WHITING POUT AND WRASSE. 107 



to 3ft. long, they are only kept from doing so, wlien the 

 boat is moored, by the run of the tide. With paternoster 

 tackle the lead, of course, rests on the ground. The best 

 baits are pilchards or their guts, large mussels, herrings, 

 squid, and lugworms. Pilchards and herrings have to be 

 scaled, split down the middle, boned, and the sides cut into 

 short strips, half silver and half blue — i.e., half back and half 

 belly. The size of the hook sujficiently determines the size 

 of the bait. "Whiting often afford very good sport at night, 

 and bite particularly well in the early morning. 



The Whiting Font, or Bock Whiting.— If this fish 



became exterminated, of which there seems no probability, 

 the fishermen of our South Coast watering-places, who make 

 a living by taking excursionists out whiting (?) fishing, would 

 quickly lose their business, for whiting pout and dogfish 

 innumerable are the fish they land for their customers. The 

 pout is a small variety of whiting, which is inferior in 

 many respects, particularly in size and edible qualities, to 

 the silver whiting. It is found over or near rocks not far 

 from the coast, and small ones are caught from pier-heads 

 and in harbours. The tackle, and method of using it, for 

 pout is exactly the same as for the silver whiting ; but the 

 hooks (]Sro. 7 or No. 8) and baits should be smaller. Ragworms 

 and small mussels are both good baits; but the pout will take 

 many others, including those named for silver whiting. If 

 nothing better can be obtained, cockles, or the soft part of 

 limpets, may be tried. Many anglers think it an additional 

 attraction to keep raising and lowering the paternoster or 

 hand-line about a foot, the idea being that the movement 

 attracts the fish. A netful of crushed crabs, mussels, and 

 pilchard offal, is far more attractive. 



The Wrasse, or Bockfish. — A very beautiful, but very 

 worthless, fish. It abounds all round our coasts, and is easily 

 taken on the paternoster. The hook should be No. 10, or 

 smaller; and for bait, soft crab, mussels, lugworms or rag- 

 worms. There are several varieties of rockfish, some more 

 beautiful than others. I have frequently caught them when 



