276 MODERN SEA FISHING 



Those illustrated are the well-known Pennell-Limerick pattern. 

 There are some further remarks respecting hooks on p. 70 

 which should be noted. 



Sharks are such destroyers of other fish that, apart from 

 sporting considerations, their capture is very desirable. They 

 are not, as a rule, sought after in British waters, and are often 

 caught and still more often lost when hand lines are being used 

 for smaller and more desirable fish. There is no bait they 

 will not take, and when a long line is set for haddocks or 

 whiting, they think nothing of swimming along the row of 

 hooked fish and picking them one by one off the hooks. 

 More will be said of these voracious creatures later on. 



Yachting gives splendid opportunities for conger fishing. 

 The largest congers often dwell among reefs of rocks in deep 

 water at a long distance from the shore, where it would not be 

 safe on the finest night to anchor a small boat. But in suitable 

 weather a yacht can lie to or be anchored beyond the rocks 

 while the fishing can be carried on from one of her boats, she 

 being at hand, of course, in case of bad weather coming on 

 suddenly. There are few things more exciting than hauling big 

 conger into a boat on a dark night ; especially when an 

 unusually big fish hits the lantern with a flap of his tail, and 

 then goes on a voyage of inspection under the thwarts, bark- 

 ing the while. Mr. Briggs's eel was nothing to the congers 

 of the Welsh, Scotch, and Irish coasts. 



Yachtsmen often have a difficulty in getting a good supply 

 of bait, and it might be worth while to arrange a locker as a 

 sort of bait nursery fitted with well-pitched and ventilated 

 drawers with sea sand or seaweed in them, which could be 

 occasionally moistened with salt water. Sand-eels cannot well 

 be kept alive for any length of time except in a basket in the 

 sea, and the courge, as the special basket for the purpose is 

 termed (see p. 119), is unsuited for towing after a yacht when 



