48 ANGLING IN SALT WATER. 



it is very desirable to angle for certain fish, especially pollack, 

 coalfisli, pout, and conger. As a sounding lead is often required 

 to take the depth when drift-line fishing, it is a good plan to 

 have the lead made according to the shape shown in 

 Fig. 37, when it will both take the depth and determine 

 the nature of the bottom. The cord to which it is attached 

 should be marked off in fathoms by pieces of twine put twice 

 or thrice round it, and then between the strands. In heaving 

 the lead, it is then only necessary to count the number of 

 knots which pass through the hand to know the depth in 

 fathoms. 



A perusal of Chapter III. will give all the information 

 required concerning baits. It will be sufficient to say here, 

 that among the best are sand-eels, ragworms, mussels, beards 

 of oysters, pilchards (entrails or body), strips of mackerel 

 skin, and shrimps, alive for pollack and the lesser flat fish, 

 peeled but not boiled for most other fish. Ground-baiting, as I 

 said at the commencement of this chapter, is all-important 

 for success; several mixtures of the kind will be found on 

 page 45. In grey-mullet fishing, some of these are merely 

 thrown on the surface ; but more commonly the mixture is placed 

 in a weighted net {see Frontispiece), and sunk within a foot 

 of the bottom, as close as possible to the spot where the baits 

 are dangling ready for the fish to seize them. A judicious 

 shake now and again, given to the cord to which the net is 

 attached, sets loose some of the bait, which the fish seize. In 

 placing the ground-bait net, the angler should note carefully 

 the set of the tide, and place his tackle so that whatever is 

 washed out of the net is carried past his hooks. The ground- 

 bait not only attracts fish, but it induces them to take the 

 bait on the hook, under the belief that it is one of those 

 harmless fragments which have come out of the net. 



The paternoster, rod and line, described in the second chapter 

 form the most generally useful tackle for fishing from pier-heads. 

 The hooks baited, the tackle should be let down into the sea> 

 and when the lead touches the bottom the line should be 

 kept tight. When a fish bites, the top of the rod will be 

 jerked slightly ; or if it is a big fish, there may be one dead, 



