462 APPENDIX 



conger-fishing on a warm summer's night, with a fisherman who under- 

 stands his work and knows the ground, is now and again an agreeable 

 change. 



The reader must be referred to any of the existing handbooks for full 

 particulars of the capture of these and other British fishes — of the cod caught 



^,, _. , from the beach in autumn on the east coast with throw- 

 Other Fish. 



out tackles baited with sprat or lugworm ; of the whiting 



caught out on the deep sandbanks ; of the turbot, plaice and other flat fish 



caught with some soft bait or other on the sand. Mussel and lugworm are the 



best all-round baits for this ground-fishing, though the largest catches I ever 



made of plaice were on herring bait, and that was from a pier at the mouth 



of a river running into the Baltic. Much of the east coast of England is, 



with the exception of stretches like that in the neighbourhood of Filey 



Brigg, flat and sandy, and the chief fishing is from the Suffolk beaches 



in autumn for cod and whiting. 



These, then, are a few notes on English sea-fishing. The Scotch and 

 Irish coasts offer in many parts even better sport than the Channel. There 

 are several associations of rock-fishers at Aberdeen, where they use eighteen- 

 foot bamboo rods, and bait with mussel or soft crab, catching cod and saithe 

 {i.e. coal fish), a near ally of the pollack. The rocky coast of the west of Ireland 

 affords good fly-fishing for pollack during the latter part of the summer. 

 Waterville and Valentia are capital centres for amateur sea-fishermen, and 

 those who do not mind the ocean swell can have an exciting night's sport 

 with hake. 



