32 MODERN SEA FISHING 



line further seaward than was possible with my lighter tackle. 

 Yet, as a rule, I could catch two or three times as many fish on 

 my two hooks as any of these men did on their thirteen hooks. 

 There is mention in my diary of an evening when the pater- 

 noster killed twenty-four fish while the men on each side of me 

 with the twenty-six hooks between them landed only three. I 

 can claim no particular credit or skill for this. The explana- 

 tion is simple. The throw-out lines were heavily leaded, and 

 it was only the most vigorous bites which were felt. On my 

 tackle I could detect the slightest bite, strike at once, and so 

 catch fish while the hand-liners were having their hooks robbed 

 of bait. 



On the whole, the sea seems to afford even greater possibili- 

 ties of sport than does fresh water, more particularly now that 

 so many rivers are polluted and over-fished. Artificial fish 

 culture has been the salvation of certain trout streams and 

 salmon rivers ; but in the sea this generation at least has a 

 natural store of splendid fish, many of them as sport-giving as 

 any found in river or lake. All men, rich and poor, are free to 

 catch what they can, and those who choose to travel northwards 

 will find themselves amid as grand scenery as that commonly 

 associated with the watersheds of the finest salmon or trout 

 streams. A popular fallacy exists in connection with the supr 

 posed ubiquity of fish in the sea. Not a few people consider 

 it the duty of Nature to provide fish for them wherever they 

 choose to drop in a baited line. Acting on this principle, 

 and failing to hook anything, they decry the sport. Now, sea 

 fish are not scattered about in this indiscriminate way. 

 Many of them are migratory in their habits and swim in shoals. 

 Occasionally they leave certain districts for a time, perhaps four 

 or five years, and then return again. Certain localities they 

 always seem to favour ; others they apparently dislike, and 

 they seek comparatively shallow water rather than the deeps 



