JULY. 



SEA FISHING FROM PIERS. 



BY E. T. SACHS. 



IF no other method for the division of mankind were available, 

 that of anglers and non-anglers might be adopted as a rough-and- 

 ready one. Certain it is that the angler is born and not made, 

 and also that one portion of the human race comes into the world 

 so constituted as to entertain a loathing for the pastime of 

 angling, in any form whatsoever, until the day of its death. This 

 is the portion which, on the occasion of its visits to the seaside, 

 exhausts its vocabulary in seeking for terms of commiseration 

 with the other portion that finds the sum of human happiness in 

 fishing from the piers. It is not every angler who will pursue his 

 favourite pastime so far as this ; and, indeed, it must be conceded 

 that one must have the angling mania very pronounced to under- 

 take to angle from a crowded pier at a fashionable resort. By a 

 fortuitous dispensation, however, it happens that the best fishing is 

 not obtained from the most fashionable piers, but from those be- 

 longing to the more retired seaside places. At both Margate and 

 Ramsgate, which are scarcely noted for the retiring nature of their 

 summer and autumn visitors, pier fishing has been occasionally 

 practised with success, it is true, but these are not typical spots 



