238 MODERN SEA FISHING 



tideway where the line is carried out some distance from 

 the boat. 



The actual bulk of the line must depend in a measure on 

 the size of the fish, the weight of the leads, the depth of the 

 water, and so on ; but what is most generally serviceable is 

 one just a little larger than the Trent anglers use for pike 

 when they cast off the reel. I have often had my line 

 derided by ancient mariners who saw it for the first time ; 

 but when they came to try its strength, and made their hands 

 bleed in vain attempts to break it, they admitted that it was 

 far superior to anything with which they were acquainted. 



Without much question the best tackle for catching fish on 

 or near the bottom is the paternoster and its various modifica- 

 tions. With the old-fashioned hand line and Kentish or other 

 rig, one dangled about in the water, over and in full sight of 

 the fish, a lump of lead and a cross-bar of metal wire, at the 

 ends of which were attached two pieces of hemp snooding 

 and some rough tinned hooks. With the paternoster the lead 

 lies on the bottom, and the fish see nothing but the gut tackle 

 above it. 



In the illustration I have shown the most simple and most 

 generally useful form of paternoster. To it is attached the 

 ordinary pear-shaped lead which may be bought in most tackle 

 shops. How the simple loops are made to which the hook 

 lengths are attached is shown in the illustration opposite. It is 

 a thing anybody can tie up in five minutes out of a couple of 

 yards of gut. Swivels are not always necessary. 



If there is not much current, and nothing larger than 

 whiting and flat fish are expected, we can fish with light leads 

 and a paternoster made up of lake-trout gut. If there are 

 large codling about or other fish of considerable size, then 

 the paternoster should be of salmon gut, or twisted gut, 

 which is a good deal used. If of twisted gut, the loops to 



