60 MODERN SEA FISHING 



cod and codling. The estuary of the Blackwater sometimes 

 swarms with them in the autumn, and between Walton-on-the 

 Naze and Cromer thousands are caught every year both from 

 boats and from the shore. A small run of these fish makes its 

 appearance about September mere infants, weighing from 

 one to two pounds ; but as time goes on these either grow 

 or are succeeded by shoals of larger and older fish, and in 

 November and later a fair number of very large cod are 

 taken. 



In a chapter devoted to the methods of fishing from the 

 shore, I have described both the old-fashioned way of using 

 'throw-out' lines and the more artistic, and certainly more 

 killing, method of casting out a paternoster, so I need not advert 

 to these here ; suffice it to say that the fishing is found within 

 a few yards of the beach, where, I suppose, the cod come to 

 feed on the shrimps, &c., which are stirred up by the action of 

 the waves. 



I have never heard that there was much fishing at Harwich ; 

 but towards Aldeburgh and Lowestoft not only large numbers 

 of cod and codling but also a few large bass are caught every 

 autumn. Lowestoft deserves a special mention. Both the new 

 and the old harbours abound with large flounders, which may be 

 taken with live shrimps as bait all through the summer months. 

 Dozens of anglers, rod in hand, may be seen seated along 

 the quay side of the new fish market, many of them fishing in 

 midwater for the flat fish on the bottom ! It is far more pleasant 

 to obtain permission to sit in one of the fishing boats moored 

 out in the harbour, choosing for preference some spot where 

 the shrimpers have been sifting their catches through sieves 

 held over the water, for the small discarded shrimps are a very 

 attractive ground bait. There flounders, called locally 'butts,' 

 will probably abound. Smelts are plentiful in the harbour, and 

 there are legends of grey mullet in the tidal broad at the back 



