478 MODERN SEA FISHING 



The obdurate nature of the ocean bed at Flat Rock renders 

 it impossible to anchor near the fishing ground. The Kate, as 

 fast as she is brought near the desired spot, drifts back again, 

 and as the fish are only to be had near the rocks, the moral 

 enforced upon us is that we must make the most of our time. 

 And this is how we do it. Each man takes up a position, and 

 clings to it. At his feet, if he be a deft fisherman disposed so 

 that there shall never be a hitch, lies a coiled line, thirty 

 fathoms long if ii is to be of any service, about the thickness of 

 a codline, and weighted with three egg-shaped pieces of lead, 

 each a pound in weight, and so bored that the line will run 

 freely through The hook is of the largest dimensions, and 

 it is best to have it attached with a length of overgrown gimp, 

 or three pieces of ordinary gimp twisted. The bait is a lump 

 of fish or meat the size of a walnut. Slowly the steamer 

 advances to the charge, until you can hear the green water 

 streaming off the protuding rocks. Look well to the thick 

 leather shields on your hand, else presently your fingers will 

 pay the penalty. It is comical to see twenty gentlemen 

 cabinet ministers and what not waiting at the bulwarks, line 

 in hand, in all kinds of expectant attitudes, eager to heave the 

 tackle overboard the moment the way of the stopped steamer 

 slackens. 



With splash and shout, at length twenty heavily-weighted 

 lines are speeding through the beautifully clear depths twenty 

 lines racing through finger and thumb at a rate that renders 

 either a glove or a canvas sheath an absolute necessity. Do 

 your best in ten minutes, for no longer can we remain in the 

 neighbourhood. If we are in luck, in a few minutes there 

 is a loud and long-sustained rub-a-dub on the deck. Is it 

 a heavy-footed man dancing a breakdown? Nay, it is the 

 first schnapper announcing his release from the nasty, wet, salt 

 sea, and heralding his kith and kin, so that within a couple of 



