SEA FISHING FROM SMALL BOATS 247 



but if at all large their weight, coupled with the weight of the 

 lead, may be sufficient to break the gut tackle which doubtless 

 many readers of this book are in the habit of using. Even 

 with coarse deep-sea gear which will sustain sixty pounds or 

 more, a gaff or net should be used with large fish, as the hook 

 is so likely to tear out. I have often seen a landing-net carried 

 on the Scotch boats. 



I was once fishing with a No. 7 hook and a fine gut pater- 

 noster for sand-dabs when I hooked a conger of over seven 

 pounds. We had a landing-net, but into this it resolutely 

 refused to be inveigled, and my Welsh boatman, though well 

 used to these ' serpents,' as the Scotch call them, was disinclined 

 to handle the creature. I played the fish until it was dead 

 beat and not the flap of a tail left in him, and a pretty piece 

 of sport he gave me. Some twenty minutes elapsed from the 

 time he was hooked before he became limp enough to allow 

 himself to be carried by the current, tail foremost, into the 

 landing net. 



If not provided with a regular gaff, a very good substitute 

 can be made out of a hake hook, the barb of which has been 

 filed off or hammered down. It is easily whipped on to the 

 first available stick. 



Assuming that the amateur fisherman is all prepared for 

 the fray provided with rod, reel, line, paternoster, hooks, 

 various leads, baits, and has his boat moored on the fishing 

 ground according to the marks now comes the time when his 

 own skill and judgment must be brought into play. Probably 

 he will have some general idea of the fish in this particular 

 spot. If the bottom be sandy or marly he will, of course, 

 expect flat fish, and perhaps gurnards, whiting, and cod ; if 

 over rocks, pollack, coalfish, bream, conger, wrasse, and other 

 rock fish. 



Some men make it a rule to use tackle strong enough to 



