214 MODERN SEA FISHING 



given to the baits often made the fish bite when they were not 

 very well on the feed. 



The rod for this kind of fishing should not be too short, 

 as if there are any waves it is necessary to hold the line 

 above them. If this cannot be done, when the waves break, 

 each mass of water strikes the line and the paternoster is 

 jerked shorewards. 



When the fish are supposed to be plentiful it is certainly 

 desirable to have a large number of mussels ready opened for 

 continued fishing. I have often heard it stated that mussels 

 lose some of their virtue and are not nearly so killing if they 

 have been opened some time. This may be true to a limited 

 extent ; but when codlings are feeding greedily they are certainly 

 not particular, and the great point is to lose no time. Mr. 

 Aflalo recommended opening mussels and laying them out to 

 dry in the sun before using them as baits. 



It is obvious that when a fish takes the bait and swims 

 shorewards or towards the angler there will be no pull on the 

 rod. The line will suddenly feel slack, and when this happens 

 we should strike just as much as when a pull is felt. When the 

 fish are biting shyly it is sometimes a good plan to ease the 

 line to them a little at the first signs of a bite. But this should 

 be only a momentary easement, and a second later the strike 

 should come. At night-time the upper hook will often take 

 most fish, and indeed, when the tides suit, the best shore 

 fishing for codling is obtained after sunset. 



But it is not everybody who cares to stand on a lonely sea- 

 shore, with ghostly looking waves hurrying up out of the dark- 

 ness and breaking at one's feet. At Lowestoft there was a 

 lighthouse with a red light on the right of the place where I 

 usually fished, and on the cliff behind me a revolving light 

 that cast moving shadows which, until I became accustomed 

 to them, constantly gave me the impression that some evil- 



