408 HISTORY OF COH ASSET. 



the jib!" " Ease off the main sheet ! " " Haul the tackle 

 forward ! " " Haul taut and make fast ! " " Let off the 

 fore sheet ! " 



Then the captain — we ought to say "skipper" — 

 goes to the bait box in the middle of the windward 

 side of the schooner, and throws a paddleful of ground 

 bait into the water towards the bow, and another 

 paddleful towards the stern, scattering it as broadly as 

 possible. Then he watches with his mackerel line baited 

 in the water. After drifting thirty or fifty feet he 

 throws more bait, feeling again at his line to get the first 

 bite. 



Meanwhile the crew are idling in any way they choose, 

 until suddenly they hear a "bang" into the bottom of a 

 tub, and then the quick flipping of a shiny mackerel 

 which the skipper has " landed." This is the signal for 

 all hands to get their fish lines into the water. They fix 

 little bits of tough pork rind upon the barbed hooks and 

 cast out two lines apiece thirty feet long off the side of the 

 schooner. They are all fishing from one side, the skipper 

 in the best place, just abaft the mainmast, and all ten 

 arranged upon either side of him. 



The hooks hang about four or six feet under water, 

 and if the school of mackerel is a vigorous one, they bite 

 as soon as the baited hook strikes the water. The bite is 

 a strong grab and then a shoot to one side ; but you pull 

 the shiny victim hand over hand to the side of the vessel, 

 and, reaching down your right hand, you catch the line 

 about one foot above the mackerel's mouth, lifting him 

 over the rail. One sharp slat and he is thrown into your 

 fish tub or barrel by a jerk that tears the hook out of his 

 jaw and hurls the hook out again with its tough bait into 

 the water for its next victim. 



Meantime perhaps your other line has caught a fish, 

 and you must pull him in at once or he will swim across 

 the other lines and bring some indelicate remarks upon 



