220 MODERN SEA FISHING 



mentioned, read what I have said about them later on in the 

 book, and see on what pages there are references to them by 

 searching the index. Particularly notice what baits are recom- 

 mended, and read all about those baits in the chapter devoted 

 to them. 



Sea fishing does not only consist of personal skill. Success 

 depends in a great measure on your fishing at the right time 

 and in the right place, with the right baits. These three things 

 are all important ; but above all use your own brains, and if 

 you are not catching fish try to puzzle out the reason for 

 your failure. Learn the names of the curious things you see 

 on the shore or in the water. There are numbers of strange 

 creatures among the rocks which only have to be looked 

 for ; young fish of all kinds, beautiful prawns and shrimps, 

 anemones flowers of the sea crabs of many kinds, jelly-fish 

 (deal with these cautiously, for many of them sting), and when 

 the tide is very low you may even come across a lobster or 

 conger-eel in some hole deep under a rock, and how to catch 

 them you may learn in a subsequent chapter given up almost 

 entirely to these creatures. 



It is a good plan to have a little notebook and to put 

 down what you catch every day and the bait and tackle used. 

 Above all things, if you have been out in a beat half a dozen 

 times don't imagine you know how to manage it. Small-boat 

 sailing is in its way as difficult as yachting, and infinitely more 

 dangerous when carried on by the inexperienced. So never 

 resent a word of caution from an ignorant old sailor, though 

 you may be in the sixth form yourself. Whatever you do, do 

 it with all your heart, use your wits, and do not try to catch 

 fish simply by rule-of-thumb methods. There was an old and 

 very successful fisherman who was once asked what he used 

 that enabled him to fill his creel so fully and frequently, and he 

 replied, ' Brains.' 



