When is a Fish Not a Fish

When a Fish is Not a Fish

by

Loretta C. Rogers

(The Fishy Origins of The Red Herring)

I grew up in a family that loved to fish. We didn’t use rod and reels. Nope! It was cane poles with a line, a hook and a bobber. Red wrigglers or crickets were the bait of choice. I have to admit that I didn’t like getting worm poop on my fingers so I mostly used crickets. We dipped our corks for all types of fresh water fish: stump knockers, brim, warmouth perch, blue gill, and catfish, to name a few. Fishing was usually a family affair. My grandparents, various aunts and uncles, and a passel of cousins gathered along the banks of a creek, a lake, or a river. We were poor and couldn’t afford a boat. As we lined the banks there was no laughing or talking or complaining. No sirree, fishing was a serious business. After a day’s catch, we’d load up the 

cars and head home.

The best part of family fishing wasn’t who caught the biggest fish or who caught the most—nope! It was the eatin’. To enjoy the feast everyone pitched in. Granny would always say, “If you want to eat, you gotta earn your keep.” We young’uns would scale the fish, the men would clean out the innards, and the women would fry ‘em up along with a large pot of grits and piles hushpuppies. Yum! Afterwards, the uncles would break out the guitars and serenade us.

These are some good childhood memories, but what does this have to do with when a fish is not a fish? Well, you know me I’m not going to keep you in suspense.

Back to my childhood (one more time). Herring is smoked fish in a can. Granny always said herring, especially red herring, was for rich folks.  Now let’s fast forward to present day and my primary topic.

As an author of mostly Historical romance, I decided to challenge myself and write a cozy mystery series; and let me tell you, it has been a challenge. This is when I learned that a red herring isn’t a fish. Rather, a red herring is a story clue that is intended to be misleading or distracting and leads the sleuth away from the villain.

Being the inquisitive person that I am, I wondered how a story clue came to be named after a fish. I found a couple of interesting explanations: 1) “In the 1600’s when early settlers hunted, they would leave red herring along their trail because the strong fishy smell would confuse wolves which is the origin of the expression red herring meaning "a false trail." 2) “British fugitives in the 1800s would rub the pungent odor of a herring across their trail, thereby diverting the bloodhounds that were hot in pursuit.”

When writing a mystery, I try to keep a balance between the real evidence and clues and the false ones. Readers love a puzzle, but they don’t want to be tricked. This is why I try not to have more than three red herrings in each mystery story.

Use red herrings as a device in the middle section of your story to build tension. When you’ve built a strong protagonist, the reader will believe, as the protagonist does, that a true clue is at the root of the discovery path.

Also, a little advice to writers: make sure the red herrings you create integrate with the overall theme and mystery otherwise these clues may feel as if you have padded the story just to make word count.

Flashback to childhood: When I’d get discouraged because everyone around me was catching fish, my granddaddy would say: “Spit on the worm,” or he’d say, “You’re not holding your mouth right.”

Just like I expected to catch fish, readers expect red herrings in a mystery. Readers enjoy rooting for your sleuth and discovering how he or she meets each challenge to solve the crime and catch the criminal. Keep your readers guessing with well-placed false clues to enhance your storyline.

And that, folks, is when a fish is not a fish.