AND ANGLING SONGS. 325 



employ a stiff tie-rod, twelve feet or so in length, made of well- 

 seasoned ash. A salmon reel, provided with seventy or eighty 

 yards of stout oiled cord, will in this case be required, and a 

 couple of swivels, one attached immediately above the plumb, 

 and the other below it, about three yards' distance from the hook, 

 are next thing to indispensable. The rings on the rod, whether 

 fixed or movable, should be large and strong. In plumbing the 

 line, weights, varying from two ounces up to a pound, are re- 

 quired. In mackerel-fishing, with the running hand-line, under 

 a stiffish breeze, it will often be found necessary to increase the 

 plumbing to six, eight, or even ten pounds. In order to keep 

 the line from kinking, and give play to the lure or fly, it will be 

 found expedient, besides employing a brass swivel at the head of 

 the traces, to make use of a pin or wedge of ash, hickory, or 

 whalebone, in length about ten inches, and as thick nearly as 

 one's little finger. This should be used, either inserted into the 

 plummet or sinker, so as to project from it six or seven inches, 

 or made fast to the main line immediately above it, the traces, or 

 foot-line, being secured to it by a succession of hitch-knots. 



On the occasion I refer to, no plumbing to talk of was neces- 

 sary, the pursuing body, which comprised saithe, lythe, and large 

 podlies, having, under unusual circumstances, been tempted 

 away from their ordinary beats into shoal water. The mere con- 

 tact of the hook with the surface, in fact, brought the fish up to 

 the scratch. No sooner had the boat cleared the sandy part of 

 the bay, and approached the rocks, than the sport commenced. 

 I had provided myself with an old triple gut casting-line used for 

 salmon-fishing, attaching to it, by way of a bob and trailer, two 

 lythe flies. From this arrangement no disadvantage accrued, so 

 long as the bottom was comparatively free of sea-weed, and I 

 had the mere stragglers to deal with ; but in rowing in where 

 the fish showed thickest, and the tangles below lay dense, the 

 snapping of my line, through the agency of a brace of lythe, 



