SEA FISHING IN EUROPE 



461 



intervals up a gut trace), and the bait is ragworm, procured from the mud flats 

 a little way up the river. 



The mullet has been selected as a typicall)- difficult fish, but the bass 

 might have been substituted, for, like the mullet, it is very easily captured 

 in its youth, but very hard to take when full grown. Often some novice, 

 who does not know his good fortune, catches the finest bass 

 of the season ; but, on the other hand, I have more than 

 once fished right through a long summer's da)% close to the rocks whitened 



Bass. 



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with many gulls, for a particular bass, sighted in the creek by someone looking 

 down from the cliff, without any success. ' 



Conger-fishing in our seas is a sport apart — an experience involving all 

 the novelty of sitting at night in an open boat. Want of space precludes 

 any account of the tackle and baits, of the skill needed in 

 hooking a large and wary conger, and the strength called 

 for in getting it safely into the boat. Much of the procedure is a mere 

 tug-of-war, somewhat foreign perhaps to the correct notion of sport, yet 



Conger. 



