THE POLLACK. 279 



used either with or without a sinker, as pollack feed at different 

 depths of water, sometimes at the very surface, and at others 

 twenty fathoms beneath it ; so that in this kind of fishing several 

 lines may be employed at different (Jepths, which may be reg- 

 ulated by adopting sinkers of different weights. When you have 

 more lines than your company can manage to hold in their hands ; 

 a number of small slight rods of about three feet long should be 

 stuck in the gun whale of the boat, which the line should be attach- 

 ed to, the bending of which will show you when a fish is hooked, 

 It will not do to trust solely to the strength of these fragile rods, 

 and therefore, the rest of the line should be either wound on a 

 stout reel, that no fish could pull overboard, or be fastened secure- 

 ly to some part of the boat. The sinker should be fixed on the 

 main line, to which a foot line of four or five fathoms should be 

 attached, and the enead next the hook should be either of stout 

 silkworm gut, or fine twisted cord, and the hooks should be pro- 

 portioned to the baits, and the size of the fish you are likely to 

 meet with. 



The success in pollack fishing depends almost entirely on fishing 

 over the proper ground, the best localities being generally well 

 known to the fishermen of the neighbourhood, who can tell exact- 

 ly where to pitch upon them, by taking landmarks from the shore. 

 Spots of this kind are generally distinguished by some name, not 

 unfrequently by that of the person who chanced first to light upon 

 it. But some of these places are only good for a season, their at- 

 traction being most probably caused by an accidental deposit of 

 sand, amongst some of the interstices of the rocks, which afford 

 shelter to the sand launce of which these fish are very fond, and 

 which is again swept away by the next gale of wind or strong 

 spring tide. 



Directly therefore a fisherman in passing over one of these 

 spots, gets a bite, he instantly takes up his landmarks and retries 

 the ground ; and if he is successful there, he stores up the marks 

 in his memory against a future day, but rarely if ever communi- 

 cates his discovery to others ; an old fisherman being ever shy 

 of furnishing others with information, and is as jealous of a 

 favorite fishing spot, as the most tenaceous lord of a manor is over 

 his game preserves ; so that it is very difficult to discover many of 

 these spots ; for if you discover a fisherman there, no sooner does 

 he see you approach, than he will shift his quarters ; when at a 

 short distance off, it will be difficult to discover the precise spot, 



