Coarse Fish - With Notes on Taxidermy Fishing in the Lower Thames

By Charles H. Wheeley

This vintage book contains a comprehensive guide to course fish, with notes on taxidermy, fishing in the lower Thames, and more. Although old, the information contained within this book is timeless and will be of considerable utility the modern fisherman and taxidermist. "Coarse Fish" would make for a fantastic addition to collections of angling literature, and is not to be missed by collectors. Contents include: "Barbel", "Bleak", "Bream", "Carp", "Chub", "Dace", "Eel", "Flounder", "Gudgeon", "Perch", "Pike", "Roach", "Rudd", "Tench", "Thames Trout", "Notes", "Minnow, Ruffe and Miller's Thumb", "Setting-up Fish", "Specimen Fish", "Gentles", "Fishing with Two Rods", "Bag fr Carrying Fish", et cetera. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on taxidermy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Country Books
• Release date: Aug 25, 2017
• ISBN: 9781473339040

Book preview

COARSE FISH

WITH NOTES ON TAXIDERMY

FISHING IN THE LOWER THAMES, ETC.

BY

CHARLES H. WHEELEY

MEMBER OF THE PISCATORIAL SOCIETY, THE GUILDFORD ANGLING SOCIETY AND THE THAMES ANGLING PRESERVATION SOCIETY HONORARY ASSISTANT RIVERKEEPER TO THE THAMES CONSERVANCY, ETC.

ILLUSTRATED

Copyright © 2013 Read Books Ltd.

This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

A Short History of Fishing

Fishing, in its broadest sense – is the activity of catching fish. It is an ancient practice dating back at least 40,000 years. Since the sixteenth century fishing vessels have been able to cross oceans in pursuit of fish and since the nineteenth century it has been possible to use larger vessels and in some cases process the fish on board. Techniques for catching fish include varied methods such as hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping.

Isotopie analysis of the skeletal remains of Tianyuan man, a 40,000 year old modern human from eastern Asia, has shown that he regularly consumed freshwater fish. As well as this, archaeological features such as shell middens, discarded fish-bones and cave paintings show that sea foods were important for early man’s survival and were consumed in significant quantities. The first civilisation to practice organised fishing was the Egyptians however, as the River Nile was so full of fish. The Egyptians invented various implements and methods for fishing and these are clearly illustrated in tomb scenes, drawings and papyrus documents. Simple reed boats served for fishing. Woven nets, weir baskets made from willow branches, harpoons and hook and line (the hooks having a length of between eight millimetres and eighteen centimetres) were all being used. By the twelfth dynasty, metal hooks with barbs were also utilised.

Despite the Egyptian’s strong history of fishing, later Greek cultures rarely depicted the trade, due to its perceived low social status. There is a wine cup however, dating from c.500 BC, that shows a boy crouched on a rock with a fishing-rod in his right hand and a basket in his left. In the water below there is a rounded object of the same material with an opening on the top. This has been identified as a fish-cage used for keeping live fish, or as a fish-trap. One of the other major Grecian sources on fishing is Oppian of Corycus, who wrote a major treatise on sea fishing, the Halieutica or Halieulica, composed between 177 and 180. This is the earliest such work to have survived intact to the modern day. Oppian describes various means of fishing including the use of nets cast from boats, scoop nets held open by a hoop, spears and tridents, and various traps ‘which work while their masters sleep.’ Oppian's description of fishing with a ‘motionless’ net is also very interesting:

The fishers set up very light nets of buoyant flax and wheel in a circle round about while they violently strike the surface of the sea with their oars and make a din with sweeping blow of poles. At the flashing of the swift oars and the noise the fish bound in terror and rush into the bosom of the net which stands at rest, thinking it to be a shelter: foolish fishes which, frightened by a noise, enter the gates of doom. Then the fishers on either side hasten with the ropes to draw the net ashore . . .

The earliest English essay on recreational fishing was published in 1496, shortly after the invention of the printing press! Unusually for the time, its author was a woman; Dame Juliana Berners, the prioress of the Benedictine Sopwell Nunnery (Hertforshire). The essay was titled Treatyse of Fysshynge with an Angle and was published in a larger book, forming part of a treatise on hawking, hunting and heraldry. These were major interests of the nobility, and the publisher, Wynkyn der Worde was concerned that the book should be kept from those who were not gentlemen, since their immoderation in angling might ‘utterly destroye it.’ The roots of recreational fishing itself go much further back however, and the earliest evidence of the fishing reel comes from a fourth century AD work entitled Lives of Famous Mortals.

Many credit the first recorded use of an artificial fly (fly fishing) to an even earlier source - to the Roman Claudius Aelianus near the end of the second century. He described the practice of Macedonian anglers on the Astraeus River, ‘. . . they have planned a snare for the fish, and get the better of them by their fisherman's craft. . . . They fasten red wool round a hook, and fit on to the wool two feathers which grow under a cock's wattles, and which in colour are like wax.’ Recreational fishing for sport or leisure only really took off during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries though, and coincides with the publication of Izaak Walton’s The Compleat Angler in 1653. This is seen as the definitive work that champions the position of the angler who loves fishing for the sake of fishing itself. More than 300 editions have since been published, demonstrating its unstoppable popularity.

Big-game fishing only started as a sport after the invention of the motorised boat. In 1898, Dr. Charles Frederick Holder, a marine biologist and early conservationist, virtually invented this sport and went on to publish many articles and books on the subject. His works were especially noted for their combination of accurate scientific detail with exciting narratives. Big-game fishing is also a recreational pastime, though requires a largely purpose built boat for the hunting of large fish such as the billfish (swordfish, marlin and sailfish), larger tunas (bluefin, yellowfin and bigeye), and sharks (mako, great white, tiger and hammerhead). Such developments have only really gained prominence in the twentieth century. The motorised boat has also meant that commercial fishing, as well as fish farming has emerged on a massive scale. Large trawling ships are common and one of the strongest markets in the world is the cod trade which fishes roughly 23,000 tons from the Northwest Atlantic, 475,000 tons from the Northeast Atlantic and 260,000 tons from the Pacific.

These truly staggering amounts show just how much fishing has changed; from its early hunter-gatherer beginnings, to a small and specialised trade in Egyptian and Grecian societies, to a gentleman’s pastime in fifteenth century England right up to the present day. We hope that the reader enjoys this book, and is inspired by fishing’s long and intriguing past to find out more about this truly fascinating subject. Enjoy.

Taxidermy

Taxidermy (from the Greek for arrangement of skin) is the art of preparing, stuffing, and mounting the skins of animals (especially vertebrates) for display (e.g. as hunting trophies) or for other sources of study. Taxidermy can be done on all vertebrate species of animals, including mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians. A person who practices taxidermy is called a taxidermist. Taxidermists may practice professionally for museums or as businesses, catering to hunters and fishermen, or as amateurs, such as hobbyists, hunters, and fishermen. To practice taxidermy, one should be very familiar with anatomy, sculpture, and painting, as well as tanning.

The preservation of animal skins has been practiced for a long time. Embalmed animals have even been found with Egyptian mummies. Although embalming incorporates the use of lifelike poses, it is not technically considered taxidermy though. The earliest methods of preservation of birds for natural history cabinets were published in 1748 by the French Academician Réaumur, and four years later, techniques for mounting were described by M. B. Stollas. By the eighteenth century, almost every town had a tannery business. In the nineteenth century, hunters began bringing their trophies to upholstery shops, where the upholsterers would actually sew up the animal skins and stuff them with rags and cotton. The term ‘stuffing’ or a ‘stuffed animal’ evolved from this crude form of taxidermy. Professional taxidermists prefer the term ‘mounting’ to ‘stuffing’ however. More sophisticated cotton-wrapped wire bodies supporting sewn-on cured skins soon followed.

In France, Louis Dufresne, taxidermist at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle from 1793, popularized arsenical soap (utilising the chemical Arsenic) in an article titled, Nouveau Dictionnaire D'Histoire Naturelle (1803–1804). This technique enabled the museum to build the greatest collection of birds in the world. Dufresne's methods spread to England in the early nineteenth century, where updated and non-toxic methods of preservation were developed by some of the leading naturalists of the day, including Rowland Ward and Montague Brown. Ward established one of the earliest taxidermy firms, Rowland Ward Ltd. of Piccadilly. Nevertheless, the art of taxidermy remained relatively undeveloped, and the specimens that were created remained stiff and unconvincing.

The golden age of taxidermy was during the Victorian era, when mounted animals became a popular part of interior design and decor. For the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, John Hancock, widely considered the father of modern taxidermy, mounted a series of stuffed birds as an exhibit. They generated much interest among the public and scientists alike, who considered them superior to earlier models and were regarded as the first lifelike and artistic specimens on display. A judge remarked that Hancock's exhibit ‘will go far towards raising the art of taxidermy to a level with other arts, which have hitherto held higher pretensions.’

In the early twentieth century, taxidermy was taken forward under the leadership of artists such as Carl Akeley, James L. Clark, Coleman Jonas, Fredrick and William Kaempfer, and Leon Pray. These and other taxidermists developed anatomically accurate figures which incorporated every detail in artistically interesting poses, with mounts in realistic settings and poses. This was quite a change from the caricatures popularly offered as hunting trophies. The methods of taxidermy have substantially improved over the last century, heightening quality and lowering toxicity. The animal is first skinned in a process similar to removing the skin from a chicken prior to cooking. This can be accomplished without opening the body cavity, so the taxidermist usually does not see internal organs or blood. Depending on the type of skin, preserving chemicals are applied or the skin is tanned. It is then either mounted on a mannequin made from wood, wool and wire, or a polyurethane form. Clay is used to install glass eyes, which are either bought or cast by the taxidermist themselves.

As an interesting side note, with the success of taxidermy has come the sub-genre of ‘rogue taxidermy’; the creation of stuffed animals which do not have real, live counterparts. They can represent impossible hybrids such as the jackalope and the skvader, extinct species, mythical creatures such as dragons, griffins, unicorns or mermaids, or may be entirely of the maker's imagination. When the platypus was first discovered by Europeans in 1798, and a pelt and sketch were sent to the UK, some thought the animal to be a hoax. It was supposed that a taxidermist had sewn a duck's beak onto the body of a beaver-like animal. George Shaw, who produced the first description of the animal in the Naturalist's Shunga Miscellany in 1799, even took a pair of scissors to the dried skin to check for stitches. Today, although a niche craft, the art of taxidermy - rogue or otherwise, is still thriving.

PREFACE

IN the following pages Mr. Wheeley gives a practical account of the modern methods of taking coarse fish, with special reference to the Thames.

The chapters on perch and pike have been included to render the work complete, though a later volume of the Library, contributed by Mr. A. Jardine, deals exclusively with those fish.

The flounder, though ostensibly a sea-fish, finds appropriate place in any work on river, particularly tidal, fishing; and the concluding chapter on Thames trout gives the latest methods—practically coarse-fishing—of taking that remarkable fish. The Editors have to acknowledge some assistance in connection with the illustrations, their thanks being more particularly due to Messrs. Allcock and Bartleet of Redditch, Cummins of Bishop Auckland, Farlow of London, Hardy Bros, of Alnwick, and Watson and Hancock of London.

F. G. A.

H. M.

CONTENTS

BARBEL

BLEAK

BREAM

CARP

CHUB

DACE

EEL

FLOUNDER

GUDGEON

PERCH

PIKE

ROACH

RUDD

TENCH

THAMES TROUT

NOTES

Minnow, Ruffe and Miller’s Thumb—Setting-up Fish—Specimen Fish—Gentles—Fishing with two Rods—Bag for carrying Fish—Prevention of Moth—Drying Line—Thames Fishery Bye-laws—Pith and Brains—Other Baits for Chub—Left Hand on Winch—Throwing from the Winch—Lobworms and Worm-baiting—Hints on Clothing—Wagtail Bait—Crocodile Bait—Spinning—Colour of Rods—Rod-Rings—General Rods—Gut Casts and Hook Lengths—Staining Gut—Staining Creels—Table-Vice—Cobbler’s Wax—Slider Float—To Find Depth—Stewart Tackle—The Rypeck, Ripeck, or Ryepeck—Loop-Throw—Greaves—The Punt—Care of Rods—Weather—Prizes—Creel and Sundries—Wasp-Grubs—Blow-Line—Notes on the Lower Thames—Swans and Fish Spawn—Length of Swims—Knots.

INDEX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

BARBEL

BARBEL AND CHUB FLOATS

BREAM

SNECK HOOKS

BREAM-FLOATS IN ACTION

CARP

CHUB

HOOKS AND TREBLES

PLUMMETS

CHUB-TACKLE IN ACTION

TIGHT-FLOATING FOR CHUB IN A BACK-EDDY

DACE

POCKET SCISSORS

GUDGEON

PERCH

PHANTOM-BAIT

FLY-SPOON

PERCH FISHING

PIKE

PIKE-GAG

CROCODILE SPINNER

GAFF

SWIVELS

JARDINE TACKLE

BAIT-KETTLES

TACKLE-CASE

ROACH

ROACH-FLOATS

ROACH-HOOKS

DIVING-BELL FOR GROUND-BAIT

LEGERING FOR BARBEL

RUDD

TENCH

THAMES TROUT ROD

DROP-LEADS

LANDING-NET

LINE-DRIER

HANDS ON ROD AND WINCH

TABLE-VICE

KNIFE (HANCOCK’S)

KNOTS

HENRY STANNARD, DEL.

SWAN ELECTRIC ENGRAVING CO.

BARBEL.

COARSE FISH.

THE BARBEL.

THE barbel is one of the strongest coarse fish that the angler has to cope with. Gregarious like bream and roach, if they can only be induced to feed, and due care is exercised, these fish may be caught by the hundredweight: it is not an uncommon occurrence to fill a punt-well when barbel really feed in earnest. They seem built for heavy, sullen fighting; their great length, broad fins, and habit of feeding on the bottom all indicate their character. They are boring, deep-plunging fish, making for the bed of the river with extreme doggedness when hooked, and, as a rule, are not then addicted to gymnastics on the surface. The angler will find his hands full with a big barbel on fine tackle.

Barbel are queer-looking fish; their small eyes are knowing and crafty; the wattles and sucker-like mouth increase the peculiarity of their appearance, and the angler’s first barbel is usually examined with considerable interest.

Thames and Trent

Thames and Trent anglers seem to be much at variance as to barbel-swims, to judge at least from a conversation with a Trent angler whom I met on the bank. On telling him of a day’s fishing in July, he asked the depth of the water fished. I told him from fifteen to twenty feet, and he seemed surprised at getting barbel at such a depth at that time of year. I invited him to try, and, sure enough, we got barbel, float-fishing in that depth of water. The great disturbance of the water may account for this, causing the fish to seek deeper swims, where punt-poles seldom or never touch the bottom. Excessive punting has done much to spoil Thames fishing of late years; in shallow water, there is so much thrusting down of poles into the gravel (or mud, as the case may be), and the fish are more disturbed and worried than by the passage of a sculling or rowing boat. Nearly all the shallow water is probed by punt-poles, incessantly on busy days; sculling-boats and canoes disturb the surface, but punt-poles reach the bed of the river, and disturb the whole water wherever it is shallow enough for the pole to be used. Add to this the churning up of the water by launches in the summer, and it is not surprising that fish should resort to the deeps for protection and quiet. I have never fished the Trent, but if Trent anglers bear in mind all the disturbance of the Thames, regattas included, the differences may then be to a great degree adjusted. For mature fish, this disturbance may mean preservation, as it drives them away from the banks and shallows to the pools and weirs, into places almost inaccessible to the angler, whether fishing from punt or bank. I am certain, however, that the wash of the launches kills millions of fry of all sorts, to say nothing of the damage done to spawn.

Season

Large catches of barbel are frequently made in the Thames on the sixteenth of June, the opening day of the season; the fish have had a long rest, and have not been alarmed by leger-bullets being dropped amongst them. There are, moreover, no fish swimming about with broken tackles in their mouths; for nothing does more harm in a barbel-swim, if the fish are feeding shyly, than for one or two to break away. At this early season of the year barbel are seldom in good condition. I therefore prefer the latter end of July, August, September and October for barbel-fishing. After October, frosts begin, and cold weather is not favourable for this particular sport. A peculiarity is that one rarely takes a barbel of much under a pound in weight Much discussion has recently taken place as to whether barbel feed in winter, and some few anglers appear to have baited swims and tried their luck. Although I have never deliberately angled for barbel in winter, I do a good deal of worm-fishing for roach and perch; and if barbel made a habit of feeding regularly at that period of the year, I think I must have picked up a stray fish or two. This I have never done, and I therefore conclude that their feeding in winter is very exceptional. Because perhaps on a mild spring or autumn day two or three barbel are taken, and only then by baiting well, I do not consider we can therefore assume that barbel feed during the cold weather. On the Thames, ninety-nine anglers out of a hundred look upon barbelling after October as next to madness, and my views entirely agree with those of the ninety and nine. With respect to Thames fishing, I regard winter barbel-fishing as so much waste of time, as chub, pike, roach and perch are then in their prime, and the angler will do far better to try for these fish and let barbel alone. As an experiment, winter barbelling may be interesting, and that is all. I have heard of large barbel being taken in winter, but they may have been foul-hooked in some way, i.e., hooked outside the mouth, and not in seizing a bait. Even when they are by chance caught in the winter, I should think they would give little or no sport.

Although barbel play down heavily when hooked, they may frequently be seen leaping, especially very early in the season. It is strange that, being a ground-feeding, routing fish, very large barbel should take the spinning bait in weirs, chiefly in May, more especially when the trout fisherman is using a heavy lead. Molesey Weir has attained notoriety for the large barbel landed there in the trout season; and for specimen fish of all sorts, indeed, this weir is difficult to beat, though nowadays terribly over-fished, as is the case with many of the weirs near London. For good barbel-fishing, commend me to a Kennet pool, with its beautiful sparkling water, little fished, as most of these pools are private.

Legering

I always select a gravelly swim for barbel-fishing, though on one occasion an angler came from town to the Weybridge water and had a good catch by fishing on the mud with fine, light tackle. As barbel frequent deep, heavy runs of water, a powerful rod, able to lift a large lead and kill a weighty fish, is chiefly used on the Thames when legering, which is the style or method most practised. A leger-line is one that rests on the bottom; a shot is placed two or three feet above the hook; above this, a perforated bullet is slipped on the line; the bullet cannot get below the shot, but, by keeping a taut line, the bite of a fish is easily felt, giving a peculiar knock to the rod-top, which should be followed by striking. The bite is thus known by touch and not by sight, as is the case when float-tackle is used. So swift and heavy is the water in many pools, that we occasionally have to employ two large bullets on the line to keep the bait down. It is therefore evident that a weak rod, running line and fine gut tackle are useless to cope ivith so powerful a water; indeed, it is best to err on the side of strength of tackle, for, as I have previously remarked, tackle broken in barbel is the very worst thing for sport. These bullets should run together on the running line, or on gimp, being stopped by a good-sized swivel from reaching the gut. If they travel on the gut, they will soon fray it.

A twelve-foot greenheart rod, with a stout top, good strong brazings and winch fittings, will stand the strain. In shallow, gentle swims, much lighter tackle and cane rods may safely be employed; but barbel, if they feed at all, usually feed most greedily. Much time is wasted in play by using very fine gut; hold your barbel as hard as you dare, and get him out as soon as possible; slip on another worm and down with it; if the fish are well on, it will most likely be taken as soon as it is on the bottom. Thames fishermen usually keep the hook three feet or more from the bullet in straight runs, and a swivel below the weight saves a lot of twisting in the gut length. If you are punt-fishing, the punt must be kept as steady as possible; in a swift weir run this is sometimes no easy matter, and the rypecks must be driven in at a considerable angle to resist the force of the stream, fixing the punt lengthwise, not broadside, in the run. Two rypecks are generally required, and sometimes a weight as well. Steadiness of the punt is essential to keep the rod steady; it is impossible to fish properly with a leger-line if the punt sways about. As the punt works the rod shifts, but the rod must be quite still or the tackle will not work properly. The leger-line is, of course, used without a float, and the bait is swung out to the required spot, letting the lead rest on the bed of the river. After lowering the rod and tightening the line, the angler awaits the peculiar knock of a barbel bite, just keeping a taut line on the rod top without lifting the lead off the ground. The rod should also be kept in as straight a line as possible with the bullet, to ensure striking dead on the fish. If the rod is held out sideways from the punt, the strike will not be so effective. On noticing the tug-tug of a fish, which will be plainly felt on the rod, lift the rod steadily, giving a little time, but strike forcibly, not gently, for the lead has tobe lifted as well as driving the hook home in the leathery mouth of the fish. In heavy water, the pull of a barbel, added to the rush of the current on the lead, is tremendous, and the fish fights stubbornly to the very last. A winch, with a good strong check to prevent any over-running, is best for legering. In quiet runs, if the barbel are not feeding, the rod may rest on the side of the punt, and the check on the winch be put on when the line is adjusted, until a twitch on the rod-top shows the fish have drawn into the swim and commenced to feed. In deep holes, where there is little current, a single tiny bullet and a finer running line can be used, and it is only in very exceptional cases that two large bullets are required. In or under the main weir runs, however, you cannot do without really heavy weight. As in chubbing, I use a plaited line. In legering from the bank, or from a weir head, the rod can be held very steadily; the sitting position is the best, the angler drawing a little line off the reel and holding the line in the fingers of the left hand, or holding the winch firmly and striking from that. In the latter case, the line is wound taut on the winch, and the left hand is pressed on the revolving part of the winch (winding with the left hand, the handles of the winch being to the left), holding it