FROM YACHTS AND LARGE FISHING BOATS 303 



from the illustration, has no beam. The mouth of the trawl in 

 this case is kept open by means of two upright pieces of board, 

 which are acted upon by the water in exactly the same way 

 that the wind acts upon a kite and sends it up into the air. 

 This will require no explanation to those who are familiar with 

 the poaching instrument known as the otter board, which is, 

 unfortunately, used on so many lakes in Scotland, Ireland, and 

 Norway. 



I have sometimes seen it stated that the otter trawl catches 

 more fish than the beam trawl, and instances of this have been 



THE OTTER BOARD (FITTED) 



quoted. Mr. Hearder claims to be the originator of this net ; 

 but in Holdsworth's ' Deep Sea Fishing ' a Mr. Musgrave is 

 described as the inventor. 



The otter trawl has the disadvantage of not holding the 

 ground well when there is a sea on ; but this drawback can be 

 surmounted to some extent by heavily weighting the otter 

 boards and by paying out a longer warp. The back of the net, 

 instead of being supported by a beam, is floated by means of a 

 number of corks ; and as it then takes a considerable curve, 

 the fish which are under the back of the net are not so fully 

 covered as they are in a beam trawl. This net is more suitable 



