38 



Flounders are taken by stake nets, trawl nets, and many 

 have been taken by salmon nets drifting over the banks at 

 high-water time. Some few are taken by means of 

 " Tees," a method of set-line fishing, but having pins 

 instead of hooks. The pins are bent to an obtuse angle, 

 and form a toggle when taken by the fluke, they are 

 baited with worms {Arenicola), shrimps, cockle, or mus- 

 sels. Many are also taken by means of the fluke rake, 

 that is, a rake about 3 feet wide with teeth 6 inches 

 apart and of the same length, but lineable with the shaft 

 and not at right angle to it, as in the ordinary rake. Each 

 tooth is barbed on one side, and the rake is used from a 

 boat drifting slowly with the current (the drift is regulated 

 by a heavy stone to the cable over the centre of the length 

 of the boat, and so she is kept broadside to the current), 

 by a man probing (" probbing " locally) the rake into the 

 sand to a depth of 4 to 5 inches. Wheu he feels any 

 extra resistance to the rake entering the sand, he lifts the 

 rake above water to see if he has a fish or not. Half 

 a hundred weight is not an uncommon catch in a tide by 

 this method of fishing. 



The white fluke, being for the most part of its life 

 within reach of our fishermen using second class boats, it 

 is the fish, above all others, which it would be most 

 profitable to hatch and set free in large numbers with the 

 view of assisting our local fisheries. 



