BASS AND MULLET 203 



For once luck came my way, and, although but 

 four mullet had so far been taken during the season 

 (which opens with almost monotonous regularity 

 after the 10th June), I contrived to catch two, 

 one just topping 3 Ibs., the other somewhat 

 smaller, on the first day of trying. The total 

 bag to three rods that day was seven fish weighing 

 just5 over 20 Ibs., so that, even on averages, my 

 contribution was, for the novice of the party, not 

 wholly to be despised. The other members of 

 the party were Mr. Gomm himself and Mr. Francis 

 Daunou, whose enthusiasm for mullet fishing 

 is a veritable passion at white heat, for surely no 

 lovelorn poet was ever more attached to his fair 

 mistress than Daunou to his mullet, and certainly 

 both Gomm and he exhibit extraordinary skill 

 in the systematic capture of that difficult fish. 

 Their manner of taking it beneath Margate Jetty 

 is best compared to roach-fishing in running 

 water, and indeed the explanation is simple, for 

 Gomm was previously a very experienced Thames 

 fisherman, having learnt most that there is to 

 know of the fishes of that river, from the Thames 

 Trout downwards. To Margate Jetty he intro- 

 duced the methods acquired at Sunbury and 

 Staines. With what admirable results this mar- 

 riage of sea- and river- angling has been celebrated 

 may be seen from a glance at their fishing records, 

 from which it appears that Daunou' s best fish 



