SEA FISHING IN EUROPE 457 



pollack, conger and bream fishing. In a sand)' neighbourhood he. will 

 look for mackerel, whiting, bass and flat fish. Harbours 

 and estuaries meaji for him bass and grey mullet, and greater Meaning of 

 facilities for embarking- and disembarking than are available *"^^® ^° ^"^ 



/\no*l^t* 



on an open coast. Where there are cliffs, he will probably 

 find convenient spots for fly fishing or spinning from the rocks. 



The methods employed b}- the amateur sea-fisherman on our coasts reach 

 the highest perfection yet known in this form of sport. Here and there, it is 

 true, the Genoese or Basque or Neapolitan will surprise us by some particularly 

 ingenious use of ground bait, or by remarkably skilful manipulation of 

 abnormally long bamboo rods and fine tackle ; but, on the whole, our expert 

 amateur sea-fishermen are much further in advance of their brother anglers 

 in Continental countries than can fairly be claimed in the case of the 

 professionals. Some measure of this difference may perhaps be accounted 

 for by the fact, already noted, that, with the exception of exiled Britons, the 

 vast majority of amateur sea- fishermen in other countries belong solely to 

 the poorer class, and there is no one to correspond to our many yachting 

 men who are also on occasion keen sea fishermen. As a result, the sport is 

 followed on simple and economic lines, largel}' confined to operations from 

 shore or pier, and therefore lacking all the improved tackles and sporting 

 methods that we associate with boat-fishing. 



Our Continental friends differ widely in their mcFits as amateur sea 

 fi.shermen. Speaking, so far as the venture is permissible, from personal ex- 

 perience of the methods employed by one or two nations, I should be inclined 



to place the Italians after the English, the Spaniards third, the 



„ , , , ^ , , • , Continental 



rrench next, and the Cjermans last — an order strictly corre- -, 



Sea Anglers. 

 sponding to the proportion of coast line. The German, indeed, 



has but one qualification as a successful sea-angler, and that is his inex- 

 haustible patience. I once knew a German professor of history at a University 

 of which I was at the time a student, who was an ardent pike-fisher, and 

 who, to my knowledge, one cold week in winter, walked for three days, rod 

 in hand, on the shores of an ice-bound lake not half a mile from the Baltic. 

 Not a run did he get until the afternoon of the third day, when his patient 



