6 4 



MODERN SEA FISHING 



Tyne, and here a good deal of line work is done. The place 

 possesses a small harbour. All along the Northumbrian 

 coast are dotted little fishing villages, the inhabitants of which 

 use the curious craft known as cobbles. 



This concludes my brief survey of the English, Welsh, 

 Scotch (including the outlying islands) and Irish coasts ; but 

 nothing has been said about the Channel Islands. There is a 

 good deal of fishing both from pier and boat at St. Peter's 

 Port, Guernsey, which should be visited between April and 

 July, and the fishermen of the island are particularly expert 

 in the use of the living sand eel as bait. It was from them, I 

 believe, that Mr. Wilcocks learnt the importance and value of 

 the method which he has introduced among fishermen on the 

 English coasts. There is a great deal of sea fishing also round 

 Jersey, but Mr. Wilcocks says it is not so good as in the 

 neighbourhood of the sister islands. Alderney affords first- 

 rate pollack fishing, and bream, pout, and occasionally bass are 

 plentiful. It is not altogether safe to go beyond the break- 

 water without a local boatman, as the currents which twist and 

 twirl among the rocks are dangerous near the island of Burhou, 

 beyond the Singe Passage. Capital fishing and many varieties 

 of sea fish are caught from the breakwater and other suitable 

 places along the shore. The Channel Island fishermen are 

 expert in the use of a shrimp ground bait called cheruin, which 

 reminds me that they term smelts, gradots ; pollack, whiting ; 

 octopus, pieuvre ; squid, conee ; and cuttlefish, seche. 



Of course I make no pretence of writing a complete guide 

 to the British and Irish coasts. I have simply aimed at giving, 

 in these few notes, a general idea of those parts of the coasts 

 at which good sport may be expected, and also of certain 

 places which should be shunned by the enthusiastic sea fisher. 



A word here as to the importance of the British fisheries. 

 At the fishing stations I have referred to were landed during 



