120 AN ANGLER'S YEAR 



and my brother fished with hand-lines, while I rigged 

 up my Deal rod with wire line and big pulley top, 

 much to the amusement of the Welshman, to whom 

 rod fishing in deep water was evidently quite novel. 

 The first pull was at my brother's line, and after a few 

 minutes' play he hooked and eventually, by the aid of 

 the gaff, landed a toper of 81bs. This capture en- 

 livened matters, and we were quickly amongst the 

 codling, in spite of the heavy tide, which necessitated 

 the use of tremendous leads on the hand-lines, and 

 quite 3oz. on the wire line. The wire line, as usual 

 under these circumstances, did its work, and killed 

 two fish for one taken by the hand-lines. As the tide 

 slackened the pouting came on the feed, and were of 

 very good size, going, many of them, from fib. to 

 lib. apiece. The codling were, however, small, few 

 being over llb. The capture of the pout ("rachan " 

 the boatman called them) seemed not a usual occur- 

 rence, as our pilot told us, and it was suggested 

 that they had followed the writer up from the South 

 Coast. 



As the tide slacked still further the sport died 

 away, and as the wind came round more off the 

 Head the sea became very choppy, so it was decided 

 to get off home in time for lunch. When fishing, we 

 opened one or two of the fish to see what they were 

 taking ; and it was found that the pout contained mainly 

 small prawns, possibly the ring horned prawn, popularly 

 known as the pink shrimp. The codling also had a few 

 prawns inside, but the principal food was found to be 

 small crabs, known as the Hairy Porcelain crab 

 (Porcellana platycheles), which has a long tail and 

 exceptionally enlarged " nippers." Rowing gently in 

 under the shelter of the Head, we gradually made our 

 way towards home ; and, finally hoisting our sails, we 

 made a fine run back close-hauled across the flats, 

 arriving at our landing place at Conway in about three- 

 quarters of an hour. On the way home we counted our 

 catch, which was made in about two hours' time, and 

 found that we had taken two score of fine pouting and 



