4 MODERN SEA FISHING 



of the fact that within an easy ride of London, in water which 

 is fairly slumbrous, and at no great expense, a hamper of edible 

 fish may be caught with much the same tackle as we should 

 use for perch fishing. I could mention many other takes, made 

 by amateur sea fishermen, which go to prove that our modern 

 methods of sea fishing are attended with great success, and 

 that the rod is a valuable addition to one's gear if judiciously 

 used, though sea fishermen of the old school are inclined to 

 smile at it. The following captures are within the experience 

 of one clever and enthusiastic sea angler of my acquaintance : 

 To begin with, thirteen and a half dozen dabs and plaice, 

 from | Ib. to z\ Ibs., in half a day's fishing. Twelve dozen 

 whiting pouts, none under i Ib. and some over 2 Ibs., in half a 

 day. Twenty-seven and a half dozen dabs in Torbay in two 

 hours, taken by two rods, with a little assistance from a third, 

 breaking the local record. A mixed bag of six dozen heavy 

 fish conger, skate, bream and pollack taken in a rough sea 

 in five hours. About three dozen pollack and coalfish, vary- 

 ing from \ Ib. to 6 Ibs. ; three coalfish being caught at once 

 (on a light single gut cast), weighing together 10 Ibs. The 

 baits were soleskin flies. Twenty pollack, 4 Ibs. to 9 Ibs. each, 

 taken on flies, in a little over one and a half hour. Eighty- 

 seven coalfish, \ Ib. to 4 Ibs., caught by fair casting with a white 

 fly, in about three hours one evening. 



Bass, pollack, coalfish, and, less often, the grey mullet, 

 are fish which, when in the humour, take the fly readily 

 enough ; and by fly I mean just that combination of fur 

 and feather, which is intended by the salmon fisher when 

 he uses the same expression, and represents a small marine 

 creature of some kind or other. Of course there is no rise 

 of pale watery duns, or jenny spinners, or mayflies on the 

 sea. An odd butterfly or two, migrating from the Continent, 

 may perhaps be drowned and eaten by a hungry billet or 



