462 



MODERN SEA FISHING 



was very adroit in whipping bare hooks to any sort of snooding, 

 and in extemporising a rod, but he confessed that he often felt 

 the want of some independent armoury. Such a rod might 

 be serviceable for spinning from a boat, for legering on sandy 

 bottoms, and for the too much neglected practice of pater- 

 nostering. Baits are always to be found ; if not molluscs, then 

 bits of fish, or fresh meat ; and there would be the metal 

 spinners and indiarubber worms to fall back upon if small fish 

 were not to be procured. I therefore repeat : instead of wast- 

 ing time in the unsatisfactory endeavour to obtain information 

 about fish and fishing in foreign parts, assume that where the 

 sea is it will be inhabited ; nay, that there are better fish in 

 the sea than ever came out of it. 



The advice just tendered applies to European waters with 

 as much justification as to more distant seas. In the North 

 Sea, or the poor sporting grounds of the Baltic, the angler 

 will find it best to proceed on the broad principles which 

 serve around the English coasts or the Channel Islands. Ex- 

 panses of shallow with sandy bottom, rock-bound promon- 

 tories or inlets, demand their own methods ; but I should 

 imagine no sportsman would visit northern Europe for the ex- 

 press purpose of sea angling. Even the fiords of Norway, as 

 the distance from open water increases, are indifferent grounds 

 for him. 



Nor is it much better in the Mediterranean, save in special 

 parts ; and notwithstanding that this home of the tunny 

 contains about three-fourths of the species (estimated at 650) 

 inhabiting European seas. The native fishermen who use the 

 rod take their tribute everywhere with more or less primitive 

 tackle, though there are few coasts upon which modern im- 

 provements have not begun to supersede the rough-and-ready 

 fashions of past generations. From the fragmentary accounts 

 published in books of travel and the enterprising modern 



