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BASS, TROUT AND OTHER FISH OF NORTH CHINA: We have received an extremely interesting letter from Mr. J. H. Williams, of Peking, which throws considerable light upon the question as to who was the discoverer of sea bass fishing in North China waters. The letter should prove of great interest to those amongst our readers who are interested in fishing generally, for it refers to other species of fish than the sea bass: any time articles relating to fishing you should issue or have issued with interest, 'kindly send me, for I am much interested in this sport and shooting, and perhaps I can claim I was the first who introduced fly fishing into China, up north here. It was during 1902 that I first discovered fly fishing. There were two large ponds in the grounds of Nieban Villa, situated close to the Tientsin Race Club, and in the evening I noticed fish rising to the fly. I tried the fly and caught any amount of small ones, and in the evening I became aware of some larger specimens swimming on the surface and I caught one weighing 4 lbs. odd, and afterwards caught many weighing up to 8 lbs. odd. One evening I caught a small one on the fly and left him on the line, swimming about, when one of the larger species collared him and away he went like a retriever dog, with this small fellow in his mouth. I had a very small fly out and very fine tackle, so I let the line loose and gave my friend time to get him down his throat, and in about ten minutes I had him .It took me two hours to land this fish. He weighed over 8 lbs. It took some experience ever to have landed him on this very fine gut line 1 had on, but by patience I eventually played him out. I do not Know what they call this fish, something like a Samli, good eating, but full of small bones like the latter fish, and very large powerful fins. The Chinese say they break their nets for they inhabit both fresh and salt water. I caught many of them. These pools had connection with the Grand canal which has communication to the sea. When I told Mr. Shaw and several more Tientain sportsmen I had managed to catch these fish and showed them, Sanderson, who came later, and all in due time were very much interested especially Mr. Shaw of Wm. Forbes & Co. He sent home for rod and fishing tackle, under my instructions. Thus I was the pioneer of fly and trolling fishing at Tientsin and district, Peitaho, etc. I caught sea bass both in the river and sea at Shanhaikwan in 1907-8 with the fly, worm and minnow. I have an idea these fish spawn in fresh water like the salmon, for we find them in the rivers of North China. I have never seen large ones over 1-lb. in fresh water, but I noticed some had spawn it them caught by Chinese in nets near the Paotingfu lake district. There is a very large fish, very much like a salmon, here in these northern rivers. I got one weighing over 40 lbs. near Me Yuan Shan, a city 150 li N. N.E. of here, passed on the way to Jehol. They will rise at a large fly or will take the Devon minnow. The Chinese catch many in this district about August and September. The flesh is a pinkish white, no small hones and are excellent eating, but not so good as salmon, though something of the same flavour. It's a pity I cannot tell what the name of this fish is. He is certainly next to the salmon in eating and very much the same shape, in fact the Chinese call them salmon, being like the real salmon. "I have never seen the proper trout ; but one very near it is found in rivers in the Jehol district and tastes or has the same flavour as the brook trout in England, and seldom exceeds in weight 1-lb. Rainbow trout are common in all these streams N.E. of Peking, but I have never caught one weighing over 3/4 lbs., average 1/4 to 1/2 lbs., but very good eating. In some mountain clear water streams round Me-Yuan Shan, 150 Chinese Ii N.N.E. of here, I have caught 50 or more in one evening, fishing with 2 drop and 1 tail end fly, the whirling dun, red spinner, black gnat and the flying ant flies and march brown, in fact any small fly I never saw them refuse. Proper fools have hooked three on at one time, so greedy they are, and numerous all in deep holes, like these rapid mountain streams form. Not really much sport, but welcome for chow in a country where fish cannot be bought. Also I have caught the small gugeon which are excellent eating. My opinion is, nearly all these fish will rise to the fly, but there are no flies for them to rise to, and the result is they are not on the look out for flies, and in consequence fly fishing is not a great success in North or South China. To get good fly fishing one would have to import the flies, like red spinner, May flies, Dun, etc. I am sure fish would easily educate themselves to rise to flies if they existed. I was up the West River from Canton 190 miles from there, and a swarm of flies appeared in droves just like our May fly in England, but although they lighted on the water in the river, not a fish did I ever see rise to them, and I am of the opinion few fish, if any, rise to flies South of Foochow. There is excellent bass fishing off Foochow and all up the Haitan Straits, for I tried these waters and good sport can be had there, but this is no man's land. I was engineer at sea in one of the Douglas Lafrank steamers from 1887 to 1894 and have caught bass and other fish in Formosa and Formosa Channel with rod and line, but never with a fly. The flying fish is the best eating fish I think the sea produces, and I used to catch plenty when the ship rolled across the Formosa Channel 90 miles catch them at night by putting out a bright light and if the vessel was rolling could catch 10 lbs. per night, perhaps 30 fish. When I was on the watch at night I used to always get enough for breakfast next morning. They would fly on board and often down the engine-room sky-light into engine-room. A bright light seemed to attract them. There used to be some large fish in small lakes near Soochow and I have caught fish with the fly on the Hangchow Lake, near that city, small ones 1/2 to 1-lb. the largest." The above excerpt from Mr. Williams' letter provides an extraordinary amount of information for anglers in China, and our only surprize is that fishing as a sport has not assumed more importance than it has up to the present. The fish which Mr. Williams refers to as being like a Samli would appear to be either the Chinese shad (I lisha elongata ) or one of the species of culter. Nothing else that we know of would fit the description. The large fish said to resemble the salmon is undoubtedly the Huang-chuan or Gan-yu (Elopichthys bambusa), while the "rainbow trout" would appear to be the trout known to inhabit the clear streams of Northeastern Chihli, the scientific name of which we have never been able to ascertain. The observation that the Japanese sea bass ascends rivers to spawn is very interesting and the matter deserves thorough investigation.
A.DE C. S.
unless otherwise indicated
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