SEA FISHING FROM SMALL BOATS 257 



appreciate is that the size or weight of the lead should depend 

 on three things : (i) the speed of the boat ; (2) the depth at 

 which the fish are to be found ; and (3) the size of the running 

 line ; for if the line be coarse it will require a heavier lead to 

 sink it than if it be fine. Of these three things the first is the 

 most important. If we are on a yacht doing about seven knots 

 an hour, it is necessary to have a lead of two, three, or even 

 more pounds in weight. But in a small boat which travels 

 slowly a two-ounce lead will often suffice. Use that lead from 

 a yacht, and the bait will be skipping along the surface of the 

 water most of the time. Another factor to be taken into con- 

 sideration is the length of line let out behind the boat. Often 

 when unprovided with sufficiently heavy leads I have, by 

 simply unreeling twenty or thirty extra yards of line, sunk 

 the bait to a proper depth. The foregoing are just those 

 elementary principles which should be understood at the 

 outset. 



With regard to mackerel fishing from a small rowing boat, 

 the same number of fish are not likely to be caught as from a 

 sailing vessel, because twice as much water will probably be 

 covered in the course of the day by the faster craft. Indeed it 

 often happens that the mackerel will not take the bait unless it 

 is drawn through the water faster than can be managed with a 

 rowing boat, and I fancy that the splash of the oars has a ten- 

 dency to frighten them. 



For small-boat fishing we can abjure the professional gear 

 and use much the same sort of tackle as would find favour 

 with a salmon harler on Loch Tay or the trailer for Thames 

 pike ; I should, perhaps, say which ' used ' to find favour with 

 the Thames trailer, for this method of fishing has now been 

 entirely abolished on the river. But though ordinary spinning 

 or trailing tackle suffices, for reasons which are not quite clear 

 to me I have always found it best in the sea to use a much 



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