204 THE SALT OF MY LIFE 



weighed 8 Ibs. 7 ozs., while Gomm followed with a 

 good second at 8 Ibs. 4 ozs., and their highest 

 number in one day's fishing was thirty-three. 



I will briefly describe a day's mullet fishing in 

 company of these experts; who, like the sportsmen 

 they are, make no difficulty about imparting their 

 methods. Nor is their own sport likely to suffer 

 by such frankness, seeing that anything like con- 

 sistent success would call for immense patience 

 and no little skill. Moreover, groundbait plays, 

 as will presently be seen, a most important part 

 in the result, and the additional groundbait used 

 by new recruits would undoubtedly attract, and 

 keep, more fish under the Jetty. 



A little before five on a brilliant, if somewhat 

 breezy June morning we walk down to the har- 

 bour with rods and tackle and a cloth full of 

 sweet, newly-squeezed bread paste, and are 

 met at the Jetty by Bob Ladd, most excellent 

 of boatmen, who has in one hand a pail 

 of soaked bread and in the other a great 

 bag of bran and barley meal. The boat 

 is run down the slip on wheels, and, as the tide 

 is half way out, we embark from the soft " ross/' 

 which conceals the food of the mullet. It is but 

 a few strokes to the Jetty Extension, and there the 

 boat is very carefully moored fore and aft, so that 

 we have a clear run of water in the Cliftonville 

 direction, over which the ebb tide will carry the 



