ioo MODERN SEA FISHING 



or other flat fish, somewhere about the size of a five-shilling 

 piece, are first-rate baits, used alive, for large bass. They are 

 obtainable in unlimited quantities from the shrimpers. 



Garfish. The garfish, which, as will be seen by reference 

 to Chapter XI., is known by a large variety of names, is 

 occasionally cut up when nothing better offers. A strip of its 

 skin makes a very fair whiffing bait for pollack, mackerel and 

 bass, and in small pieces it can be used near the bottom for 

 whiting, cod, &c. It should be quite fresh for these purposes. 



Gentles are the larvae of the bluebottle and other flies, 

 and are very easily bred in summer, when they are only too 

 numerous at butchers' and tallow chandlers'. They are 

 little used as sea-fish baits except for grey mullet, which 

 occasionally take them in the brackish water of harbours. I 

 have no doubt, however, that if any place was carefully baited 

 with a quantity of these little creatures, several other varieties 

 of sea fish could be educated up to eating them. In hot weather 

 gentles turn into the chrysalis state very quickly unless kept in 

 a dark, cool place in bran or damp sand, the latter being the 

 best. It is not difficult to keep a supply of these creatures all 

 through the winter. They should be placed in a wide-mouthed 

 pickle bottle with common mould, corked up, and buried so far 

 below the ground that the frost will not reach them. In hot 

 summer weather, when gentles are turning quickly, they can be 

 steamed and kept a few days ; but the live creature is probably 

 the more killing. 



Gurnard. Pieces of grey gurnard are good bait for many 

 kinds of fish, and the skin, either dried or fresh, is most useful. 

 For whiffing or casting a bait can be sliced out of the belly of 

 the gurnard. It should be well scraped and shaped to resemble 

 the sole-skin fly shown on p. 138, but the tail end may with 

 advantage be prolonged for half an inch and weighted with a 

 shot, which helps to make it waggish and lifelike. The strip 



