120 BUSINESS MEN ON HAKE PROBLEMS 



to call ' The Bay of Hakes ' — usually lasts about six weeks, 

 and, with the exception of small haddocks, during these six 

 weeks no other hsh are caught. Out to the westward, on the 

 other hand, quantities of bream are caught up to the time the 

 hake set in. But with the arrival of the hake the bream 

 largely disappear. A skipper will often go out to the westward 

 at the beginning of the hake season, and wait there a week or 

 more till the fish come in, so surely can a first-class fisherman 

 anticipate the run. But hake-lishing, like all deep-sea fishing, 

 is a desperate gamble. In January 1921, for instance, a skipper 

 who went out into the Bay of Biscay has just come back to 

 Swansea. He towed 150 miles in the Bay, and caught six hake. 

 ' Monks ' {Lophius piscatorius) were, it is true, plentiful. But 

 a voyage of monks is cold comfort to a skipper out for large 

 hake, for monks, though they are in the writer's judgement one 

 of the most delicious of all fishes, will as a rule sell for less than 

 one-third of the price of hake, and are, in Swansea, counted as 

 ' stocker ' — the perquisite of the crew. 



Mr. M. H. Neale on Hake Fishing 



Mr. M. H. Neale, son of the late Mr. J. J. Neale, of Cardiff, 

 has kindly written as follows : 



' I have been looking back through our records, and I find 

 the hake-fishing continually changes ^ Ten years ago at this 

 time of the year (March) we were fishing in the same spots as 

 at present. Hake was being caught from the Westward 

 Ground (about 260 miles from Lundy), and the best trips of 

 hake were obtained from the Bay of Biscay (in the deep water). 

 We have had no trawler fishing the Bay of Biscay this year, 

 but several have landed in Swansea, one yesterday " grossed " 

 £1 ,400. Before the war we sent regularly to the Bay of Biscay, 

 and reckoned the best months to be February, March, and 

 April. We have caught quantities there as late as June, but 

 it pays us better to send to nearer grounds before then.' 



His ships fish the Porcupine Bank from August to December. 

 Hake is to be found in fair quantities during these months on 

 the edge of the bank. Pollack, ling, bream, and megrims 

 are numerous, and can be caught all the year round. In 

 Galway Bay the hake are to be had in September and October. 

 Here the fish all seem to arrive on one day to spawn. They 

 have roes in them ' well on in September '. ' Below the Bull ', 

 i.e. anywhere between 45 and 110 miles from the Bull rock, 



^ Every one is agreed on this point. The hake season oflF St. Kilda sets in 

 sometimes in June, and sometimes not till the middle of August. Fishermen 

 say thai the later it starts, the longer it lasts. 



