Sabaneev life and catching freshwater fish 1911. L

Life and fishing freshwater fish Leonid Sabaneev

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Title: Life and fishing of freshwater fish

About the book "Life and catching freshwater fish" Leonid Sabaneev

You will find a variety of information about life various kinds freshwater fish, about their habits and habits. Offers detailed description most effective ways fishing, reliable recommendations for selection fishing tackle, many techniques and methods of fish production that have been lost to date. Experienced anglers will discover absolutely new, amazing secrets of fishing, and beginners will be able to become real professionals.

This edition will be the best gift for every real fisherman, a man for whom fishing is not just a hobby, but a state of mind.

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Without any doubt, the name "tench" was given to this fish due to its characteristic feature of changing its color when taken out of the water: the caught tench is immediately covered with large black spots. This is due to the fact that it is all covered with a thick layer of extremely thick and transparent mucus, which hardens in the air, darkens, and then falls off in pieces, leaving large yellow spots in these places.

The tench is somewhat reminiscent of the ide in its structure, but it is easily distinguished from all cyprinids by its thick, awkward body, very thick tail part of the body, very small scales and very small, bright red eyes. In addition, the tench has an unpaired number of pharyngeal teeth located in one row and with inside elongated into a small hook: his mouth is very small, fleshy, even seems to be swollen, and at the corners of it sits one very small antennae.

The color of the tench is highly dependent on the water in which it lives. In general, his back is dark green, his sides are olive green with a golden sheen, his belly is grayish; in rivers and clear lakes it is always much yellower than in shady ponds overgrown with aquatic plants, where there are almost completely black lines. In the lower reaches of the Volga, fishermen distinguish elmen and river, or golden tench, in which the body is slimmer, the lower lip is noticeably curled up, and the color is reddish-yellow. True golden tench (var. chrysitis), however, is nowhere to be found with us, and this beautiful variety seems to be found only in Bohemia and Silesia.

The tench grows rather slowly, but lives for a long time, and therefore in large ponds overgrown with reeds, where it finds a safe refuge, it sometimes reaches a huge size. For example, according to Prof. Kessler, in one pond on the river. Irpin, in the vicinity of Kyiv, was caught (in 1857) tench, which was about 70 cm long, weighed 7.5 kg and was covered with moss. Another line, 6 kg, according to the same person, was pulled from small lake(Lyubani?) on the border of the Vitebsk and Livonian provinces. The largest lines, speaking in general, are apparently found in the Trans-Ural Bashkir lakes, especially in the southern part of the Yekaterinburg district, where in some places the 2.5-3-kilogram "kara-balyk" is not at all rare; sometimes lines and more than 4 kg come across here; so, I know of one case that on Lake Okunkule they were “cared for”, that is, caught in a botanical net, two lines of 5.2 kg each. But usually these fish are rarely more than 2 kg. Tench has a much smaller distribution and is everywhere smaller than crucian carp. However, it is found throughout Europe, starting with Spain. In the north, it does not exist at all, and is unlikely to be found in the basins of the White and Arctic Seas, although Danilevsky claims that it is found in some lakes near Arkhangelsk. On the eastern slope of the Ural Range, I noticed it only up to 57 ° N. ch.; in Finland (according to Malmgren), the tench reaches 62 ° N. sh., but in the province of St. Petersburg, even in the Ostsee region, it is found in very few rivers and lakes. The main location of this fish is stagnant waters of medium, southern Russia and southwestern Siberia. In Caucasian (and Crimean?) waters, it is already a rarity (found only in Lake Paleostome). No one has yet found a line in the Turkestan region.

Tench loves quiet, grassy water; he avoids fast and cold, and therefore keeps more in river bays, ilmens, channels, lakes and ponds overgrown with reeds and reeds. However, he is not afraid of somewhat brackish water, and therefore is very common in the lower reaches of the Volga, Don and Dnieper, even at the very seaside. In small stagnant ponds, lines are quite rare, because, nevertheless, during spawning, they need fairly clean, albeit warm water; their favorite habitat is quiet backwaters of rivers, flowing, silty and reedy lakes and the same ponds.

In general, this is a very lethargic and lazy fish. The tench is extremely slow in its movements, lives for the most part in the same place of a river or pond, and shows itself in other places only in hollow water. It cannot cope with fast water, and during the spring or autumn flood of rivers, the breakthrough of ponds is often carried away by the current for a long distance. In such bays of rivers, backwaters, hollows or at the top of a pond, densely overgrown with reeds, reeds and especially peas (Potamogeton), tench keeps most of the day, digging, like crucian carp, in viscous mud and taking out worms from there - their main food; however, he also feeds on mud itself and various aquatic plants. Only in the evenings, in the morning and at night, the tench goes for a walk to cleaner places in the pond, but even then it very rarely comes to the surface, unless it decides to grab a large midge (Phrygenea) that has fallen into the water.

As a sedentary fish, tench is rarely found in one place in large numbers; except for the period of spawning, and even then not always, and winter time, he b. h. leads a completely solitary lifestyle and swims alone. In October, less often at the beginning of November, the lines gather in more or less significant flocks and lie down for the winter in the deepest places of the lake or bay. Sometimes they completely burrow into the mud and, taken from there, do not give any sign of life for a long time.

From here they leave very early - in March or April, and as soon as the rims appear, they approach them and, exhausted by a long fast, begin to peck greedily, why so many fishermen, based on the fact that any fish takes best after spawning, believe that tench spawns in early spring(in April) and in the summer in June. This belief is also widespread in Germany (Erenkreutz). But the spring spawning of tench is all the more improbable because the development of their caviar requires an even higher temperature (+ 18 ° and more) than that of crucian carp. Even in the south, tench spawning never begins before the first days of May, and b. h. occurs at the end of this month, even in June, but not at the end of June, as Cherkasov believes.

In the middle or at the end of May (depending on the area), the tench stops pecking and hides in the mud, from where it comes out two or three days before the start of the game to the reedy shores of the lake or to the most grassy places of river bays and channels. He especially loves pea grass (Pota-mogeton), which is sometimes called by fishermen tench grass; here you can meet him in the rest of the warm season. Where lines are few in number, their spawning passes completely unnoticed, especially since they never gather in such dense flocks as, for example, ruff, roach, ide and most carp fish. According to my observations, the spawning of lines has a family character and thus approaches the spawning of pikes; sometimes only two or three males chase one female. The latter are generally few in number and are distinguished by their large stature, dark color, larger scales, and strongly developed pelvic fins, in which the second ray is considerably thickened and expanded. During the spawning period, these fins swell strongly and become more convex, taking on a sort of spoon-shaped shape. In all likelihood, these fins play some important role during spawning. It may be that the females use these fins to bury the spawned eggs in the mud or between the roots of aquatic plants. This leads me to the circumstance that, despite all my efforts, I could not find tench eggs anywhere on the grasses, even in those places where they undoubtedly spawned.

During spawning, even where lines are very numerous, they do not gather in dense runes. It depends on the reason that their spawning lasts a very long time, sometimes two or three weeks. Usually, small ones rub earlier, large ones later, which is why you can meet both young molts and fresh greenish caviar of this fish at the same time. There are many reasons to suppose that the lines spawn in two periods.

The number of eggs in the lines is very significant: Bloch counted almost 300,000 eggs in a 1.6-kilogram egg box. According to other observations (Erenkreutz), a female contains 350,000 eggs in 1 kg.

Tench eggs develop unusually quickly, faster than any other fish - sometimes in three days, but always in less than a week. According to the observations of Western European fishermen, the development of caviar requires a temperature of 22 ° -24 ° Celsius. Young molts, which differ from other fry in their golden color, disperse after the end of the process of absorption of the yolk sac and walk b. h. alone or in small flocks in a dense thicket of aquatic plants, closer to the bottom; they rarely come across and almost never go out into clean places and into the sedge, like young crucians. Therefore, they are less likely than other fish to be attacked by predatory fish, especially since pikes and perches apparently do not like this fish and very rarely take it .. so it does not at all make an excellent bait, as one might assume from its extreme vitality. Perhaps the abundance of mucus on the body of the tench causes disgust in predators, but be that as it may, it is reliably known that pike and perch are extremely reluctant to take on vents baited by tench. The main enemies of the lines are not these fish, but burbots, which, moreover, like the lines, constantly stay at the bottom, in the mud, although they are certainly in running water, and at night they go out to feed in nearby bays inhabited by molts. In any case, it is very strange that, despite the abundance of eggs in tenches, the latter are not found anywhere in very large numbers. This circumstance can only be explained by the very late and prolonged spawning of this fish, why most of the spawned eggs have time to become the prey of all other fish that have already completed their spawning, as well as birds, aquatic insects, and, perhaps, those lines that spawned a little earlier.

Young molts grow quite quickly, much faster than crucian carp, even ide, and in some feeding lakes and ponds in two or three years they reach 400 grams of weight. They become capable of reproduction in the 3rd or even 4th year. According to my observations, lines in feeding ponds reach 200 grams per year, two to 400 grams, and three to 800 grams or more. In total, 4-year-old lines of about 1.2 kg in weight fall for the bait most often.

Most hunter-fishermen fish with a line rod. Tench fishing has many lovers, but, as exclusively pond fishing, it is rather boring and tiring, especially since the tench pecks extremely sluggishly and for a long time, so that it is able to exasperate any river fisher who is not used to dealing with such phlegmatic and lazy fish. In addition, tench, in relation to its size, belongs to the number of weak fish and in this respect is almost on a par with bream, silver bream, burbot and crucian carp. Tench fishing also does not require great skill: it takes very well on coarse gear. The main thing in this fishing is not to rush to strike. Therefore, from a true hunting point of view, fishing with lines is lower than fishing with a botanical net, a guide, a little one, and a spear.

The best time for line fishing is everywhere considered to be the end of spring or the beginning of summer, when this fish roams around the coast most of all, first in search of eggs with mature reproductive products, and then, after spawning, looking for food. In May and early June, at least 3/^ of all lines caught are caught by the bait. However, in some places, especially in shallow flowing ponds, which open up early and quickly warm up, the lines are excellently taken a few days after the ice has melted and, moreover, much more surely and greedily than in May and June. During spawning, the biting, according to many anglers, stops, but this is not entirely true, since the tench, like any other fish, does not take nozzles at all only at the moment of the spawning process itself, but feeds shortly before it or shortly after it ends, albeit very sluggishly, and, so to speak, mechanically, along the way. From the middle of summer, the biting of lines almost stops; at this time they stay in the grassy thickets, full and, moreover (in the heat), apparently even burrow into the silt or hide under the floating shores, therefore they come across in very small numbers, and then in previously cleared and lured places. In August and September, when the water gets colder and the grass thins out, the lines lead a relatively wandering life and their autumn bite begins, which is also not known to all anglers. It may be, however, that tench is greedily taken in autumn only in less forage ponds, lakes and backwaters. In the more southern provinces, this late bite occurs in September and even in the first half of October, only in warm weather. According to some observations, it must be assumed that the autumn bite lasts only about a week, that is, it is very short, which is why it can easily go unnoticed. In the Kharkov province, for example, in some places during this zhor they catch dozens of lines.

Nai best time of the day for fishing the tench, one must consider the morning "and not particularly early. In some places, however, the best bite is noticed in the evening, around sunset and before dusk, but in the middle of the day, around noon, as well as at night, the tench falls for the bait only by chance; the last the circumstance is rather strange, because this fish can be called almost nocturnal: this is indicated both by its relatively small eyes, like those of burbot, and by the fact that tench can be observed walking at night sometimes at the very surface of the water, and, tumbling, they produce sounds reminiscent of lumps of clay literally falling into the water.It is therefore very likely that the line is not taken or almost not taken at night because at this time they go in more open, deeper water and not at the bottom.Daytime catching tench is also an exception from the general rule, and Cherkasov is mistaken, considering the best time for angling these fish is from 8-9 am to 3-4 pm (?). morning; the most frequent bites, sometimes following one after another, are about 8 hours. On this basis, and also on some other observations, I came to the conclusion that the lines at night and early in the morning wander in vain, without a definite direction, but before returning to their usual places where they spend the day, the lines approach the banks and go in lines , one after another, mostly the outskirts of reeds, reeds and other water grasses, stopping here for a day. Then, shortly before sunset, the reverse course of the lines begins, and they go first through the grass, and then, when it gets dark, they move to the middle. In small ponds, lines in May and early June make two, so to speak, round-the-world voyages every day. Later, when they eat off and animal food becomes more abundant, these wanderings are gradually reduced and, finally, tench does not leave the area of several tens of square meters. Judging, however, by the fact that lines are rarely taken in the same place equally well in the morning and in the evening, it must be assumed that the morning route does not quite coincide with the evening one. But that tench, like many other fish, has its favorite waterways - this is not subject to any doubt. In the study of these ways lies the key to the success of angling any fish, tench in particular.

Any experienced angler can easily determine the place for catching lines at the first glance at the arena of future actions, but it is quite diverse, and its exact description is difficult. In ponds near Moscow, the most overgrown or, rather, subsequently overgrown places are preferred, not shallow, but deep, at a distance of 3-4 m, but not deeper, however, 1.8 m. Under such conditions, it is most convenient to catch from the shore, but from shallow ones, although it is very inconvenient to catch grassy shores, and therefore you have to fish from a boat and throw a float on the edge of the grass, that is, where it ends. In general, it can be said that it is better, more accurate and more convenient to catch tench near reeds and reeds, especially when the young one is just beginning to rise. The fact is that in such places the path of tench is not as wide as near other aquatic plants, and here almost the entire mass of passing fish goes near the edges, almost without entering the thicket. In most cases, the boat is installed (on stakes or oars) in the grass, closer to the shore, along it, in order to be able to fish with several fishing rods. Some anglers, however, prefer to stop in clear water, far from the shore, 4-6 m from the grass and cast their lines in such a way that the floats stand near the grass itself. The advantage of this method lies in the fact that the tench immediately after cutting is taken to a clean place, preventing it from getting tangled in the grass. The tench, especially the hungry one, is not at all shy and is not afraid of the boat, often approaching it even at a depth of 70 cm. Later, when grasses, reeds and reeds grow, you can catch tench only in clearings or corridors, which b. hours have to be done artificially, with the help of a rake; in some places in the summer the tench takes quite well in the windows between the influx, that is, the coastal bog, but catching here is inconvenient and even dangerous. General rule The fact that tench is caught only in silty places has almost no exceptions, since the tench always avoids the sandy, especially rocky bottom, and there are very few such places in ponds and most of the grassy lakes. However, it has been noticed that if a layer of sand is poured onto the muddy bottom, then fishing becomes more prolific. This, in my opinion, depends on the fact that on black mud the usual attachment for tench - a worm - is less noticeable than on light sand. Here, again, it is not superfluous to recall that anglers think too little about the color of the bottom, both their nozzles and the color of the leash, which, on the contrary, should fully correspond to the color of the soil.

The weather has quite strong influence on the biting line. This fish, covered with a thick layer of mucus, very sensitive to cold and having a soft palate, like a carp, has an excellent sense of touch, smell, developed taste and good hearing; it is not distinguished only by vigilance, and when searching for food, it is almost more guided by smell than by sight. Before a change in the weather, i.e., when the barometer falls, the bite of the line always worsens or even temporarily stops. This explains why sometimes it does not take, for example, on a good, quiet evening, and, on the contrary, it takes well in very bad weather - on the eve of a change for the better. The best weather for fishing tench is warm, overcast with drizzling rain. After rain, the lines often float to the surface; also in very hot weather, they like to climb up, and on this habit is based almost unknown to us catching them in the grass almost on top.

If the angler knows well which way the lines go in spring and early summer, then there is no need to resort to bait. But later, when the lines cease to roam and lead an almost settled life, it is difficult to do without bait; Finally, it's not worth it to fish without it. Since tench consumes plant food only in extreme cases, worms are considered the best bait for him, especially creeps cut into pieces so that they do not burrow into the ground. Then, well-squeezed cottage cheese in a bag of radish perfectly lures the lines. Tench willingly sucks cottage cheese, and he smells it from afar, especially if hemp or linseed oil, steamed kolob or, duranda, that is, hemp and flax pomace, are added to the cottage cheese. Some people add to the cottage cheese (or replace it) dough from steamed rye crusts, as well as leavened thick or malt in a bag. Of course, the bait is lowered to the bottom with a stone and b. hours on a twine with an inconspicuous overlay. Some advise (but hardly use themselves) to add the smelly assa foetida. According to Ehrenkreip, tench seems to be possible to feed with grain, but no one has ever used such bait in our country and its validity is highly doubtful.

In the same way, I do not know that when and where we used vegetable bait when fishing tench, although I cannot deny that the tench refused to take such a tempting bait as, for example, dough with honey, which is recommended (only in hot weather ?) Alquen and La Blanchere. It is unlikely that only honey can be replaced with tar, as these foreign authors believe. Our usual nozzle is worms: a large earthen one or several red dung. The latter, in my opinion, are preferable, since they are more visible and the tench takes them into the mouth rather than a large crawl out. However, a young creep, without a knot, is not much inferior to a dung. Worms are planted in loops, leaving short tails, since long lines are often cut off or eaten with impunity. In addition, a creeper with a long tail will certainly burrow into viscous silt if it lies on the bottom. Ironstone (a very dark and strong worm that lives in clay soil) is very successful in catching ironstone, probably because it is a more durable bait. The tench takes excellently on the bloodworm, which almost constitutes, at least in many ponds, its main food, but, unfortunately, this nozzle is inconvenient because it requires a very small hook, and since the tench must always be caught in the grass and led cool, then it breaks off a small hook. Crayfish necks are also an excellent bait: even in those waters where there are no crayfish at all, you can soon teach tench to take on them if you throw peeled crayfish instead of bait. I believe that the lines are well taken on the neck, mainly because it stands out sharply in its whiteness against the black mud. In Western Europe, maggots are occasionally used as a bait, and theoretically, these latter should be a very tasty and noticeable bait for tench, and if they are almost not used in our country, then for the same reason as the bloodworm. In France, they quite successfully catch tench on snails and light slugs, letting this nozzle very finely between the leaves of water lilies and other underwater plants and playing the fish very cool. That's how they catch. hours on hot days, around noon, when the lines are near the surface of the water. Finally, I know of several cases where lines were caught (namely on Lake Beloye near the village of Kosina, Moscow district) on a little (Verkhovka - Leucaspius delineatus), intended for perch. It should be noted, however, that this lake, which is very deep (up to 14 m or more), does not belong to the number of feeding waters and the fish in it grows very slowly. However, there is hardly a fish that, under certain conditions, would not become predatory. Even tiny crucians ate very well in my aquarium juveniles of other fish.

We fish tench almost exclusively on long float rods; fishing for long bottom lines without a float, with short sixes, if it is used anywhere, it is very rare, for the main reason that the line takes very quietly, sluggishly and for a long time and it is very easy to miss its bite without a float, especially since you have to catch it in standing water and the line sags. In most cases, a line reel is not necessary, and sometimes even with good biting and angling in the grass, where strong tackle is required and the fish has to be driven hard, it even does more harm than good. In general, a line rod should be strong and not particularly flexible, although elastic enough; since you don’t have to cast far, there is no need for it to be longer than 3.5 m. Of the solid rods, birch rods are considered the best, not very thick in the butt; solid reeds are also not bad - from yellow Japanese cane. Of the folding ones, three-legged, inflexible ones are preferred, the same as for catching bream, although shorter. Usually they catch tench at the same time on three rods, but some fishermen near Moscow, for example, on Tsaritsyn ponds, put five or even up to ten rods, as much as the boat allows, which forces these anglers to use, in order to avoid confusion, the coarsest gear, that is, strong rods and thickest fishing lines, even twine.

For fishing lines, both hair and silk fishing lines are equally suitable, even the latter, perhaps, is better. Most of them are caught on 6-8-hair lines; and of silk, No. 4 or 5 is most suitable. In general, the fishing line must withstand 4 kg of dead weight. When fishing with a reel, of course, the fishing line (silk) can be thinner. There is no special need for a leash; the sinker must match the float. As for hooks, number 5 should be considered the best for tench; larger than the 3rd, as well as smaller than No. 6, you should not use it, but when fishing with a reel, you can be content with 8, even 9. No. The shape and curvature of the hooks do not matter much, but straight ones, without a kink, seem to be better, since the line on them during the sucking of the worm is less likely to be prematurely pricked. But hooks do not have to be soft or fragile. It is very useful in deep mud to catch on two hooks - one higher than the other.

The more sensitive the float, the earlier its oscillatory movements will be noticed, characteristic of the indecisive biting of the tench, and therefore the best is considered to be an elongated cork with a porcupine quill passed through. It should be well loaded and not protrude too much from the water. Large rough floats, used by some even experienced line anglers, are inconvenient because they present significant resistance and the fish are more likely to prick. At what depth to float the float - it depends on the nozzle and the properties of the bottom, but in any case, lines, with the exception mentioned (fishing on a snail), are certainly caught from the bottom. Only some advise to let the float so that the nozzle slightly touches the bottom, others - so that the nozzle lies on the bottom, and the sinker almost touches it; still others, finally, consider it more correct that the sinker be at the bottom. Most often you have to catch the first way, most rarely - the last.

Very often it is necessary to catch tench and crucian carp in ponds and flood lakes, bordered by a very wide strip of grass; there is no boat. In this case, you have to resort to the help of the already described sliding float (see pike fishing), although small in size. But since the success of fishing depends a lot on a correctly set float, and it is impossible to measure the depth here, it is best to use sliding floats, which at the same time show the depth.

The bite of the tench is very original and differs sharply from the bite of other fish. With rare exceptions, it is expressed as follows: the float, until then motionless, suddenly sways one or more times, as if the fishing line is touched by a fish; then it begins to swing harder, intermittently, which sometimes lasts several minutes - it goes to the side, sometimes lying on its side, at first quietly, then faster, and finally goes deeper. The fact is that the tench first tries, sucks the nozzle with his small, as if swollen mouth, throwing it several times. With a bad biting, the matter is limited to this sucking, so that the worm, for example, more often its tip, is squeezed out and crumpled. But if the tench is not very full, then sooner or later he will take the whole nozzle into his mouth and then go on his way. He puts the float only when the sinker lies at the bottom or almost reaches it. In rare cases (b. h. in early spring), the bite is expressed by the fact that the float immediately and unexpectedly disappears under water; usually the whole difference lies in the fact that one tench takes for a minute, and the other at least 5 minutes. There is always time to prepare for cutting.

It is necessary to cut as soon as the float goes to the side, by no means waiting for it to disappear under water. At this moment, the tench often pricks and spits out the nozzle, swallowing it much less often. Inexperienced anglers tend to hook too early as the line carries the float from one side to the other. It is necessary to hook in the direction opposite to the direction of the float, and when fishing without a reel, it is quite sharp. The tench's lips are healthy, and it rarely breaks; therefore, if the tackle is reliable enough, there is no need to stand on ceremony with him and it is more prudent to immediately drag him to the boat and pick him up with a net. A large tench, over 2 kg, does not interfere with slightly moving in small circles, having previously snatched or pushed away other fishing rods so as not to get mixed up. The tench walks on the bait very briskly, weaker than a perch of the same size, but rather stubborn; a large one often becomes perpendicular to the bottom, resting his head, sometimes it is difficult to get him out of this position.

If the hook stuck into the pubic bone and fell on a burglary, then it can be broken. It is no less annoying when the line rushes into the grass and gets tangled there, twisting the fishing line behind the grass. It should be noted that the river tench is much stronger than the pond and lake.

The lines almost always smell of mud, and therefore it is necessary to first keep them for a week or two in a cage set on fast water. In an extreme case, you can be content with sprinkling the line for a while with freshly calcined and extinct coal, and probably also pouring vinegar into your mouth (see above). The fish soup is dense and nutritious, has a special, rather pleasant sweet taste. The lines fried in sour cream are also not bad. Tench is very tenacious and in this respect is not inferior to crucian carp and carp; in raw moss, he lives up to two days. However, tench rarely live in aquariums for long periods of time, most likely because the proper separation of the mucus is disturbed by the turmoil and change of water, and it begins to harden and decompose. There is a belief among fishermen in Germany that wounded fish rub against the lines, and the wounds heal quickly; therefore the tench is also called the fish doctor. It is very possible that this sticky mucus can heal cuts. In Germany and Sweden, tench meat, especially liver, is considered a remedy for many diseases, both in humans and animals; for example, it is used for fever and for headaches.

Tench has no industrial value, like crucian carp and carp, and is only for local consumption. This depends partly on the fact that it is not caught anywhere in the masses, partly because it is mined in the warm season, and with the onset of cold weather it burrows into silt and is not available to the fisherman. But although the tench is very tenacious and for the winter buries itself in the silt more often than crucian carp, it cannot live in shallow dug ponds if there are no keys. In general, the keys are almost necessary for him. You can breed tench in any pond if any other fish lives in it, except for crucian carp. For this purpose, it is enough to release one or several dozen lines from 400 to 800 g in weight in summer or autumn.

Living and catching freshwater fish

Leonid Pavlovich Sabaneev

PART ONE

Perca fluviatilis L.

This well-known fish, together with roach, belongs to the most numerous inhabitants of our fresh waters: everywhere - in rivers and streams, lakes, even stagnant ponds with fairly fresh water - perch is found in abundance (Fig. 1). Some lakes are even inhabited by this fish alone, and it is found both in the brackish lakes of the Kirghiz and Zyungar steppes, and in the freshwater parts of the Caspian and Aral Seas, in the river estuaries of the Black Sea and near these estuaries, in the Gulf of Finland and in the shallow waters of the Baltic coast (about - in Ezel), it does not happen only in fast-flowing mountain streams. Perch is found throughout Europe (except Spain) up to 69°N. sh., in the Caucasus (except for the Kura basin), in the Turkestan Territory (in the Aral Sea and in the lower parts of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya), in most of Siberia, to the Lena basin, apparently, and in Lake Baikal (Georgi ). It is most common in central and southern Russia and central Siberia, and in the northern rivers, for example, in the Pechora, it is already quite rare; on the Yenisei, below Turukhansk, it is not found. Lakes with clear water are the favorite habitat of perch, and in them it breeds best.

Perch easily differs from all our other fish in its structure and body color. Its body is quite wide, especially in large perches, and somewhat hunchbacked; the back is dark green, the sides are greenish-yellow, the belly is yellowish; 5-9 transverse dark stripes stretch across the whole body, which make it very colorful; in some cases, these stripes are replaced by dark, irregular spots. In addition, the caudal fin, especially in its lower part, the anal and ventral fins are bright red; the pectoral fins are yellow, the first dorsal fin is bluish, with a large black spot at the end, the second is greenish-yellow. The eyes are orange. However, the color of a perch, like most fish, depends on the quality of the water, and even more so on the color of the soil. So dip in clear water with a light sandy or clay bottom are very light, sometimes even without a black eye on the dorsal feather and with inconspicuous transverse stripes. On the contrary, in forest lakes with a black muddy bottom, they have darker stripes, a darker back and a bright yellow belly. In some areas (as, for example, in Lake Senezh, Moscow province), perches even have golden gill covers. In addition, it should be noted that young perches up to two years of age are more uniform than those that have reached puberty, and that the largest ones are comparatively darker. On the operculum there is one sharp spike, which is very painful to prick and can even cause swelling and mild inflammation. The mouth is very large and armed with numerous but very small teeth.

The usual size of a perch does not exceed 2-3 pounds. In very rare cases, it reaches 5-7 pounds in our country, and only in large lakes, such as Onega, come across 8-pound, and even 10-pound perches in Peipsi. But in the rivers and lakes of Western Siberia, such giants are no longer a very large curiosity, and in the lakes of the Yekaterinburg district, huge perches weighing 10-12 pounds are currently found. However, large perches are not at all as large as one would expect, which depends on the fact that they grow more in thickness and height than in length. They are almost never more than 3/4 of an arshin, but on the other hand, their thickness in the back sometimes extends up to 4, and the height is up to 6 inches.

Depending on the size, as well as the time of year, the perch is kept in more or less deep places of the river or lake. In summer, small and medium-sized ones choose backwaters, chickens, overgrown with aquatic plants (burdock, potamogeton, reeds and reeds), which also serve as an ambush when catching small fish, and generally stay at great depths, but in autumn they go to more open places . Large perches constantly live at a depth - in whirlpools, pits - and come out of there only in the morning and in the evening. In the Gulf of Finland and in large northwestern lakes, they constantly keep at a depth of ten or more fathoms, between stones. IN Onega lake, for example, they are often found at such great depths (up to forty or more sazhens) that their swim bladder expands, shifts other entrails, sometimes pressing the stomach into the very throat, and sometimes even completely bursting. In the warm season, perches are usually seen in small flocks, several dozen, rarely hundreds of pieces, and then small, one-year-olds, but in the spring, before spawning and especially at the end of autumn, they gather in huge flocks, which consist of fish of the same age and are very common. more numerous than they are smaller, so that the largest flocks occur in autumn and consist of underyearlings and one and a half year old perches. Judging by the fact that they are caught in large numbers almost all winter long with nets and with a line, it must be assumed that these flocks are divided into smaller ones only in early spring. In general, the perch is a sedentary fish, never makes long-distance wanderings, even before spawning, and often, as for example in ponds and lakes, lives all year round in the same place. This is noticed, for example, in those trans-Ural lakes in which they fish not only in autumn, but also in spring, and even in summer: at any time, in the deep kuryas (bays) of these lakes, huge perches are noticed, the hard scales of which cannot be pierced by any prison, why the fishermen don't even beat them.

Large perch is a very agile, strong and predatory fish. One must be surprised at the greed and perseverance with which he pursues from above some fish that he has beaten off from the village. The unfortunate fish jumps out of the water like crazy, and the perch circles after it, opening its huge mouth with a loud champ until it grabs it. The champing of a large perch is so loud that in calm weather it can be heard a hundred paces away. Small perches are not inferior to large ones in agility and agility of movements. Who has not seen how flocks of perches hunt for fry, that is, young of other fish; it even happens that, carried away by the pursuit, they jump out after their prey aground, even on the coastal sand. Perches swim very quickly, but in jerks, often suddenly stopping and then rushing forward again. The perch does not give way to any living creature, ranging from small aquatic insects to fairly large fish, as long as it is within its strength and can fit in its wide mouth. He himself is relatively rarely eaten by other predatory fish, who do not like his sharp dorsal spines. The main perch food is small fish, also caviar; large perch loves crayfish and, during the molting of the latter, keeps near stones, snags, under the shore - in a word, near crayfish holes. Small crustaceans from the amphipod genus (Gammarus) and other close ones, found in many lakes of northern, part of central Russia, also make up a very tasty food for this fish. In the trans-Ural lakes, the so-called mormysh, apparently, is the main food of perch from October to December and in February - March. This explains why in lakes abounding with mormysh, perch grows extremely rapidly and reaches enormous sizes.

Sexual maturity usually occurs in the third year, very rarely, only in the most forage lakes, to which many lakes of the Trans-Ural Territory belong, - in the 2nd year. One and a half year old perches weighing up to 1/2 pound can be found here, but in the rivers this fish grows incomparably more slowly, and perches hatched almost two years ago rarely reach 3 inches in length (from the end of the nose to the end of the tail) and almost always rush in the next, that is, the third spring.

The spawning time of perch is different, depending on the latitude of the area. In southern Russia, in the mouths of the rivers of the Black Sea and Caspian basins, he spawns in March, sometimes even at the end of February (on the Don); in the black earth zone - in the first half of April; in the provinces near Moscow - in the second half, more often in the last quarter of the same month, sometimes in the first days of May; in the north, also in some late opening lakes of the middle Urals - in the middle, even at the end of May. In general, the spawning of the perch depends on the time of the final opening of the waters: in ponds and lakes, it never “rubs” the previously perfect disappearance of ice, and only in the lower reaches of large rivers flowing south does it finish spawning before the start of water and ice flow from the upper reaches. In central Russia river perch spawns usually when the water starts to wane, especially in small rivers. In semi-flowing ponds, that is, having a current only in spring and after heavy rains, spawning begins a few days later than in rivers, and in stagnant lakes it slows down even more. Thus, in the same area, the difference in spawning time can be more than a week, sometimes ten days. This phenomenon is explained by the fact that each breed of fish does not spawn before the water reaches a certain temperature at which it becomes possible for the development of caviar of one or another breed. The perch apparently spawns when the water reaches +7 or +8°C. In general, here, near Moscow, the beginning of perch spawning in rivers and rivers coincides with the beginning of birch blossoming, and the latest spawning occurs in early May, when the leaf has already completely unfolded. Before perch, many other fish spawn - dace, pike, ide and sheresper, only in the lower reaches of the Volga, perch, according to Yakovlev's observations, spawns before all fish - in March, immediately after opening the mouths from ice.

Perch
Perca fuviatilis L.

This well-known fish, along with roach, belongs to the most numerous inhabitants of our fresh waters: everywhere - in rivers and streams, lakes, even stagnant ponds with fairly fresh water - perch is found in abundance (Fig. 1). Some lakes are even inhabited by this fish alone, and it is found both in the brackish lakes of the Kirghiz and Dzungarian steppes, and in the freshwater parts of the Caspian and Aral Seas, in the river estuaries of the Black Sea and near these estuaries, in the Gulf of Finland and in the shallow waters of the Baltic coast (about -in Ezel), it does not happen only in fast-flowing mountain streams.

Perch is found throughout Europe (except Spain) up to 69°N. sh.; in the Caucasus (except for the Kura basin); in the Turkestan region (in the Aral Sea and the lower parts of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya); in most of Siberia, to the Lena basin, apparently, and in Lake Baikal (Georgi). It is most common in central and southern Russia and central Siberia, and in the northern rivers, for example, in the Pechora, it is already quite rare; on the Yenisei, below Turukhansk, it is not found. Lakes with clear water are the favorite habitat of perch, and in them it breeds best.

Rice. 1. Perch

Perch easily differs from all our other fish in its structure and body color. Its body is quite wide, especially in large individuals, and somewhat hunchbacked; the back is dark green, the sides are greenish-yellow, the belly is yellowish; 5–9 transverse dark stripes stretch across the entire body, which make it very colorful; in some cases, these stripes are replaced by dark irregular spots. In addition, the caudal fin, especially in its lower part, is anal, and the ventral fins are bright red, the pectoral fins are yellow; the first dorsal fin is bluish, with a large black spot at the end, the second is greenish-yellow. The eyes are orange. However, the color of a perch, like most fish, depends on the quality of the water, and even more so on the color of the soil. Therefore, perches in clear water with a light sandy or clay bottom are very light, sometimes even without a black eye on the dorsal feather and with inconspicuous transverse stripes. On the contrary, in forest lakes with a black muddy bottom, they have darker stripes, a darker back and a bright yellow belly.

In some areas (as, for example, in the Senezhsky lake of the Moscow province), perches even have golden gill covers. In addition, it should be noted that young perches up to two years of age are more uniform in color than those that have reached puberty and that the largest ones are comparatively darker. On the operculum there is one sharp spike, which is very painful to prick and can even cause mild inflammation and often swelling. The mouth is very large and armed with numerous but very small teeth.

But in the rivers and lakes of Western Siberia, such giants are no longer a very large curiosity, and in the lakes of the Yekaterinburg district, huge perches weighing 10-12 pounds come across. However, large perches are not at all as large as one would expect, it depends on the fact that they grow more in thickness and height than in length. They are almost never more than 3/4 arshins in length, but their thickness in the back sometimes extends up to 4, and the height - up to 6 inches.

Depending on the size, as well as the time of year, the perch is kept in more or less deep places of the river or lake. In summer, small and medium-sized ones choose backwaters, chickens, overgrown with aquatic plants (burdock, potamogeton, reeds and reeds), which also serve as an ambush when catching small fish, and generally stay at great depths, but in autumn they go to more open places . Large perches constantly live at a depth - in whirlpools, pits - and come out of there only in the morning and in the evening. In the Gulf of Finland and large northwestern lakes, they constantly keep at a depth of ten or more fathoms, between stones. In Lake Onega, for example, they are often found at such great depths (up to forty or more fathoms) that their swim bladder expands, shifts other entrails, sometimes pressing the stomach into the very throat, and sometimes even completely bursting. In the warm season, perches are usually seen in small flocks, several dozen, rarely hundreds of pieces, and then small, one-year-olds; but in spring, before spawning, and especially at the end of autumn, they gather in huge flocks, which consist of fish of the same age and are the more numerous, the smaller they are; so that the largest flocks come in autumn and consist of underyearlings and one and a half year old perches. Judging by the fact that they are caught almost all winter in large numbers with nets and with a line, it must be assumed that these flocks are divided into smaller ones only in early spring. In general, perch is a sedentary fish, never makes long-distance wanderings, even before spawning, and often, as for example in ponds and lakes, lives all year round in the same place. This is noticed, for example, in those lakes beyond the Urals, in which they lure fish not only in autumn, but also in spring, and even in summer: at any time, in the deep kuryas (bays) of these lakes, huge perches are noticed, the hard scales of which cannot be pierced by any spear, why the fishermen don't even beat them.

Large perch is a very agile, strong and predatory fish. One must be surprised at the greed and perseverance with which he pursues from above some fish that he has beaten off from the village. The unfortunate fish jumps out of the water like crazy, and the perch circles after it, opening its huge mouth with a loud champ until it grabs it. The champing of a large perch is so loud that in calm weather it can be heard a hundred paces away. Small perches are not inferior to large ones in agility and agility of movements. Who has not seen how flocks of perches hunt for fry, that is, young of other fish; it even happens that, carried away by the pursuit, they jump out after their prey aground, even on the coastal sand. Perches swim very quickly, but in jerks, often suddenly stopping and then rushing forward again. The perch does not give way to any living creature, ranging from small aquatic insects to quite big fish, if only she was within his power and could fit in his wide mouth. He himself is relatively rarely eaten by other predatory fish, who do not like his sharp dorsal spines. The main food of perch is small fish, also caviar; large perch loves crayfish and, during the molting of the latter, keeps near stones, snags, under the shore - in a word, near crayfish holes. Small crustaceans from the amphipod genus (Gammarus) and other close ones, found in many lakes in the northern part of central Russia, also make up a very tasty food for this fish. In the lakes beyond the Urals, the so-called mormysh, apparently, is the main food of perch from October to December and in February-March. This explains why in lakes abounding with mormysh, perch grows extremely rapidly and reaches enormous sizes.

Sexual maturity usually occurs in the third year, very rarely, only in the most forage lakes, to which many lakes of the Trans-Ural Territory belong, - in the second year. One and a half year old perches weighing up to 1/2 pound can be found here, but in the rivers this fish grows incomparably more slowly, and perches hatched almost two years ago rarely reach 3 inches (from the end of the nose to the end of the tail) and almost always rush to the next , that is, the third spring.

The spawning time of perch is different, depending on the latitude of the area. In southern Russia, at the mouths of the rivers of the Black Sea and Caspian basins, he spawns in March, sometimes even at the end of February (on the Don); in the Chernozem zone - in the first half of April; in the provinces near Moscow - in the second half, more often in the last quarter of the same month, sometimes in the first days of May; in the North, also in some late opening lakes of the middle Urals, in the middle, even at the end of May. In general, the spawning of the perch depends on the time of the final opening of the waters: in ponds and lakes, it never “rubs” the previously perfect disappearance of ice, and only in the lower reaches of large rivers flowing south does it finish spawning before the start of water and ice flow from the upper reaches. In Central Russia, the river perch usually spawns when the water goes down, especially in small rivers. In semi-flowing ponds, that is, having a current only in spring and after heavy rains, spawning begins a few days later than in rivers, and in stagnant lakes it slows down even more. Thus, in the same area, the difference in spawning time can be more than a week, sometimes ten days. This phenomenon is explained by the fact that each breed of fish does not spawn before the water reaches a certain temperature at which it becomes possible for the development of caviar of one or another breed. The perch seems to spawn when the water reaches 7 or 8°C.

In general, near Moscow, the beginning of perch spawning in streams and rivers coincides with the beginning of birch blossoming, and the latest spawning occurs in early May, when the leaf has already completely unfolded. Before perch, many other fish spawn: dace, pike, ide and sheresper, only in the lower reaches of the Volga, perch, according to the observations of V. E. Yakovlev, spawns before all fish - in March, immediately after opening the mouths from ice.

Flocks of perches leave their winter camps - pits, as soon as small rims form, that is, at the first arrival of water, they break into smaller villages and approach the banks. Often, from large rivers or lakes, these villages enter tributaries cleared of ice, walk for some time along the floods of these rivers, chasing small fish here and eating the caviar of dace, pike and ide, never, however, rising far upstream. Such flocks usually spawn here and return back to the river when it has already entered the banks. Most of the perches in large rivers spawn, however, in oxbow lakes and floodplain lakes, where floods drive them; when the waters recede rapidly, they sometimes remain here until the next spring or a great flood.

In the lower reaches of the Volga, most perches rub in deaf eriks and ilmens, which do not have any connection with the channel during spawning (before the flood), and can only leave from here much later. Flocks that have wintered in river pits and on the seashore (perch does not live in those parts of the Caspian Sea where fresh water does not prevail), go to spawn in the first ilmens and kultuks that come across, that is, river and sea bays.

The number of spring flocks of perch almost always depends on the age of the fish and on its abundance. In the largest flocks, a young, usually two-year-old, almost three-inch (counting from the nose to the end of the tail) perch tosses; the largest individuals rub in small families. In rivers, however, the spring villages of perch are always much less numerous than in large flowing ponds or lakes, especially those where the perch is almost the main fish species. In the latter, small perch spawn in huge herds of several thousand, although it is very possible that this number of flocks is only apparent and each flock consists of many separate villages gathered in one place convenient for spawning. Otherwise, it is very difficult to explain why in the eriks and ilmens of the mouths of the Volga, where perch is also found in abundance, as Yakovlev testifies, it spawns “not in shoals, but alone, in separate pairs or small flocks.” This can only be true where perch is very rare. According to my observations, there are significantly fewer thrushes than eggs, but on the other hand, no difference was noticed in the growth of males and females. It seems that large perch spawns a little later than small perch (by several days), but I cannot confirm this; it is highly probable that large individuals wintering in the deepest pits enter the shallow, warmer water later than the fines, which are closer to the coast.

Spawning itself in rivers is almost always carried out in places that have no current or only a weak one, certainly where perches can find objects that they could rub against and thereby contribute to the speedy flow of caviar and milk. These objects are different, depending on the nature of the area. In ponds and lakes, perches rub in old broken reeds and reeds, in shallow places, and in the absence of these plants, on the remaining stems and roots of burdock (water lilies); in rivers, caviar is spawned in backwaters or bays, also on the stems of water plants or on snags, various rubbish, on the roots of trees washed by water, sometimes on the branches of flooded shrubs; in large rivers, perch mostly rubs in oxbow lakes and floodplain lakes, also in grasses. Only in the northern and northwestern lakes (part of the rivers) with a stony bed does the perch spawn on stones, and sometimes on sand. It has been noticed that large perches always rub in deeper places than small ones, and most readily throw eggs on old sunken stems of aquatic plants. During spawning, for the same reasons, perches go well to snouts and tops woven from wicker, and they are easy to attract to any place by putting a few pines or Christmas trees there.

Like most fish, perches become brighter in color shortly before spawning. The proximity of the onset of this time can always be determined in a few days or weeks by more red fins and sharply prominent stripes on the back. Perches with mature gonads are therefore very different from the young perch of the previous year and the third year, which are always paler and almost of the same color. These perches in most cases follow the flocks of spawning fish in masses and diligently eat up the spawned eggs.

Spawning itself takes place relatively more calmly than, for example, with roach, dace, bream and some other cyprinids, spawning in large herds. The spawning of large perches is even hardly noticeable, partly because their flocks are small and they rub at a greater depth than small ones - between deep-seated reeds or (in some lakes) between stones. But small perch, at least in the so-called perch lakes, spawning with large runes (which are joined by even larger flocks of juvenile perch) and in shallow water, often jump out of the water, and sometimes even gather in lake bays in such numbers that the upper rows , protruding lower outward, produce a strong splash, audible and visible from afar. The best indicator of a spawning ground and a large concentration of fish in general is, as almost always, the presence of gulls, loons and other water birds.

Perch spawn exclusively early in the morning, sometimes shortly before sunset; in the midday heat and in the evening, the game is significantly weakened, the flock thins out for a while, and at night the worried fish completely calms down. Each rune for the most part ends spawning in two or three steps, that is, in the morning and evening or at two in the morning and evening, but the game of perch of all ages continues for a very considerable time - about a week.

The caviar of this fish is very numerous: in a half-pound perch there are from 200 to 300 thousand eggs, and in large ones - a much larger number. A very characteristic feature of perch caviar is the fact that it is produced in long, two-, sometimes three-arshin gelatinous ribbons, in which individual eggs the size of poppy seeds lie in small piles (from 3-5 eggs), and each such pile is enclosed in a special gelatinous cell , which makes the entire tape look like a narrow network. These ribbons, upon exiting, roll up into irregular balls and usually attach themselves to underwater plants or float freely on the surface. In many areas of Russia (for example, on the Dnieper and in the northwestern lakes), fishermen collect this caviar from the spawning grounds and boil it like porridge or use it as a filling for pies. An even greater amount of caviar is exterminated, of course, by water birds and eaten by fish.

This partly explains why, with such a mass of eggs thrown out by each female, perches in places are far from being as numerous as one might expect. But, in addition, perch caviar is subject to many more accidents, and the “harvest” of juveniles is almost more than that of other fish, depending on atmospheric influences - temperature and especially winds. Since the perch spawns quite early, in shallow places and even releases eggs to the surface of the water, one strong matinee can kill almost all the eggs and half-developed embryos. As for the wind, it often has a beneficial rather than a harmful effect on the development of caviar, for the reason that in calm weather, perch ribbons easily stick together into clods (from 3–4 inches in diameter); and in such clods, most of the eggs, being deprived of air, rot and infect healthy embryos. Therefore, in quiet, windless springs, small perch is born incomparably less than in windy ones, when these clods are broken by waves and surf, and for the same reason there are much more perches in open lakes and ponds than in those that are surrounded by forest, at least the latter. were much better than the first. However, strong storms in large lakes and on the seaside are very harmful to the breeding of perch, since the mass of eggs is thrown onto sandy spits and gently sloping shores and then dries up here.

Having spawned, flocks of starving perches for the first time wander near the coast at a shallow depth and feed mainly on the eggs of other fish, especially roach caviar, which spawns soon after the perch; also earthworms brought into the river or pond from arable land and vegetable gardens. Then here, in central Russia, about the second third of May, the perch breaks up into small flocks, and each village chooses a well-known area for itself, which, with rare exceptions, does not leave the whole summer, that is, leads an almost sedentary lifestyle.

The number of summer schools also depends on the age of the fish and the terrain; thus, the largest perches are found at this time even alone, rarely more than a dozen together; small ones walk in dozens, and sometimes, as in some lakes and Lower Volga ilmens, in hundreds.

The summer residence of the perch also largely depends on the terrain and is quite diverse, but in general it can be said that the perch in the summer, with rare exceptions, keeps at an average depth, in a small current, and only where it can find some kind of protection, or rather, ambush. Large perches always choose deeper and stronger places. It can almost be taken as a rule that in stagnant or semi-flowing waters, perches stand in deeper growing reeds and other aquatic plants, mainly burdock and powder (Potamogeton), closer to the edges of the undergrowth, not far from clean places. In rivers, they also choose grassy backwaters, oxbow lakes, and in the absence of them, they keep on a weak current near stones or in snags and wells, and finally, in ravines and mill pools with a whirlpool. In small rivers, flocks of perch are found only in barrels (i.e., wider, deeper and slower flowing places) and usually stand here not far from the rift, waiting for prey: worms, sometimes insects brought by the current, and small fish. In addition, perches everywhere like to stay near bathhouses, piles, bridges and piles of brushwood.

Everywhere and always, the perch, like the pike, leads a completely diurnal lifestyle and from dusk to full dawn, that is, shortly after sunset and shortly before sunrise, stands motionless in its shelter in a half-asleep state and does not take food at this time. Only in late May - early June, he wanders all night, but even then in more northern areas.

With each flood, the resulting turbidity and a strong current drive a trifle into backwaters, bays, or into the mouths of small tributaries, where, of course, the water clears faster and (since it is spring-loaded) has a weaker current. Following the small fish, the perch also goes, and together with it rolls back into the river, taking its former places. In the lower reaches of large rivers, the income of water can be caused by a strong grassroots wind, but its consequences are the same: all the juvenile fish that huddle near the very banks and in shallow places, when the moraine advances, goes to the flood, and after it the perches move off. When the water decreases, they, following the fry, begin to slide back into the riverbed with the water, which is why they never dry up aground, as happens with many carp fish.

Current page: 1 (total book has 37 pages)

Leonid Sabaneev
Living and catching freshwater fish

Perch
Perca fuviatilis L.

Rice. 1. Perch

The usual size of a perch does not exceed 2-3 pounds. In very rare cases, it reaches 5-7 pounds in our country, and only in large lakes, for example, Onega, 8-pound perches come across, and in Peipsi - even 10-pound perches. But in the rivers and lakes of Western Siberia, such giants are no longer a very large curiosity, and in the lakes of the Yekaterinburg district, huge perches weighing 10-12 pounds come across. However, large perches are not at all as large as one would expect, it depends on the fact that they grow more in thickness and height than in length. They are almost never more than 3/4 arshins in length, but their thickness in the back sometimes extends up to 4, and the height - up to 6 inches.

Depending on the size, as well as the time of year, the perch is kept in more or less deep places of the river or lake. In summer, small and medium-sized ones choose backwaters, chickens, overgrown with aquatic plants (burdock, potamogeton, reeds and reeds), which also serve as an ambush when catching small fish, and generally stay at great depths, but in autumn they go to more open places . Large perches constantly live at a depth - in whirlpools, pits - and come out of there only in the morning and in the evening. In the Gulf of Finland and large northwestern lakes, they constantly keep at a depth of ten or more fathoms, between stones. In Lake Onega, for example, they are often found at such great depths (up to forty or more fathoms) that their swim bladder expands, shifts other entrails, sometimes pressing the stomach into the very throat, and sometimes even completely bursting. In the warm season, perches are usually seen in small flocks, several dozen, rarely hundreds of pieces, and then small, one-year-olds; but in spring, before spawning, and especially at the end of autumn, they gather in huge flocks, which consist of fish of the same age and are the more numerous, the smaller they are; so that the largest flocks come in autumn and consist of underyearlings and one and a half year old perches. Judging by the fact that they are caught almost all winter in large numbers with nets and with a line, it must be assumed that these flocks are divided into smaller ones only in early spring. In general, perch is a sedentary fish, never makes long-distance wanderings, even before spawning, and often, as for example in ponds and lakes, lives all year round in the same place. This is noticed, for example, in those lakes beyond the Urals, in which they lure fish not only in autumn, but also in spring, and even in summer: at any time, in the deep kuryas (bays) of these lakes, huge perches are noticed, the hard scales of which cannot be pierced by any spear, why the fishermen don't even beat them.

Large perch is a very agile, strong and predatory fish. One must be surprised at the greed and perseverance with which he pursues from above some fish that he has beaten off from the village. The unfortunate fish jumps out of the water like crazy, and the perch circles after it, opening its huge mouth with a loud champ until it grabs it. The champing of a large perch is so loud that in calm weather it can be heard a hundred paces away. Small perches are not inferior to large ones in agility and agility of movements. Who has not seen how flocks of perches hunt for fry, that is, young of other fish; it even happens that, carried away by the pursuit, they jump out after their prey aground, even on the coastal sand. Perches swim very quickly, but in jerks, often suddenly stopping and then rushing forward again. The perch does not give way to any living creature, ranging from small aquatic insects to rather large fish, as long as it is within its power and can fit in its wide mouth. He himself is relatively rarely eaten by other predatory fish, who do not like his sharp dorsal spines. The main food of perch is small fish, also caviar; large perch loves crayfish and, during the molting of the latter, keeps near stones, snags, under the shore - in a word, near crayfish holes. Small crustaceans from the amphipod genus (Gammarus) and other close ones, found in many lakes in the northern part of central Russia, also make up a very tasty food for this fish. In the lakes beyond the Urals, the so-called mormysh, apparently, is the main food of perch from October to December and in February-March. This explains why in lakes abounding with mormysh, perch grows extremely rapidly and reaches enormous sizes.

The main food of perch is, of course, small fish - juveniles or the smallest breeds; fish larger than 1.5–2 inches are taken as prey only by the largest perches, and then relatively rarely, as it is too agile for these relatively clumsy predators. But the perch does not give way to anything living, and in some areas, at times even exclusively, it feeds on worms in the spring, in the middle of the summer - molting crayfish or young crustaceans; late autumn, at the beginning and end of winter, the main food of perches in many lakes of northern, part of central Russia and Siberia are small breeds of crustaceans, amphipods or mormysh (Gammarus). Actually, this fish eats insects only when there is a lack of other food. Of the small fish, perch always pursues the most common and easiest to get to him breed. Those fishes that constantly live in the thicket of aquatic plants, where their pursuit is almost impossible, become its prey only at a very young age; and perch prefers to hunt small things of those species that like to stay in cleaner places, but close to thickets of aquatic plants that serve as an ambush. Almost everywhere in the rivers perch mainly feeds on last year's roach and fry of this most common fish, and only in the south of Russia does it seem to prefer to it (near the end of summer and autumn) carp fry. In the ponds and lakes of central Russia, small and medium perch undoubtedly prefer the adult topperch (Leucaspius delineatus) to small roach, which is sometimes very numerous here and represents easier prey, since it always stays in the upper layers of the water in even more open places than the one-year-old, already quite nimble roach. In the more northern lakes, the place of the top is replaced by the smelt; large perches, living at great depths, feed here on juvenile whitefish and one-year-old whitefish. Finally, in small rivers, in general, with a lack of small roach, the perch hunts mainly for small minnows, chars, and partly (in central and northern Russia) minnows. It is easiest for him to get loaches, which he diligently looks for in the stones, in the same place where he finds young crustaceans. It goes without saying that he does not spare his own offspring everywhere, and a large perch will also never miss an opportunity to grab a 2-3-inch fellow. This self-blame has its the good side, as it limits the limits of reproduction of this prolific fish and preserves many juveniles of other species, which are exterminated in greater numbers by perches of the year (from the end of summer) and yearlings than adult perches.

In general, perch is superior to pike in its voracity and harm to other fish, especially since everywhere it is incomparably more numerous than the latter. Perch, with an abundance of small fish, often eats up to the point that fry that do not fit in the stomach stick out of its mouth; sometimes, not having time to swallow one fish, he grabs another. In a small 3-inch perch, you can often find six or more large heads.

Perch fry hatch from eggs usually after two weeks or more, depending on the weather, and for the first time take refuge on the bottom between dense thickets of underwater plants, feeding on various, almost microscopic animal organisms, mainly small crustaceans: cyclops, daphnia, etc., and then, from the middle of summer, - small larvae of insects. Only at the end of summer, not earlier than the last days of July, when there is a shortage of this food, young perches, which have already reached the size of half or three-quarters of an inch, depending on the feeding capacity of the waters, go to more open places, mainly to sandy shallows, and begin to catch here are juveniles of small fish species - smelt, top, bleak, in turn pursued by others predatory fish and seagulls. In autumn, in September, perches (perches, wits) can cope, although not alone, with roach fry of almost the same height as them.

Almost simultaneously with the release of perch fry from the grasses, flocks of adult perches, in turn, leave their summer camps and go to more open and usually deeper places of a river, pond or lake. These flocks gather by age into herds, which increase throughout the autumn, almost until the waters freeze. These changes in the way of life of the perch are due to corresponding changes in the way of life of the fry of cyprinids, which serve as their almost exclusive autumn food. From the end of August, perch relentlessly follow the little things that have gathered in clouds, pick up backward and stray fish, and, sometimes bursting into a flock, cause terrible devastation in it. They no longer hunt from ambush, as in summer, but attack openly, they have plenty of food, and it gets even easier than in summer. And since the location of the fry in autumn is even more dependent on the water level and wind direction (especially in lakes), this circumstance must always be taken into account when looking for perch.

In floods, as mentioned above, the baby clings to the shores or enters tributaries; in strong winds, it usually goes either to the leeward side or inland. In addition, for most of the autumn, gulls and loons serve as good indicators of the whereabouts of fry and, consequently, perch, which in turn pursue small fish, sometimes content with fry, jammed perch or regurgitated by them. With rare exceptions, perch stay close to the bottom in autumn, rising to half-water only in very warm and clear weather. After the first strong matinees, it already ceases to be thrown out of the water, of course, because all the fish, especially the fry, have been kept in the lower, warmer layers since that time.

For the same reason, flocks of perch, following the fry of fry, with the onset of cold weather, at the end of autumn, little by little move to deeper places, or rather to pits, and come out less and less often. At the end of October - beginning of November in the middle lane, the perch is already in winter camps and changes them only if it is disturbed by something. The places of these camps are unchanged, and their main conditions are to deepen the bottom with possibly strong - sandy, rocky or clayey soil and in good water; in addition, the larger the perch, the deeper and usually farther from the shore they become. Then, depending on the nature of the waters, the camps have many features. However, it can be taken almost as a rule that in springs or semi-flowing ponds, as well as in closed lakes, perches winter either in the deepest and cleanest places, or lie close to the springs. The same is observed in flowing ponds and lakes; here the perch often winters in the upper reaches of the pond, in the so-called. pipe, or even though in the pond itself, but in the river channel, at the mouths of lake tributaries. In large deep lakes of northern and northwestern Russia, however, perch prefer to winter in stones (on luds, nalyas), as well as in some deep and rocky rivers, but only in a small stream. In rivers, perch almost always spend the winter in pools. Finally, on the Volga, Oka, and in some of their tributaries, flocks of perch, apparently, for the most part stand under steep banks or ledges of the coast, often also at the mouths of rivers. In the lower reaches of the Volga, they prefer clean and deep eriks to the main channel, where they lie in the deepest, usually where the erik is divided into two branches.

During the first third of winter, perches are still quite vigorously pursued by flocks of fry, which very often occupy the shallows adjacent to the pits, in some places in the north - numerous amphipods that are not afraid of the cold and sometimes completely dot the inner surface of the ice. But the strength and speed of movement of these fish, like almost all others, is greatly reduced after the freezing of the waters, and they become more and more lethargic. With the formation of a thick layer of ice in the middle of winter, the perch, apparently, do not leave their camps and lie here on the bottom, almost motionless, in close rows, in several layers, and almost do not take any food.

Sabaneev life and catching freshwater fish 1911. L

About the book "Life and catching freshwater fish" Leonid Sabaneev

Perch Perca fuviatilis L.

Leonid Sabaneev Living and catching freshwater fish

Perch Perca fuviatilis L.

Perch
Perca fuviatilis L.

Leonid Sabaneev
Living and catching freshwater fish

Perch
Perca fuviatilis L.