"The Fish" (translated also as "The Burbot", Russian: Налим, romanized: Nalim), is an 1885 short story by Anton Chekhov.

[1] On a hot summer day two carpenters, Gerasim and Lyubim, sit in a pond, floundering about in the water under a willow tree, beside the unfinished bathing shed they were supposed to be working on.

The landlord Andrey Andreitch appears, feeling very angry, but, intrigued by the news of an eelpout defying its catchers from under a tree, first orders his coachman Vasily to join the team, then, exasperated with the foursome's incompetence, undresses and goes into the pond himself.

He raises it triumphantly over his head, but then... "The fish makes a sudden upward movement with its tail and the fishermen hear a loud splash .

[2] The story was published for the first time by Peterburgskaya Gazeta, in its 1 July 1885, No.177 issue, subtitled "A Scene" (Сценка) and signed A. Chekhonte (А. Чехонте).