BAITS 133 



of the sea, it is not, as a rule, possible to judge with sufficient 

 accuracy the distance to which the current will carry the 

 ground bait, at least not where bottom-feeding fish are the 

 quarry. 



A more common plan with sea fishermen is to sink a 

 ground-bait mixture in a net or bag weighted with stones and 

 sustained by as light a cord as can possibly be used. I have 

 seen professional fishermen, when this idea was first mooted 

 to them, make an experiment with a piece of thick rope, 

 with the result that, owing to the pressure of the water on 

 the rope, the ground-bait net was carried far astern, several 

 fathoms beyond our tackle. A piece of stout cod line, unless 

 it is very old, is, as a rule, quite strong enough to bear the 

 weight of a ground-bait net when it is in the water, though 

 it may not always be strong enough to lift it into the boat. 

 Therefore, if the cod line is used, when hauling the net up, 

 its neck should be laid hold of as soon as it comes to the 

 surface. 



The contents of the net will probably depend upon whatever 

 suitable substances are available. The two most productive 

 ground baits with which I am acquainted are crabs of any kind 

 smashed up, and the guts of oily fish such as pilchards, herrings, 

 or mackerel. Mussel shells, seed mussels, oyster beards, the 

 liver of any fish, in fact any offal, may all go into the bag ; but 

 it is well to chop everything up small, and intermix pounded 

 shells, raw potatoes and the like, so that when the line bearing 

 the net is sharply pulled, fragments escape from the net, and 

 the fish work up the tide until they come to the source of 

 this unusual food supply. One of the great advantages of the 

 ground-bait net is that it attracts the crabs, and to a certain 

 extent keeps them away from the baits on the hooks. A plan 

 somewhat similar to this was described by Captain Young, 

 the author of ' Sea Fishing as a Sport,' in the ' Field ' some 



