SHRIMPING, MUSSELLING 



branch of the civilised fisherman's trade it can never be 

 superseded until the fish have ceased to frequent those 

 parts of the ocean-bed where no net will go, and till such 

 fish as conger-eels will allow themselves to be taken in 

 respectable numbers by the trawl. 



The simplest form of this fishing is by the use of 

 "hand lines" single lines, carrying one or more hooks, 

 the upper end being kept in the hand while fishing is 

 going on ; such lines are pulled up as soon as there is a 

 bite, the fish gaffed off, and the hook rebaited. Naturally 

 the hooks vary in size and number according to the fish 

 sought. They may be seen all along the South Coast in 

 use for whiting, which, belonging to the cod family, are 

 more easily taken by hook than any other small sea-fish. 



The southern whiting fishery is mainly in the hands of 

 individual fishermen, each man going off in his small 

 rowing-boat and working on his own account, subse- 

 quently selling the fish at the local market. 



The same kind of line is used off the Norfolk coast for 

 cod, with a bit of cuttle-fish as bait. 



Far more pretentious and important is the " long-line " 

 fishing which we find going on in the north and east, 

 and in Scotland; turbot, cod, ling, and haddock are 

 caught by the thousand in this way, both from small and 

 from large boats. The smacks from the Northumbrian 

 fishing villages go out towards the "bad" parts of the 

 Dogger and work as long as their bait lasts. Rowing- 

 boats, too, do a lot of coast work off Norfolk and Lincoln, 

 going out and coming in with the tide. 



When a smack^s crew is going off long-line fishing, it 



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