BASS AND MULLET 199 



idleness. If they can catch a philanthropist 

 nodding on the bench beside the lighthouse, they 

 will grumble to him as long as he has a mind to 

 listen, but they sometimes decline to work the nets 

 for days together. Their reasons are various. 

 Sometimes the fish are too few to make the 

 resulting harvest worth splitting up in so many 

 shares. At others, there are too many to keep 

 up the price, since the " sprats," as they call them, 

 do not sell outside the town. They therefore loaf 

 on shore, the nets lie unused on the sand, and the 

 angler kicks his heels at home for want of bait. 

 Unfortunately, there is no substitute. Out in the 

 dancing waters by the Ness, it is true, rubber baits, 

 trailed slowly after the boats, and kept clear of 

 the snares and pitfalls of the weed and mussels, 

 catch numerous small bass of the size to amuse 

 the casual visitor, but also to leave the regular 

 fisherman unmoved. The heavy fish within the 

 river despise such indifferent imitations, though 

 at Margate and one or two other places I under- 

 stand that artificial baits are successful with even 

 large bass in the open water. In the Teign, it 

 is living sand-eels or nothing. Not even launce, 

 a related fish of greener tint, will tempt the " cob- 

 blers," and the amateur is wholly dependent on 

 the netsmen, unless his man will rake a few, an 

 exhausting office, which inspires in him no enthu- 

 siasm. Now and again, in despair at seeing several 



