370 MODERN SEA FISHING 



which pollack feed are very abundant, the artificial bait some- 

 times fails ; then the angler should study as far as possible to 

 fall in with the passing fancy of the fish. A six-inch strip of 

 pilchard-skin together with a smaller piece of mackerel-skin is 

 often used as a bait on the Cornish coast. Three inches of 

 gurnard-skin is a good whiffing bait. Where the fish run very 

 large, large baits must be used. 1 have known success attend 

 the use of indiarubber eels, made by an amateur out of a piece 

 of black rubber tubing, double as thick and double as long as 

 the baits ordinarily sold in the tackle shops. The hooks on 

 which these indiarubber eels are mounted are tinned, and very 

 apt to be rather blunt ; indeed, when fishing in the daytime 

 close to the bottom the hooks are likely to come in frequent 

 contact with the rocks and so get their points smashed. It is 

 very desirable, therefore, to carry either a watchmaker's file or 

 a roughish quick-biting hone for renewing the point. Sharp 

 hooks are of the first importance in sea fishing. 



May I again remind the tiro that the pollack is a powerful 

 fish and requires very strong tackle, and that this is particularly 

 the case in water of moderate depth where the bottom is rocky 

 and weedy, for headlong will the fish go into his submarine 

 fastnesses unless firmly held. There must be no yielding to a 

 pollack in his first rush, except in some places where the bottom 

 is fairly free from seaweed or the depth of water is consider- 

 able. 



The COALFISH, a fine sporting fish, is remarkable for the 

 extraordinary number of aliases under which he passes. Ich- 

 thyologists have given him various Latin names, but these 

 fade into insignificance before the remarkable titles by which 

 he is known on different parts of our coast. He is probably 

 called coalfish on account of the nearly black colour of his 

 back, which, however, in some places is a dark green. He is 

 the saithe of Scotland ; in Cornwall they call him the rauning, 



