Minnow

“ The big eyes of the monster never moved. But, suddenly, out shot the mask once more, revealing the face of doom behind it; and those hooked mandibles fixed themselves in [69] the belly of the minnow. Inexorable as was the grip, it nevertheless for the moment left unimpeded the swimming powers of the victim; and he was a strong swimmer. With lashing tail and beating fins, he dragged his captor out from among the weed stems. For a few seconds there was a vehement struggle. Then the minnow was borne down upon the mud, out in the broad sheen where, a little before, the tadpole had been basking. ”

“ You then find him in the eddies, on the edge of swift ripples, and often in the swift waters, watching for the minnow. As the water-weeds increase in height, he ensconces himself among them, and, in mid-summer, comes out to seek his prey only in the morning and toward night. He seems to delight especially in a grassy bottom, and when the black frost has cut down the tall water-weeds, and the more delicate herbage that never attains the surface is withered, he disappears until spring—probably secluding himself in the depths of the river. ”

“ The green meadow through which the river flows is just the border of their world and nothing more,22 and the air is boundless space, which they never visit except for a moment to snap at a tiny fly, or when they jump up to escape the jaws of some bigger fish. Every one knows the minnow, and we cannot do better than take him as our type of a fish in order to understand how they live and move and breathe. ”

“ One kind of bait is the artificial minnow. The manufacturer makes a wooden minnow, shaped like the real minnow, whose picture I have drawn; then he paints it in the colors of the live minnow, and sometimes he puts on some bright metal which whirls in the water and attracts the attention of the fish. If the deception were to stop there, very little harm would be done, but to all this the manufacturer adds a lot of ugly hooks, sometimes as many as fifteen. [It is well to draw the lines suggested as the talk proceeds, and finish by drawing the hooks at this point, completing Fig. 81.] ”

“ I remember a friend of mine in the north, whose old keeper had been with the family for many years and known him since his boyhood, telling me that he knew so well the old man’s contempt for and abhorrence of minnow-fishing that he did not dare to use the minnow when the old man was out with him, and never allowed him to know that he did use it. This old keeper would have applied Chaytor’s epithets to minnow-fishing on every occasion, but would never have agreed with him for a moment that even on rare occasions it can be legitimately used. ”

“ The Vade Mecum, in advance of Walton on this point, recommends a swivel in minnow-fishing: but has no idea of an artificial minnow of silk. I have known an ingenious lady who, when the bodies of her phantom minnows gave out, in Norway, supplied their place successfully with bed-quilting artfully sewn. In fact, anything bright and spinning will allure fish, though in the upper Ettrick, where large trout exist, they will take the natural, but perhaps never the phantom or angel minnow. I once tried a spinning Alexandra fly over some large pond trout. ”

“ Where is your wonderful minnow? Send him me down, or else a horn one, which I believes in desperate; but send me something before Tuesday, and I will send you P.O.O. Horn minnow looks like a gudgeon, which is the pure caseine. One pounder I caught to-day on the 'March brown' womited his wittles, which was rude, but instructive; and among worms was a gudgeon three inches long and more. Blow minnows—gudgeon is the thing.
"Came off the water at 3. Found my man alive, and, thank God, quiet. Sat with him, and thought him going once or twice. What a mystery that long, insensible death-struggle is! ”

“ A pronounced mobile tendency on the part of the red shiner and blunt-nosed minnow is shown by the fact that of 152 marked red shiners recaptured, 73 had moved from the area of release; and of 32 marked blunt-nosed minnows recaptured, 11 had moved from the area of release. The fact that the habitat occupied by these species is not precise (ranging from swift riffles to quiet pools) supports a conclusion that the species are mobile.
The fat-headed minnow, stoneroller, channel catfish (young-of-the-year) , green sunfish and long-eared sunfish form a sedentary element of the population. ”

“ THE YOUNG MINNOW WHO WOULD NOT EAT WHEN HE SHOULD
"When I grow up," said one young Minnow, "I am going to be a Bullhead, and scare all the little fishes."
"I'm not," said his sister. "I'm going to be a Sucker, and lie around in the mud."
"Lazy! Lazy!" cried the other young Minnows, wiggling their front fins at her.
"What is the matter?" asked a Father Minnow, swimming in among them with a few graceful sweeps of his tail, and stopping himself by spreading his front fins. He had the beautiful scarlet coloring on the under part of his [Pg 24] body which Father Minnows wear in the summer-time. ”

“ MINNOW (Leuciscus phoxinus) , the smallest British fish of the Cyprinoid family, readily distinguished by its very minute scales. The ordinary name is derived from the common Indo-European word for “little” (cf. Lat., minor) , and “minnow” is popularly identified with any tiny fish; in America it is given to small forms of the Gambusia and Notropis genera, &c. The British minnow abounds in lakes, rivers and brooks, swimming in schools, and shifting its ground in search of food, in the shape of every kind of animal and vegetable substance. ”

“ Of course, the minnow-bait has this advantage, that you have always the chance of a perch or jack taking it, and indeed it often happens, where anglers are fishing with the minnow in a chub haunt, that a large jack or two is secured; since jack, like the chub, are exceedingly fond of lurking under the submerged roots of old trees. I have often, on such an occasion, dropped my minnow actually into a jack’s mouth. A large jack, thus hooked, requires much skill to land, as he is more likely than not to snap the gut, for gimp hooks are not used in chub-fishing. ”

“ To be able to command success with the minnow, either in clear water or in brooks, is an accomplishment worth striving for. It is a sport that gives the fisherman excitement in plenty, as the whole actions of the trout are seen from beginning to end. And it is impossible to describe adequately the fascination which holds the angler whose eyes are riveted upon a fish rushing down upon his minnow, nor to tell the difficulty of refraining from incontinently snatching away the minnow from a fish in the act of seizing it. ”

“ One must not forget the minnow among the dwellers in the glass house. This little, lively fellow is well fitted to live in close quarters and no fish does better in the home fish-pond. It is a pretty little thing, with olive back and silvery belly, which sometimes becomes bright red. After a little time the minnow will grow very bold and tame enough to come to the edge of the tank at the sound of a familiar voice and take its morsel of food from between the thumb and finger. ”

“ The ordinary minnow, which you can catch in any stream and pop into a jar, will serve to introduce you to a new world—a world of silent progressions, of incredible celerities, of amazing respirations. ”

“ And here let me tell you, what many old anglers know right well, that at some times, and in some waters, a minnow is not to be got; and therefore, let me tell you, I have, which I will shew to you, an artificial minnow, that will catch a Trout as well as an artificial fly: and it was made by a handsome woman that had a fine hand, and a live minnow lying by her: the mould or body of the minnow was cloth, and wrought upon, or over it, thus, with a needle ”

“ Although minnow fishing has many attractions, when followed in times of bright skies and low waters, it is perhaps more open to abuse than any other of the fair methods of angling. For not only does the indiscriminate use of the minnow, especially with the long-distance casting reel in the hands of a persevering man—not necessarily a very skilful one—work havoc amongst the fish, but it spoils the sport of others, as a spun minnow usually puts fish down for some considerable time. Therefore, in Club waters particularly, a man should be careful and circumspect in the use of the minnow. ”

“ The larder was empty, the minnow's appetite was as healthy as ever, and the frog was down to his last penny. So, after a lot of thought, he left the minnow playing in a quiet pool, and went out to earn some flies. By dint of toiling very hard all day, he managed to earn enough to keep the minnow and himself, but it meant that the two had very little time together, and that was a shame. ”

“ It is also wise in the main to adapt the size of the minnow, be it natural or artificial, to the size of the water to be fished; and it should always be remembered that a minnow is better too small than too large. When fishing small tributary waters, or even thin water on the main river, the weight of the lead or sinker may be materially reduced, and a small minnow should be used. ”

“ He swims on his side and has his two eyes on the one side of his head unlike any other fish. When the tide comes in he comes close inshore and burrows down into the sand to wait till a minnow floats by. He reaches up and snaps Mr. Minnow and then goes on to another good spot. If you take a bright light you can walk right up to the flounder without alarming him. Then before he knows what is coming, you thrust a spear down through his head and you have him."
"Did you get yours that way?" eagerly asked Arnold.
"Not the first one," replied Frank with a laugh. ”

“ They are curious fish in some ways, and are to be found in large companies in pools and lakes, at the time of year when they are in season. When they are on the shallows they are not fit to eat, and will not usually take the bait. We fished for them with a live minnow and float, sometimes from the bank and sometimes from a punt. They do not seem shy, and I have caught them with my hand in the water holding the gut and minnow, but if once a perch is lost, no more will rise in that pool. ”

“ When a reach of quiet steady-flowing water is ruffled by a wind, it will often yield good results to a minnow carefully fished. The edges should be thoroughly worked and the angler should never fail to spin his minnow alongside all patches of weed, as in such places minnows frequently congregate, and a feeding trout knows where to find them. ”

“ It looks to me through the hydroscope, at this distance, exactly like a tiny, silvery minnow. It's half a mile down.... Swimming about.... I can see its eyes; they must be about ten feet in diameter. I can see its fins moving. And there are about a dozen others, much deeper, swimming around.... This is easily the most overwhelming contribution made to science since the discovery of the purple-spotted dingle-bock, Bukkus dinglii.... We've got to catch one of those gigantic fish!"
"How?" I gasped. "How are we going to catch a minnow as large as a sleeping car?" ”

“ Of the other minnows, the one attracts his female by a big, jet-black head; another by the painted fins, which shine like white satin; another by his deep-blue sheen, which is washed all over with crimson. In fact, every conceivable arrangement of bright colors can be found, if we go the country over, as the adornment of some minnow when he mates in the spring. The only exception is green, for to the fishes, as to the birds, green is not a color. It only serves to cover one, while the purpose of real color is to be seen. ”

“ A pickled minnow is very good if you catch him in a stickle, with the scarlet fingers upon him; but I count him no more than the ropes in beer compared with a loach done properly.
Being resolved to catch some loaches, whatever trouble it cost me, I set forth without a word to any one, in the forenoon of St. Valentine's day, 1675-6, I think it must have been. Annie should not come with me, because the water was too cold; for the winter had been long, and snow lay here and there in patches in the hollow of the banks, like a lady's gloves forgotten. ”

“ The lively little stream rippled over its uneven bed with a jingling as of tiny bells. Above the rubbing plank the water was so clear that the bottom was plainly visible. Schools of minnows sailed across it, coming up close to the surface at times and there whirling round and round, all together.
Madeleine thought:
"Perhaps the little things are dancing a round too, and their mother leads the game from down below. How pretty all God's creatures are when they're young.— I'd like to know where the mother minnow is, and if she is looking out for her children." ”

“ If so, be careful to keep the tip of the rod near the water, and, using a short line, to spin your minnow near the surface. If you get a run don’t snatch your minnow away, but keep it steadily on. Very likely the trout may bite short, but there is always a good chance that one of the revolving hooks may catch his jaw. If you do hook a fish get him out quickly, for your tackle being stout (as it must be for minnow-fishing) will bear the strain of anything short of a snatch. ”

“ These paired wings are most important to the minnow, for, if his arm-fins were cut off, his head would go down at once, or, if one of them was gone he would fall on one side, while, if he had lost his fins altogether, he would float upside down as a dead fish does, for his back is the heaviest part of his body. It is worth while to watch how cannily he uses them. ”