i6 



MODERN SEA FISHING 



is rising. 1 When it has risen to its full height the term flood 

 tide, or high water, is used. When the tide turns and the water 

 begins to run in the opposite direction, it is said to be not flow- 

 ing, but ebbing, and the period during which the water ebbs is 

 termed the ebb tide. Just between the end of the flood and 

 the beginning of the ebb, or, in other words, at the turn of the 

 tide, the speed of the tidal current gradually falls off, or eases 

 (in nautical language), until there is no perceptible current 

 whatever. Then the water starts ebbing in the opposite di- 

 rection, slowly at first, and quickening until it reaches its full 

 speed, falling off or slackening again as we get to the end of the 

 ebb. In many places the tidal current is so strong that it is 

 impossible to let down a line and keep the lead on the bottom 

 except during the hour or so immediately before and immedi- 

 ately after the turn of the tide that is to say, when the tide 

 is slack. 



The actual number of feet the water rises and falls varies 

 every day, and will be found stated in the tide tables, which 

 should always be bought. In the Bristol Channel the rise on 

 some days is as much as twenty-two feet, while on others it 

 will be as little as fifteen or sixteen feet. On some parts of the 

 coast the rise is comparatively insignificant five or six feet 

 perhaps. Every fortnight we have almost the greatest variation 

 in the rise of the water that is to say, the highest water at the 

 flood and the lowest water at the ebb : these are called spring 

 tides (the term has nothing whatever to do with the spring of 

 the year), and occur at the times of the new and full moon. 

 The spring tide of the full moon, when the best fishing is usu- 

 ally obtained, is somewhat greater than the spring tide which 

 occurs when the moon is new. Between the periods of full 



1 In some places e.g. in the Downs owing to the configuration of the 

 bottom, trend of the coast, &c. , curious tidal currents are formed, with the 

 result that water continues to flow some time after it has begun to fall. 



