SEA FISHING FROM SMALL BOATS 263 



There is pollack fishing and pollack fishing. In the spring, 

 for instance, quantities of baby fish are caught half a dozen at 

 a time on the Devon and Cornish coasts, and these, of course, 

 only require fine tackle. It is usual to have a spinner on the 

 end of the line, and four or five, or even more, white flies or those 

 peculiar local baits, Belgian grubs (illustrated on p. 139), between 

 the lead and the end of the trace. There are not many parts 

 of this coast where very large pollack are commonly caught, but 

 it was off Cornwall that Lord St. Levan caught the specimen 

 pollack already recorded. 



Good salmon gut double, or lightly twisted, is, generally 

 speaking, strong enough for pollack up to twelve pounds ; 

 but for fish above that weight which I again repeat must, as a 

 rule, be held, and cannot by any possibility be played, at least 

 over rocks and seaweed I would prefer something still stronger, 

 such as treble gut or stout gimp. The running line, of course, 

 must be proportionately strong. 



Under the headings 'Pollack,' 'Artificial Baits,' and 

 ' Natural Baits ' I have dealt more at length with this branch 

 of sea fishing, and the remarks on bass and mackerel in 

 the pages devoted to those fish should also be carefully 

 noted. 



Harling in the tidal reaches of a river for bass or other fish 

 may be carried on almost exactly as it is done in Scotland and 

 Ireland in fresh water. It has the great advantage of present- 

 ing the bait to the fish before the boat has passed over them, 

 and with such shy creatures as bass this is a point of consider- 

 able importance. It is, in fact, very similar to the drift-line 

 fishing already described, only instead of being at anchor the 

 boat is slowly rowed across the current which carries out the 

 line to a considerable distance. At each turn fresh water is 

 covered, and sooner or later the fish will be met with. Either 

 the drift-line tackle or the trailing or railing tackle already 



