench made on purpose to receive the water. ”

“ In former times, the friends of the interested party would have gathered around the rear and sides of the horse forcing him forward in the lead of the "catcher". This whole catching procedure is said to symbolize the capture of an enemy. ”

“ It also gives the baits usually employed by the most successful Hunters and Trappers, and exposes their secret methods of attracting and catching Animals, Birds, etc., with scarcely a possibility of failure. ”

“ If your fly (gut unfortunately included) should swim over a fish without his taking it, look out well for a darting line of undulation, which betokens his immediate departure; and remember, that it is of no use to continue fishing for him after he is gone.
XXVI.
The stations chosen by fish for feeding are those which are likely to afford them good sport in catching flies, viz. ”

“ Now, the experiment I propose to try is what in my region we call ‘troulling,’ which consists of throwing out a baited hook and paying out, as the boat moves on, a hundred feet, or so, of line, that is left to trail, floating on the surface of the water behind; when most large fish, like bass, or trout, especially if you make a sharp tack, occasionally, so as to draw the line across an undisturbed portion of the water, will see, and, darting up, seize it, and hook themselves. ”

“ Ah, my little man, when you are a big man, and fish such a stream as that, you will hardly care, I think, whether she be roaring down in full spate, like coffee covered with scald cream, while the fish are swirling at your fly as an oar-blade swirls in a boat-race, or flashing up the cataract like silver arrows out of the fiercest of the foam ”

“ I paddled a good way out to sea until I came to a suitable fishing-ground, and then threw out my line. I fished and fished and fished and fished, and on drawing in my line found nothing on the hook except the bait, a wretched piece of dried fish skin, which looked very draggled as it rose from the water. "Better luck next time," thought I, as I threw my line for the second time, and fished and fished and fished and fished and fished. ”

“ In bottom fishing in running water the same preliminaries are observed in taking the depth of the water, baiting, &c.; but when the tackle is dropped into the water the stream carries it along, and the angler, keep ing the top of his rod over his float, follows it down his swim, as it is called, until he reaches the end, or as far as he desires to fish, when he pulls his tackle out, and returns to the head of the swim, and recommences striking at every bob or dip of his float. ”

“ CATCH. Synonyms:
To catch is to come up with or take possession of something departing, fugitive, or illusive. We catch a runaway horse, a flying ball, a mouse in a trap. We clutch with a swift, tenacious movement of the fingers; we grasp with a firm but moderate closure of the whole hand; we grip or gripe with the strongest muscular closure of the whole hand possible to exert. We clasp in the arms. We snatch with a quick, sudden, and usually a surprising motion. In the figurative sense, catch is used of any act that brings a person or thing into our power or possession ”

“ I had twice tried the same water without success; nothing would admire my charming bait; when, just as it had reached the favorite turning-point at the extremity of a rock, away dashed the line, with the tremendous rush that follows the attack of a heavy fish. Trusting to the soundness of my tackle, I struck hard and fixed my new acquaintance thoroughly, but off he dashed down the stream for about fifty yards at one rush, making for a narrow channel between two rocks, through which the stream ran like a mill-race. ”

“ Another novelty in fishing is a contrivance by which fish are made to catch themselves—not by running into a net or by swallowing a hook, but by leaping over a white board and falling into a boat. More strange than all are men who, like the cormorants, dive into the water and emerge with fish—sometimes with one in either hand. ”

“ But that is true, too, of collecting, which, figuratively speaking, is in itself a species of the art of angling, of dipping into the quiet pools of unfrequented places, there to angle for quaint curios and interesting mementos of bygone days, conscious that though the bait may be small, the catch may be large—besides, there is the fun of fishing! ”

“ I have been all my life too fond of fishing, which has been sometimes to my disadvantage, but I loved the scenes of woods, green hills, of singing birds, meadows, and fresh air, rushing rivers, and above all, to look at the beautiful fish jumping to catch the fly on the surface of the water. ”

“ On the other hand, if you do happen to catch one or two fish, you don't like to leave the place where more might be taken, and your first ten miles after departure from it is a stage of reflection about pools, stones, bites, and rises, instead of what is going on all around. Worst of all, if you have hooked a fish and lost him, it is a sad confession of defeat then to give up the sport and moodily resume the tour. ”

“ It may be illustrated by two fishermen fishing on the river-bank with hook and line, and dividing the catch at night. No more fish will be caught than if each fished separately and carried home his own catch. ”

“ You must have a very quick eye, a nimble rod and hand, and strike with the rising of the fish, or he instantly finds his mistake, and forces out the hook again: I could never, my eye-sight being weak, discern perfectly where my fly was, the wind and stream carrying it so to and again, that the line was never any certain direction or guide to me ”

“ When you whip a trout stream for trout—why, you expect trout; when you troll a pond for pickerel, you expect pickerel; but when you sit on a wharf with your line far out in big, deep waters—why, you can expect almost anything—except shoes! ”

“ We think of fishing to-morrow, and pull out fly-books and materials, and are entangled in a medley of feathers, silks, and lines. In the morning we put up our rod, and, with a cast of flies suited to the weather, we seek the stream. ”

“ Very sure I am that the sportsman who once fairly starts as a fly-fisher, and is so fortunate as to hook a Salmon or a large Trout, will thenceforward despise or lightly esteem corks and floats, ground-bait and trimmers, punts and Perch fishing, and will fairly wish them all exchanged for a nice stream well stocked with Trout—as a gentleman lately said to me, fly- fishing is a perfect infatuation! ”

“ With the first blossoms of spring the thoughts of many men, both old and young, turn lightly to love—the love of angling. And as the leaves unfold, and the birds begin their wooing, and the streams become clear, the premonitory symptoms of the affection are manifested in a rummaging of drawers and lockers for fly-books and tackle boxes, and the critical examination of rods and reels, and in the testing of lines and leaders. ”

“ At all times, and almost in all states of the weather and the water, thy skill was triumphant, and from thee I derived that art which no man knows, unless instructed by me, to this hour—the art of fishing up, and not down, a mountain stream, with prepared bait. ”

“ As soon as a strike is felt and duly hooked he sees that the line is drawn in steadily so as not to afford the fish a chance to rid itself of the hook, and, as soon as it appears, he drops his oar, seizes the net, and lands the catch to the great delight of his less-experienced fare. ”

“ They say that a fisherman’s walk is two steps and overboard, and any one would have thought the saying a true one who had seen this jumping bit of a fabric—sparking like a shrimp in and out of the hollows of the tumbling waters—and watched those big-booted, clumsily-moving, powerfully-built men striding about the decks and making ready to drag the great trawl in. ”

“ You never get so close to the birds as when you are wading quietly down a little river, casting your fly deftly under the branches for the wary trout, but ever on the lookout for all the pleasant things that nature has to bestow upon you. ”

“ A labouring countryman was following him at the distance of about a quarter of a mile, fishing with clumsy tackle, with which, by the skilful casting of his fly, he repeatedly took good-sized fish, to the great astonishment of the clergyman, who attributed his own want of success, not to his want of skill, but to his not using the right fly. ”

“ The man, whose eyes have become very keen with practice, sees some carp coming up or going down the stream, and, throwing the plummet far out into the river, he draws it rapidly through the water, across the spot where he believes the fish then to be. ”

“ CHAPTER XXI. Fishing.—Jimmy's Dodge.—Bream-fishing.—Good Sport.—Fecundity of Fish.—Balance Float.—Fish-hatching.—Edith Rose.—A Night Sail.
It must not be supposed that the boys neglected that most fascinating of all sports, fishing. They fished in the broads and rivers whenever they had an opportunity. Pike, perch, bream, and eels—all were fish that came to their net; and now that birds' nesting was over they devoted some special days to the pursuit of the gentle art. ”

“ Their method of fishing was amusing enough, a whole flock of birds would follow the fish who swam fast along: they continualy plungd themselves under water and soon after rose again in another place, so that the whole flock vanishd sometimes, at others a large part of it and rose again often where you did not expect them, and in less than a minutes time they were down again and so alternately as long as we saw them. ”

“ With river-bank fishing, and it is with that that we are dealing, it would be a bold fisherman indeed that would count a fish hooked as a fish landed, and a half-hearted angler that would be content to hand over to the gillie the cream of the contest between the fish and the man. ”

“ A fisherman pushes out in a little boat, dressed in a color resembling that of his boat; and every day, for several days together, at the same hour, he sails over the same space, while doing which he throws a quantity of bait into the sea. Whatever is thrown from the boat is an object of suspicion to the fish, who keep at a distance from what causes them so much alarm; but after this has been repeated a considerable number of times, one of the fish, reassured by becoming habituated to the scene, at last snaps at the bait. ”

“ The best fisherman, however, will come to shame in streams bordered by pollard willows, and among queer nooks, which can be only fished down-stream. I saw, but the other day, a fish hooked cleverly enough, by throwing to an inch where he ought to have been, and indeed was, and from the only point whence the throw could be made. ”

“ There exists a very rare and remarkable work, "A Book of Angling or Fishing, wherein is shewed by conference with Scriptures, the agreement between the Fisherman, Fishes, and Fishing of both natures, spirituall and temporall, by Samuel Gardner, Doctor of Divinitie."—"I will make you fishers of men."—Matt. ”

“ Now don’t sniff, you owners of hand-made split-bamboo rods and scorners of all fishing except that for trout or bass! If you will just think back along the years until you catch sight of yourself as you once were, you will realize that the boy knows but one rule when fishing, and that is, “Get there!” Methods do not matter to him so that he catches fish. ”

“ It is hard to imagine how [Pg 139] human beings who have drifted down streams, and watched the brown fish in the shallows, and peered through the tall sedges at the forget-me-nots, and fought with the ropes of the water-lilies, and heard the ripple under the bows, can ever think of going to and fro, pitching spasmodically, in front of a watering-place. ”

“ Spinning tackle and fly casts have I left upon alder bushes of a score of streams, but instead of bearing it any ill-will I hereby offer it humble and sincere homage, especially as in my early days of fly fishing I, in honest faith and unbroken conviction, used one of its juicy leaves for straightening the gut collar. ”

“ In fishing, whether it be for trout or salmon, everything from start to finish rests with yourself; you have to work out your own salvation; and I venture to assert that it is in consequence of this individual responsibility that fishing, apart from its other many merits, holds so high a place in all our affections. ”