FROM YACHTS AND LARGE FISHING BOATS 293 



may be used for the hooks, or, what is better, there may be 

 eighteen inches of horsehair and eighteen inches of twisted 

 salmon gut, or single gut if the fish do not run very large. 

 Some people place a small pipe lead on every snood just at 

 the junction of the horsehair with the gut. 



Live sand-eels, smelts, or very small dabs, flounders and 

 plaice may be used for baiting this line. It is very desirable 

 that the baits should be alive. Sometimes sea trout, and very 

 occasionally salmon, are caught in this way. The ordinary 

 long line may, of course, be baited with live sand-eels, and if 

 this is done in an estuary in the autumn, large bass are likely 

 to be taken. 



It is with great reluctance that I venture any remarks which 

 may lead to an increase of trawling ; for the practice has long 

 been doing great injury to the fisheries all round our coasts. 

 Flat fish, and, in particular, soles and plaice, have become 

 exceedingly scarce in many places. Unless trawling is abso- 

 lutely prohibited in territorial waters, and the sale of immature 

 flat fish is made an offence, irreparable harm will be done to a 

 very important calling. 



In this matter the sportsman and the poorer fishermen who 

 obtain a living by setting long lines near the coast are on the 

 same footing. Both of them suffer from the disastrous effects 

 of not only the destruction of immature fish, but also of over- 

 fishing the shallow inshore grounds. The sea is no doubt a 

 large place, but the portions of it which can be profitably fished 

 are far more limited than the general public suppose. 



For some reason or another a number of leading scientific 

 men have for some time been rather fighting the battle of 

 the trawler, and a cry of delight was raised by them when 

 some one pointed out that the eggs of the principal food fishes 

 float on the surface. 'Therefore,' said they, being all un- 

 practical men, ' you see, after all, the trawlers do no harm ; 



