216 Fishing in Estuaries. Chapx. xvn. 



baited are trailed well behind the vessel as she sails, one from each 

 ami of ihe yard, and one from the mast head. They are thus kept 

 well apart out of danger of tangling. A bridle or connecting line, one 

 from each of these lines to the deck, makes it easy to tell if there 

 is a fish on, and to pull the line in so as to have it and the fish on 

 deck. This style of fishing wants a good breeze. " It's the pace 

 " that kills" fish. This I give from hearsay, not personal trial, 

 for my "soul does sicken o'er the heaving wave." 



Friends going home by P. and 0. tell me that they have caught 

 fish in this way from the steamer. They did nothing in the deep sea, 

 but in those parts of the Red Sea where they ran near land or rocky 

 shallows they killed big fish in spite of the jeers of incredulous 

 fellow passengers. The hook about the size of No. 10/0 Limerick 

 was on thick wire, the body weighted with lead and covered with 

 white rag, the wings and tail being of the same. 



But splendid sport though estuary fish give you at times, 

 I cannot but say that, in my estimation, estuary fishing is highly 

 unsatisfactory, for the simple reasons that the fish, whose habits 

 are governed by the tides, will not take except at the right time of 

 the tide. If the tide would always turn conveniently, just half 

 an hour after one got out of Cutchery, I would not complain. 

 But as it is, the chances are just about twenty-three to one against 

 your hitting off the right time. If your time is your own like 

 a native fisherman's, and you do not mind a little sun, and can 

 study the tides, and be on the spot at the right time, then you 

 may have excellent sport. But how few Europeans there are in 

 India who have the necessary leisure. If you have the leisure, and 

 have come to know their times, this very periodicity of their 

 taking is in your favour. The tish are all on the feed at the 

 same time, and to be able to predict this beforehand, and to 

 arrange to meet them at dinner, is n wry great point indeed. 

 What lucky and uncertain hours are those when the tro are 

 fairly on the feed, in a taking humour at home. How one fis<K 3 on, 

 hour after hour, in England, in spite of indifferent sport, in the 

 expectancy that at any time in the day there may be a change, 

 with the air full of Hies, and the water covered with circles. But 

 there is not such an amount of uncertainty about the estuary tish. 

 He takes his meals at regular intervals, and you can tell his 

 dinner hour as well as he can himself, for his clock is in the 



