BASS AND MULLET 209 



was safely under my first English mullet. It 

 broke ice that had grown too thick with time, 

 and even if I had not caught a second, this time 

 on the up-tide, I should have been perfectly 

 satisfied with the result of the expedition. 



Ground-bait, then, with tackle as fine as can 

 be trusted, is one secret of success with grey mullet, 

 and how important the ground-bait is may be 

 gathered from the conviction of these Margate 

 experts, that the regular return of the mullet to 

 the water beneath that Extension year after year, 

 and, what is more, their loyalty to those haunts 

 throughout the summer and greater part of the 

 autumn, must be entirely attributable to the great 

 quantity of scrapings and refuse thrown over each 

 day from the restaurant upstairs. Of green peas, 

 for instance, this singular fish is inordinately fond, 

 and the paunch of many a mullet is found to be 

 crammed with that vegetable. Bran is another 

 weakness, and mullet will even wander around 

 and suck it in, a particle at a time, until fat with it. 



Yet above the matter of tackle and bait I should 

 personally feel inclined to set the value of close 

 study by regular anglers. If you can place your- 

 self, as I had the good fortune to, under the 

 guidance of residents who have fished under every 

 kind of conditions and over a period of years, suc- 

 cess is, if not assured, at any rate very probable. 



My memories of those Margate mullet are most 



15 2272) 





