Submitted by Dorio Barbieri of Mountain View, California.
WHERE IS DONALD DUCK’S BROTHER?
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We see Donald Duck’s nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, but we never see their Dad, Donald’s brother. Why not?” wails our concerned correspondent.
The main reason we never see Donald’s brother is that he doesn’t have one. He does have a sister with the infelicitous name of Dumbella. In a 1938 animated short, Donald’s Nephews, Donald receives a postcard from his sister informing him that she is sending her “three angel children” for a visit.
Poor Donald, excitedly anticipating the arrival of Masters Huey, Dewey, and Louie, had no idea either that the little visit would turn into a permanent arrangement or, since his sister really thought they were little angels, that she had really earned her name. The three ducklings, indistinguishable in their personalities and equally adept in their propensity for mischief, continued to torture Donald and Scrooge McDuck in many cartoon shorts.
In a 1942 short, The New Spirit, Donald lists the three dependents in a tax form as adopted, indicating that Donald was a most generous brother, a certified masochist, and just as dumb as Dumbella.
Submitted by Karen S. Harris of Seattle, Washington.
DO FISH REALLY BITE MORE WHEN IT IS RAINING?
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Some things we know are true: Where there is water, there are fish; where there are fish, there are fishermen; where there are fishermen, there are fishing stories; where there are fishing stories, there is disagreement.
We expected disagreement. What we did not expect was more theories than there are Commandments. We’ll try to boil down and consolidate all the opinions we received, but we now realize one more thing: Where there are fishing theories, there are rarely short fishing theories.
On a few points, fishermen seem to agree. When fish are biting, it means that they are trying to find food for themselves. There are discernible patterns to when fish are most active in pursuit of food, related not just to hunger but climatic conditions in the water. And almost everyone agrees that rain seems to affect freshwater fishing, especially in shallow water, more than ocean fishing.
We posted this Imponderable on several online fishing forums, and received plenty of anecdotal evidence that fish bite more in rainy weather. “Jimbo’s” response was typical:
The fishing has always been good just before and during a rain, and that’s the reason why so many of us are tempted at times to cast our better judgment aside and risk staying out sometimes a little longer than we should with the approach of a storm.
In roughly descending order of popularity, here are the main beliefs about why fish bite more when it rains.
1. Dinner Is Served!
Many fishermen echoed the sentiments of “Bazztex,” an avid bass-fishing Texan:
The primary reason rain makes fish feed is the food sources it exposes. Insects and small crustaceans, even small animals, get washed into the water. This sets up a food chain reaction with baitfish feeding on the bugs and bigger fish feeding on the baitfish attracted to the bugs.
Heavy rains that cause a rise in lake or stream levels flood new cover. This exposes new food sources and attracts the fish that exploit the easy meals that await. The newly flooded landscape also gives the fish new cover to hide from predators. It’s a win-win situation: Nature provides and fishermen enjoy the benefits.
Mark Bain, a fish biologist at Cornell University, confirms that the rain can even dig up new food opportunities for bottom-feeders, such as catfish:
Catfish have many sensory organs on their bodies and they live in tough conditions along the bottom, where other fish would not be able to survive. Rain tends to stir up the water and disrupt the bottom. This helps the catfish when cruising for food, as they are able to sense new food sources opening up for them. Fishermen can take advantage of this by fishing for catfish in the rain, when the fish may be more aggressive.
2. It’s the Barometer, Baby!
Before a rain, the barometric pressure falls. Fishermen believe that fish can sense the barometric change and get more aggressive. Captain John Leech, a full-time professional fisherman and bass guide, wrote to Imponderables:
The study of weather will give us a bigger piece of the puzzle of fish behavior than any other single study…. After three days of any constant weather, the fish will start to become accustomed to the conditions and return to a normal activity. The passing of fronts is the change factor. Warm fronts are the fish-catching fronts. Cloudy weather, dropping barometer, south to west winds are the predominant conditions. Resident fish will move out from under the heavy cover to the edge and feed. The deep open-water fish will move to all breaks, even to the shallows to feed.
What explains this behavior? Professor Bain confirms that fish can sense barometric pressure changes, and the most likely explanation for this gift is to allow them to sense when food might be difficult for them to acquire (such as when there is a storm). Instinctively, then, fish may sense a drop in barometric pressure as a time to start eating “while the getting is good.” Biologists don’t know for sure exactly how fish sense barometric changes, but one common theory is that the “lateral line,” a collection of hairlike structures along the flanks of most fish, is responsible. We know that fish use the lateral line to detect pressure waves from other fish to protect themselves when they are about to be attacked, even if they can’t see or smell the potential predator.
At least one credible source minimizes the importance of barometric changes in affecting fish feeding behavior. B. C. Roemer, president of ScentHead, a company that manufactures artificial baits, writes:
Can a fish notice this small change and has it anything to do with feeding (the bite)? I don’t know, nor does anyone else. I do know that just before a storm (and even in it) fish turn the bite on. This is a well-proven fact. But does a low barometer affect the fish’s body to trigger the bite? I don’t think so, assuming a bass is about at a 3-foot depth. Under normal swimming it would have to stay exactly at that level or the pressure from the water would increase or decrease a lot more than the small air-pressure change. So it’s reasonable to disregard barometer readings. Something else is going on to produce the bite.
Roemer notes that a fish swimming even a few inches up toward the surface or lower toward the floor will feel a much greater change in pressure from their altitude than because of barometric fluctuations due to weather patterns. Mark Bain acknowledges the truth of Roemer’s assertion, but adds that fish may be able to sense the outside pressure changes independently, in a way that we do not understand.
3. The Eyes Have It!
The clearer the water is, the more fish act defensively. In his article in Field & Stream, Jack Kulpa notes this effect:
Even the biggest largemouth bass feels exposed and vulnerable in direct sunlight. On the brightest days these fish burrow into weeds or head for deep, dark water where they are all but inactive and unapproachable. Yet as daylight fades with the approach of a storm, even big bass are lulled into a sense of security. When that happens, they may strike suddenly and unexpectedly.
Mark Bain notes that rain tends to reduce water clarity. Although turbid water makes it harder for predators to attack, it also decreases a fish’s visual access to food. Many experts believe that fish learn when the water turns cloudy that they had better look for food fast, before a storm renders it too difficult to find and eat a proper meal. For the fisherman, this can be a mixed blessing. Says Bain:
If the fish turn off from feeding, that will be bad. But if they’re hungry, they will tend to take bait more freely if it is presented directly in front of them.
With rain comes clouds, and when there is a cloud cover, less ultraviolet light penetrates the water. Fish are sensitive to light and are more apt to feed when there is relatively less light in the water. This is probably a major reason why the presumed best times for fishing are early morning and late evening, when temperatures are cool—
these are both times of reduced light above and below water. When it rains and the cloud cover darkens the sky and the water, the fish may be tricked into thinking that it is actually late evening. This theory is hard to prove—we were unable to get a fish to comment on or off the record.
4. It’s the Water!
A light rain aerates the water, which has the effect of naturally oxygenating the water in the same way that those little bubble machines do in an aquarium. Jack Kulpa notes that the combination of cooler water temperature and increased oxygen seems to give bass (and other fish) a burst of energy, sort of the fish equivalent of a cup of joe.
In his book Keeper of the Stream, author Frank Sawyer notes that the water seems to come alive after rainfall, partly because flies hatch in profusion, possibly because of the aeration. If flies are hatching, fish are trying to eat them, and fisherman are trying to capitalize on their prey’s increased biting.
5. Hear No Evil!
Water is an excellent conductor of sound, so any noise generated will travel through the water. Johnny Hickman, an avid fisherman based in West Texas, shared a theory with Imponderables that posits that audio might be a key component in the answer:
In a steady rain, the thousands of raindrops hitting the water will be pretty noisy underwater, providing a kind of “white noise” that will tend to hide man-made noises. Add to that the decreased visibility due to cloud cover and the constantly disturbed surface of the water and you get a situation that makes the fish less spooky.
6. It’s the Humans, Stupid!
Could the human psyche play a role in success in fishing? One authority, Lesley Crawford, writes in his book, The Trout Fisher’s Handbook,
I haven’t come up with enough evidence to convince myself that fishing is better in the rain. One thing that I do know is the importance of confidence. If you think and are confident that fishing is better in the rain, then you will catch more fish because you expect to, and, as a result, probably fish better, too—which is, perhaps, the real reason that you are catching fish!
But more than positive thinking might be involved. If it rains, less hardy (or less crazy) fishermen retreat to their campsites or automobiles (or nearby tavern) and there is less competition to catch fish, accounting for more success per active fisher. The fish may be more likely to feed when fewer humans are afoot and fewer boats are mauling the serenity of the water.
Fishermen, with luck, are a little brighter than the average trout, and anglers have gained knowledge about the predictable habits of fish during rain. If fish are known to retreat to an isolated inlet when it rains, hardcore fishermen will brave the elements to drop lines there. If they know that a storm will cause fish to withdraw to the lower depths, then fishermen will cast lower than they normally would.
The Dissenters
A minority, but a vocal one, isn’t so sure that fish do bite more when it rains, at least not consistently so. One group, the Forest Preserve of Cook County (Illinois), tabulated daily records of catches over a twelve-year period, from 1932 to 1943, with over 15,000 pounds of hook-and-line fish caught by its members.
The group’s conclusion? There was a slight increase in catch rate when it rained at least one-half inch, but not at all on the days after. Surprisingly, bass bit almost twice as much when the water cleared up two or three weeks later, but it didn’t seem to matter whether the weather was fair or cloudy, from what direction the wind was coming, whether it was day or night, or whether the barometer was high or low, rising or falling. The group also found no significant difference between the catch rate of men versus women:
During the entire twelve years, men averaged 3.25 pounds per day, while the women averaged 3.22 pounds. Of course, the men say they hooked a lot of big ones that got away.
Others who have conducted more limited experiments have issued conflicting reports about the role of barometric pressure, cloud cover, temperature, and rainfall on biting patterns of fish.
All these different theories make our heads spin, and since we can’t seem to catch fish in any environment other than a stocked pond, we identify more with the sentiments of “Mudcat,” a fishing hobbyist who preferred to theorize about the effects of rain upon humans, or at least one human:
I know that rain sure makes me hungry. Just last weekend [during a rainstorm], I had eight tacos and two burritos in one sitting.
Submitted by Professor Elizabeth Goldsmith
of Tallahassee, Florida.
WHY ARE TELEVISION SETS MEASURED DIAGONALLY?
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Rarely has any Imponderable elicited such hemming and hawing. But then we found the brave man who would utter what others were merely hinting at. So we yield the floor to Scott J. Stevens, senior patent counsel for Thomson Consumer Electronics, a division of General Electric: “…the diagonal measurement is larger than either the horizontal or vertical measurement, hence making the picture appear as large as possible to potential customers.”
Submitted by John D. Claypoole, Jr. of Norwalk, Connecticut.
Thanks also to Mike Ricksgers of Saxonburg, Pennsylvania.
WHY ARE THE UNIFORMS OF PROFESSIONAL JAPANESE BASEBALL PLAYERS PRINTED IN ENGLISH LETTERS AND ARABIC NUMBERS?
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Japanese society is sometimes accused of insularity, yet the country has not only adopted American baseball as its favorite team sport, but displays the names of its heroes in English. How did this happen?
Most historians date the birth of baseball in Japan to the early 1870s, at what is now Tokyo University. Horace Wilson, an American professor, taught students how to play. According to Ritomo Tsunashima, an editor and writer who writes a column about uniforms for Shukan Baseball magazine in Japan, these students were probably then wearing kimonos and hakama (trousers designed to be worn with kimonos).
In 1878, the Shinbashi Athletic Club established the first baseball team in Japan, and they were the first team to wear a uniform. The team’s founder, Hiroshi Hiraoka, was raised in Boston, Massachusetts, and bought the equipment and uniforms to conform to what he saw in the United States at that time. Tsunashima observes that in the early days of the game in Japan,
The players of baseball were fans of the Western style of life, and they were fond of Western culture. When exactly alphabet letters appeared on uniforms is unknown, but likely it was shortly after letters appeared on uniforms in the United States.
The first professional team in Japan that had uniforms with printed English words and names was founded in 1921, but disbanded in 1929. But in 1934, a U.S. all-star team containing such legendary figures as Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig visited Japan. To challenge the visitors, Japan assembled a team that eventually became the Yomiuri Giants. When the Giants returned the favor the following year and visited the United States, their uniforms contained the kanji (i.e., Japanese) alphabet and numbers, but this was an anomaly.
When the first professional baseball league formed in Japan in 1936, the players appeared with an English alphabet and Arabic numbers on their front—the Tokyo Giants appeared with “Giants” emblazoned on their chests. During World War II, kanji characters reappeared, as Western symbols were obviously frowned upon. Tsunashima writes:
Professional baseball continued during the bombing raids by the United States in 1943, but playing baseball was finally forbidden in 1944. After World War II, professional baseball started again with the English language [on the uniforms], and kanji letters were never used again.
Why has English superseded kanji, especially when amateur and school baseball teams usually use Japanese characters? We haven’t been able to find any answer more fitting than Robert Fitts’s, owner of RobsJapaneseCards.com:
Because it’s cool. Just the same as when people call me and say, “I want Japanese baseball cards written in Japanese,” and I have to tell them, “They don’t make them.”
Submitted by Marshall Berke and Chris Tancredi
of Brooklyn, New York.
WHICH SIDE GETS THE GAME BALL WHEN A
FOOTBALL GAME ENDS IN A TIE?
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Jim Heffernan, director of public relations for the National Football League, told Imponderables that NFL rules require that each home team provide twenty-four footballs for the playing of each game. The home team and the visiting team each provide additional balls for their pregame practice.
A “game ball,” contrary to popular belief, is not one football given to the winning side. Game balls are rewards for players and coaches who, as Heffernan puts it, “have done something special in a particular game.” The game-ball awards are usually doled out by the coach; on some teams, the captains determine the recipients.
Imponderables: Fun and Games Page 8
