ROD FISHING IN THE SEA. Zz 



was pretty well taken up by my rods. I had three 

 hours' fishing along these rocks, and had finer sport than 

 I anticipated. On one occasion I thought that I had "a 

 monster" on my fly rod, but it turned out that I had three 

 fish, one on each fly. Luckily for me, that on my bob fly 

 was not a large one. The others were good fish, and, 

 on landing all three, which I succeeded in doing, I found 

 that they weighed together about nine pounds. Just 

 as I landed them, a sea bream of about three pqunds was 

 taken by the gibbon, which had got a good deal too deep 

 in the water, so that I had variety in my fishing. " We 

 are going to make a rare fishing of it yet, sir," said 

 Robert, and sure enough we did, for I took fish with the 

 fly very rapidly. Such as were small I threw back into 

 the sea, trusting that they would profit by the lesson, and 

 remember that certain yellow or red fhes had stings in 

 their tails. As we were going slowly back over the ground 

 which we had been fishing I struck a big fish with the troll. 

 " Another good one," said I, for the rush was that of a 

 strong fish ; but suddenly he stopped, and in a second or 

 two afterwards away came the line, leaving the hook and 

 gibbon behind. " How's that, Robert," said I, for I had 

 been treating the fish " tenderly." " Conger, sir," said 

 Robert, " there's a many of them hereabouts, and that's 

 just a conger's trick." And so I fancy it was, for when I 

 reeled up I found that the gut had vbeen bit clean in 

 two. The damage was soon repaired, and before I gave 

 . up that evening, many another good fish was in the boat. 

 As the last rays of the sun sank in the west we pulled 

 straight away for home, and, on our arrival at Ramsey 



