Through the eyes of a fish
If you are fishing in shallow, clear water, or for fish that are feeding
at the surface, you will, unless you are surprisingly unobservant, soon
realise how easily the fish can be scared away.
You soon realise that the more you move about and the higher your image
is from the fish’s point of view, and the brighter your clothing,
the less you will catch, and the same applies when other people nearby
are similarly alarming the fish.
However, more often than not the fish are swimming and feeding well below
the surface and out of your vision.
Beware though, for fish see a surprising amount of what goes on above
the surface.
Even when the water looks dirty, if you scoop a glass jar full up you
will see how clear it still is.
The surprising thing though is that the further below the water’s
surface a fish is lying, the more it can see of bankside objects.
This is because a fish can see above the surface only those objects that
come within its window of vision.
Outside that window nothing above the surface is seen. Fish lying very
close to the surface have only a very limited window to see through.
The other thing affecting fish vision is the way that light rays are bent
when they pass from air into water or from water into the air.
The higher an object is above the water level the more visible it is to
the fish and therefore an angler crouching low to fish is far less visible
to the fish than one standing up.
Of course, taking advantage of bankside cover helps a lot, whether that
cover is in the form of bushes or other objects in front of or behind
the angler.
The best advice, therefore, is sit down, keep still and wear drab clothing.
Unfortunately on our present day crowded commerical fisheries you cannot
avoid having other less wise anglers nearby spoiling your chances.
I don’t think that I am overstating the need to fish unobtrusively
when I say that getting near to a fish in the water without frightening
it away is sometimes as difficult as getting close to a rabbit in a field.
The only difference is that you see the rabbit scurry away underground
but the fish does its disappearing act unseen.