380 MODERN SEA FISHING 



the mackerel, but few would be the wiser for the telling that of 

 branchiostegals it has seven, that pseudobranchise are present, 

 that the air bladder when present is simple, and that pyloric 

 appendages are numerous. He is a fish of brilliant colours, 

 marvellous activity, and when fresh caught is most beautiful. 

 Scomber scomber is his most approved classic title, but 

 naturalists have several names for him, some asserting that 

 there are several species, others that, as with trout, there are 

 simply certain differences of appearance of no fixed character, 

 all the mackerels being in fact one and the same fish. 



The only local names for mackerel which I have come 

 across are the terms joey for the shoals of immature fish a few 

 inches in length which appear in the Bristol Channel in 

 September ; shiners, a. name used off the West coast ; and 

 harvest mackerel, large fish caught at end of summer. The 

 great majority of mackerel in the Bristol Channel appear to be 

 immature, but are not so small as the joeys which weigh half a 

 pound or thereabouts. Round about the rocks will be found 

 fish three or four times as large ; but these are coarse and poor 

 eating, while the half-pounders are particularly delicate. 



Some of the finest mackerel come from Ireland. There 

 the nets sometimes secure from 15,000 to 30,000 fish per boat. 

 On many parts of the East coast of England large numbers of 

 mackerel are caught by means of nets. Lines are not much 

 used, the fishermen declaring that the water is too thick for the 

 fish to see the bait ; but whether this view be correct or not I 

 have never had an opportunity of testing. 



On all our coasts this useful fish is more or less abundant, 

 and is widely distributed over the more temperate portions 

 of the world. Some of the best are caught in the English 

 Channel ; some of the worst, from an edible point of view, in 

 the Mediterranean. As a matter of fact, we know very little 

 about the wanderings of the great shoals of mackerel, beyond 



