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MODERN SEA FISHING 



a small spinning bait ; a Devon minnow I think I tried. This 

 had only to be cast into the water and drawn a yard or two 

 when half a dozen fish would rush at it. 



At night-time large bass sometimes come right into the 

 harbour among the fishing boats and are occasionally caught, 

 but the bait must be such a one as they would expect in such 

 a place. Something tasty, yet not over-nice. Skate's liver a 

 little ' high ' ; or the inward parts of chicken or rabbit, well 

 hung. If the water is slack, there should be no lead on the line. 



From the enthusiastic angler's point of view, one of the most 

 important fish found in harbours is the grey mullet. I devote 

 an article to this most shy of sea fishes later in Chapter XI., 

 so this is hardly the place to detail his peculiarities and the 

 methods of catching him or fishing for him. But let it be said 

 here that the surest time to find him feeding is in the grey 

 dusk of early dawn, and the tackle, which may be a paternoster 

 or the ordinary float tackle, should be both fine and strong. 

 Ground bait is most necessary. 



A well-known bass fisher once related to me with tears in 

 his voice how, when bass fishing, his hook being covered with 

 skate's liver, a mullet which weighed at least 12 Ibs. seized his 

 bait, ran out every yard of line, and then broke the triple gut. 



No one who has ever fished for mullet will assert that sea 

 fishing does not require skill. I am inclined to say that a mullet 

 of any size is no more easy or more difficult to catch than a carp 

 of the same age. Of course the youngsters, foolish, ignorant, 

 simple little things, like carp at the same period of their exist- 

 ence, come to the hook readily enough. But the adult mullet 

 is certainly no fool. The lesser grey mullet is more easily cap- 

 tured than the larger variety. 



Smelts are found in most harbours, and it is pretty work 

 fishing for them with the lightest roach tackle and roach hooks 

 baited with tiny fragments of uncooked shrimps or soft crab, 



