herring-fry

Education could go no further in that course, and ran off into emotion; but, as the boy gradually found his surroundings change, and felt himself no longer an isolated atom in a hostile universe, but a sort of herring-fry in a shoal of moving fish, he began to learn the first and easier lessons of practical politics.

Washington (1850–1854) 1918

All is over, and the place is very silent, except for the clink of hammers where they are breaking down our wooden walls, and, seaward, the cry and splash of gull and tern dipping for their prey in the shoal of herring-fry which is wandering about the bay.

Uppingham by the Sea a Narrative of the Year at Borth John Huntley Skrine 1885

Again, there were the birds, many always on shore and marsh; but when the herring-fry passed up the bay the birds positively possessed it.

Uppingham by the Sea a Narrative of the Year at Borth John Huntley Skrine 1885