SPEAKING GENERALLY 11 



might be said of the pollack or mackerel, either 

 of which will, under suitable conditions, take the 

 same variety of natural or artificial baits, though 

 both are fish of the open sea, rarely entering 

 brackish water. 



These three fishes alone prove how erroneous 

 it is to speak or write of " sea-fishing," derisively 

 or otherwise, as if there were any homogeneity 

 in so protean a sport. There is not more differ- 

 ence between mayfly-fishing for trout and babbing 

 for eels than between, let us say, handline-fishing 

 for conger at midnight and bass-fishing with a 

 trout-rod at mid-day, or between using a stout 

 line and heavy lead for schnapper on Australian 

 reefs and throwing a single fly for billet into the 

 deep water alongside Filey Brigg. No man with any 

 sense of logic could speak disparagingly and col- 

 lectively of all these styles of catching sea-fish 

 as requiring no skill. 



Two considerations appear to have prejudiced 

 the sport of sea-fishing in the eyes of many people, 

 who might otherwise have learnt its delights, and 

 these are the fear of danger and the impatience 

 of discomfort. As a matter of fact, the danger 

 may usually be avoided with a little care ; and 

 discomfort is, after all, a relative term, for what 

 irks one man leaves his fellow unmoved. No one 

 can prevent, or always even anticipate, a sudden 

 squall in apparently fair weather, but there can 



