152 THE SMELT. 



having a lead at the extreme end of the line sufficient to sink it 

 to the bottom, then gently raising to the surface and sinking it 

 again ; striking almost the instant I felt a bite : though I have 

 met with very lively sport by using a float, which is always pre- 

 ferable where there is any stream running. 



The best spots are jetty heads or bridges, and in the quiet places 

 sheltered from the stream of the tide. The great secret is to dis- 

 cover their place of resort, as they always swim in shoals, and 

 where you meet with them one tide you may bargain for falling in 

 with them again on the next day at the same time of tide. The 

 flood is always the best, they rarely biting so boldly on the 

 ebb. 



The smelt, though plentiful on the Eastern and Western coasts 

 of our Island, is by no means common in the British channel, 

 though a fish something resembling it, and erroneously distinguish- 

 ed by the same appellation, is confounded with it. The latter fish 

 is properly speaking the Atherine, and is easily distinguishable 

 from the true smelt by the superior size of the second dorsal fin, 

 which is even larger than the first, whilst that of the smelt is re- 

 markably small, like the second dorsal fin in all the salmonidae. 

 The Atherine is also particularly remarkable for a bright silvery 

 band that extends all along the side, giving it a very beautiful and 

 attractive appearance. It is a very common fish all along the 

 Southern coasts of the kingdom, and in its habits very much re- 

 sembles the true smelt except that it does not advance quite so far 

 up the fresh waters. It bites very freely, and great numbers may be 

 taken in the course of a few hours with the paternoster line in the 

 same way as the true smelt, and with the same baits, except the 

 land worm, which the atherine will never take freely, if at all. 

 Their places of resort are the same as the smelt, only that they 

 rarely go beyond where the water is brackish. As they swim in 

 shoals, the great thing is to keep with the multitude, as they are 

 apt to shift their quarters, proceeding onwards with the tide as it 

 rises, so that many places that are best adapted for the purpose at 

 the first rise of the flood, become wholly deserted when it rises 

 above a certain level. 



The best plan to attract and keep these fish around you, is to 

 collect a few of the common mud crabs, and pound these up with 

 some pieces of chalk ground to powder, which throw in near your 

 lines from time to time, and this compost, which the fishermen call 



