FLOUNDERS. 81 



would laugh at the luckless wight who should impute to 

 them the wretched practices of their predecessors in the 

 undrained fens. 



Some writers on fishing have described the tackle and 

 baits best adapted for attacking and killing this miserable 

 little fish ; but our notion is, that the angler who can 

 waste his time and disgrace his art in such a pursuit, 

 ought decidedly to have the pleasure and honor of in- 

 venting his own apparatus. 



FLOUNDERS are, strictly speaking, salt-water fish; 

 but they will invariably work up into fresh water, when- 

 ever they have the opportunity. The best places to catch 

 these fish are the sides of rivers when the tide is making ; 

 and the mouths of fresh-water sluices, which discharge 

 their streams into the salt-water. On the salt-water side 

 of such sluices, when the tide is out, and a sharpish fresh 

 is running through the sluice doors, the flounders assemble 

 in vast numbers, in order to revel in the fresh water, or 

 work their way through the partially opened doors of 

 the sluice. If the angler will cast into this running water 

 a strong line armed with two perch-hooks, one above 

 another, with a bullet attached to keep them down ; and 

 if he will bait these with fresh boiled shrimps the heads 

 and tails of which he has previously pinched off, the 

 flounders will keep him sufficiently busy, and will try 

 both his tackle and skill. In this manner we have caught 

 hundreds ; some of which were of a very large size. 



This mode of fishing for the flounder is very common 

 in some parts of Lincolnshire, and is by far the most suc- 

 cessful method of dealing with him, as well as with most 

 other flat fish. 



Such fish as these, after all, can seldom interest the 



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