BAITS 117 



ragworms perhaps keeping best in sand or seaweed. The 

 placing of these worms for a night in powdered saltpetre or 

 salt has been advised. I have not experimented with this 

 process, which kills the worms and is supposed to toughen 

 them. 



There are two ways of using ragworms. Two or three may 

 be hooked through the head and used as a 

 whiffing bait ; or they may be placed on mo- 

 derate-sized hooks and fished with a pater- 

 noster near the bottom. There they will take 

 flat fish, eels, smelts, mullet, and, in fact, all 

 kinds of fish. Large ragworms are said to eat 

 smaller ones. Two or three small hooks one 

 above the other form a good tackle on which to 

 use these worms. Catch each hook once in the 

 worm, the head being on the upper hook. 



Ray's Liver is a noted bass bait in certain 

 places : to wit, the mouths of harbours or the 

 adjoining shore, where a good deal of offal from 

 fishing boats, &c., finds its way into the sea. 

 It is extremely unpleasant stuff to fish with, the 

 more so as it is considered none the worse for 



,. T, i,i-i) A r i / TWO-HOOK 



being a little ' high.' A few pounds of it placed TACKLE 

 in a sack and lowered into the water from 

 the rocks is believed to attract bass, and I have no doubt 

 that is the case. It can be obtained from the trawlers. 



Ray's Skin in strips is used in the same way as mackerel- 

 skin, bass-skin, gurnard-skin, &c. 



The Sand-Eel or Launce is not only a valuable bait, but 

 also a very important source of food to most species of sea 

 fish. There are two varieties, the lesser and the greater. 

 It is known by numerous local names, which are occasionally 

 used in a loose and very perplexing manner. In Scotland the 



