4^4 MODERN SEA FISHING 



links, and find that a hook half the size of those commonly 

 seen on the hand lines of the fishermen is the best size, unless 

 the run of fish is exceptionally large. 



Any sizes between the two shown in the illustration may 

 be used, according to the circumstances. When the fish 

 are biting very shyly indeed, I use the very small hook ; not 

 covering it, but hooking on to it a tiny strip of mackerel or 

 herring skin, or a ragworm. Among the best baits are lugs, 

 pilchards or their guts, herrings, squid, mackerel, and ragworms. 

 Whiting spawn about March, after which they are out of 

 condition for a month or two, but 

 have greatly improved by July, and 

 are at their best in the autumn. 

 When the cold weather comes they 

 retire into rather deep water. Ac- 

 cording to Pennant, whiting up to as 

 much as eight pounds in weight have 

 been taken near the Doggerbank. 



Many a cockney goes to Brighton, 

 WHITING HOOKS p ays his half-crown an hour for the 



privilege of dangling a hand line over 



the side of a cockleshell of a boat, and catches a few fish, 

 which he is gravely assured by the longshoreman in attend- 

 ance are whiting. In all probability these will be pout or 

 rock whiting, for the said longshoreman is, as a rule, too 

 lazy to take his customers to the whiting grounds which lie 

 further out. 



The POUT (Gadus luscus) is less silvery than the whiting, 

 and has not its elegance of form, being decidedly pot-bellied. 

 If a vessel has foundered anywhere, and its ribs are still sticking 

 up out of the sand in a few fathoms of water, there will pout 

 be found in numbers. It also loves rocks and seaweeds. In 

 very cold weather it may migrate into the deep water, but is 



