454 APPENDIX 



to allow of the Thames arrangement of punt and chair, very excellent float 

 fishing might be had in many of our bays ; but such is unfortunately not 

 the case. Another obvious distinction when angling from pier or boat lies 

 in the fact that it is only in a boat that the angler can practise trolling, 

 or the kindred method known to amateur sea-fishermen as railing, otherwise 

 towing baits in the wake of the boat. This is the favourite way of taking 

 summer mackerel and, in some parts, pollack and bass. Personally, I have 

 always taken all my best pollack on the drift line ; but my experience of 

 really good pollack fishing is practically confined to Cornish waters, and 

 I believe that there are parts of the Scotch and Irish coasts on which pollack 

 and coal fish of the largest size are taken on the railing line 



Coming for a moment from the methods to the fish themselves, there 

 are three categories, which, although they overlap in many particulars, it may 

 be of interest and use to distinguish before proceeding further. 



There are the rock fish and the sand fish. The former include the conger, 

 pollack, bream, whiting-pout and a few others. The sand fish include cod, 



whiting, plaice and other flat fish, grey mullet, herring, weevers. 



Rock Fish and , ^ • .1 . n r 1 1 w .1 



and athermes. Almost all 01 these are also caught on either 



Sand Fish. , . , . , 



kind of ground, but the angler might fairly expect to find 



them as above assigned. To the sand fish might perhaps have been added 



the gurnards, the scad and garfish (both of which foregather with the shoals 



of mackerel), and the dory. The launce, or sand eels, are also, of course, 



sand fish, but these are interesting to the angler only as the most killing 



all-round bait in the sea. Bass occur on both soft and rough ground. 



Another distinction of equally practical interest to the sportsman is that 



which may be drawn between the fish that feed near the surface and those 



that take a bait only on, or near, the bottom. As in rivers 



^ , and lakes, the former are the " game " fish, including the bass, 



Ground t^ > t, . 



Feeders pollack, mackerel, and, in some cases, the grey mullet. Any 



and all of these will in certain circumstances take a fly, and 

 all, except the grey mullet, will, when in the mood, take a spoon bait or 

 other artificial lure. Personally, I have not found fly-fishing a successful 

 method in salt water, though "John Bickerdyke," one of the greatest living 



