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"There was a time when one old eccentric guy with a notebook could do something important to science. Now even the resources of a major university are often not enough."
- Jerry Pournelle

Robot Fish (Metal Fish)  
  Fake flounders for sport fishermen on Martian canals.  

Earliest use of the idea of a "robot fish", as far as I know.

Deveet’s line tightened. He pulled in a streamlined, flapping object from which the light glistened wetly.

“Good catch,” complimented Jonner. “That’s worth a full credit.”

Deveet unhooked his catch and laid it on the bank beside him. It was a metal fish: live fish were unknown on Mars. They paid for the privilege of fishing for a certain time and any fish caught were “sold” back to the management at a fixed price, depending on size, to be put back into the lake.

“You’re pretty good at it,” said Jonner. “That’s your third tonight.”

“It’s all in the speed at which you reel in your line,” explained Deveet. “The fish move at pre-set speeds. They’re made to turn and catch a hook that moves across their path at a slightly slower speed than they’re swimming. The management changes the speeds once a week to keep the fishermen from getting too expert.”

Technovelgy from Atom Drive, by Charles Fontenay.
Published by If in 1956
Additional resources -

Compare to the robofish from Slow Life by Michael Swanwick.

At Kokomo Joe’s a 1989 story by Brooke Stauffer, contains the actual phrase:

The waves was twinklin’ in the sunshine and there was flyin’ fish around the bow thick as crickets. Once one of ’em jumped too high and landed on deck. I went to throw it back but then I seen it was busted open an’ there was wires and things sticking out of the hole. A robot fish, who’d of thought it? But there was real ones too!

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Atom Drive
  More Ideas and Technology by Charles Fontenay
  Tech news articles related to Atom Drive
  Tech news articles related to works by Charles Fontenay

Robot Fish (Metal Fish)-related news articles:
  - Ultra-Realistic Robotic Arowana Robo-Fish

Articles related to Robotics
Mori3 Autonomous Shapeshifting Robot
Tesla Seeks 'Tesla Robotaxi' And 'Robobus' Trademarks Ignoring Prior Art
Scary Grid Safety Robots
Humanoid Boxing Robot KO's Opponent - It's A Knockout!

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