166 



AN ANGLER'S YEAR 



nevertheless I use two above and catch quite as many, 

 if not more, above the lead as below. Probably those 

 who catch their fish on hooks, all below the boom, bait 

 mainly with lug. If this be so, I can perfectly under- 

 stand that the sight of a lugworm struggling against the 

 tide at a height of a foot or so would repel rather than 

 attract any fish. But, on the other hand, what can look 

 more natural than a shrimp struggling to get free from 

 some entanglement a little off the bottom ? 



I therefore always bait my two hooks above with 



Fig. 35. Methods of Baiting Shrimp. 



A. With the Live Shrimp. 



B. With the Boiled Shrimp. 



shrimp, which, if alive, should be hooked through the 

 tail, and if dead, through the middle of the back. The 

 usual method so frequently advocated of baiting with 

 dead shrimp to pass the hook through the body so 

 that the head looks up the shank, and the point comes 

 out under the tail is, to my mind, unscientific, and apt 

 to break up the bait ; whereas by the method here 

 shown the bait does not wash off with the tide, but lasts 

 till a fish takes it. (See Fig. 35, B.) 



There is little doubt that the live shrimp is more 

 deadly than the boiled, and still less that the shrimp, 

 whether alive or cooked, must be used whole and in no 

 way peeled, the head being the most attractive portion for 

 flounders. That the shrimp is a better bait than the lug 



