By Dan Beard
Fig. 95.
The Envious Fish
A fish is not a vain animal, but he is a very jealous creature, and looks with suspicion upon all his kind. Like a dog or a chicken, if a fish sees a companion secure a piece of food, that is the piece of food the first fish wants. So, I am inclined to place some credence in the story of the Petit Journal, to the effect that , Mr. William R. Lamb, of East Greenwich, RI, has taken advantage of the jealous disposition of the fish.
By fastening a mirror to his line below the hook, he deceives the fish that may come smelling around his bait. Immediately upon approaching the bait, the fish discovers his reflection in the glass, and hastily snaps at the hook, so as to get it before his rival can do so.
According to one authority Mr. Lamb is an Englishman, but according to another he is an old fisherman of Greenwich, RI. It matters little where the inventor hails from: here is his contrivance:
Take a small rod with a ring in the middle and one at each end, and fasten a line to each ring. About six or eight inches above the rod bring the lines together, and tie them in such a manner that the two side lines are exactly equal, and form what your geometry would call an isosceles triangle, with the middle line running through the center.
If possible, procure a circular or oval mirror, about a foot and a half in diameter, and fasten it by a ring in the in the frame to the cross-rod. Attach your fish-line to the points where the three lines meet, and fasten a short line with hook attached to the ring at one end of the cross-rod in such a manner that the bait will hang in front of the glass (Fig. 95).
Mr. Lamb claims that this scheme has proved successful, and there appears to be no reason why it should not. Still, when the novelty is worn off, it seems probable that a fish on the end of a clean line would feel better to the fisherman than one attached to a line hampered with a great, flat looking-glass.
