DRIFT-NET FISHING. 99 



from the net, the mesh slips forward and catches in the 

 gill-openings, from which it cannot easily be cleared 

 without more or less injury to the fish. In drift-net 

 fishing, then, the nets act as barriers to intercept the 

 moving shoals, and the fish become meshed in their 

 attempts to pass through. 



Tliis method of fishing is, with very rare exceptions, 

 carried on only at niglit ; ^ and it is found that just 

 after sunset and before sunrise, when the change from 

 light to darkness, or the reverse, is taking place, the 

 fish are especially likely to " strike " the net ; they 

 appear to be then particularly on the move, the change 

 of light affecting them in some manner which is but 

 little understood. That the fish are really impelled to 

 " move," as it is called — that is, to become more active 

 or to rise to the surface, when there is a change of 

 light — appears tolerably certain, at all events, in the 

 case of the herring; it often happening, as is well 

 known to the fishermen, that wlien the nets have some- 

 times been in the water during many hours of dark- 

 ness, without signs of fish, there has been a heavy 

 strike just as the moon has risen ; although the con- 

 tinued brightness of a moonlight night is generally 

 considered unfavourable for fishing, especially if the 

 water be tolerably clear. Indeed, one of the con- 

 ditions of successful drift-fishing is that the nets should 

 not be easily discernible ; and on the rare occasions 

 when it is attempted by daylight, discoloured water is 

 essential to success. Good hauls have sometimes been 

 made under such circumstances both at Yarmouth and 

 on the coast of Scotland. 



^ In Waterford Harbour we have seen drift-nets worked dnring the day for 

 catching sahnon ; but for the ordinary purposes of open-sea fishing they are 

 seldom used except at night. 



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