SEA FISHING 

 of movement, is all that is required. I judge any boat suitable in which I 

 can stand up suddenly without capsizing. A boat that will not bear this 

 test can stay on the beach, as I would not now go out in it, though many 

 years ago, when we perhaps valued life less than we do to-day, a friend 

 and myself used to fish miles from land, tucked away in a little collapsible 

 Berthon boat, which we sometimes had to carry through surf before 

 stepping on board. On one occasion we caught a dogfish nearly as long 

 as the boat, and were nearly swamped by it, and why, in fact, we were 

 not both drowned has always been a mystery. After that, the most fragile 

 craft I ever fished in was my Turkish caique. I was just able to stand up 

 in it, but not without driving my Greek gillie to his prayers, and the caique 

 was safe only because the Gulf of Ismidt, where I did nearly all my fishing, 

 is sheltered by mountains on either shore and calm as a lagoon, and the 

 bass kept to the shallows, so that an upset would have meant nothing 

 beyond wet clothes. Another very flimsy skiff was that in which we used 

 to catch tarpon at Boca Grande. In this also I hooked a shark fourteen 

 feet long, that is to say, exactly the same length as the skiff, which towed 

 us about for hours. Americans favour these cockleshells and even harpoon 

 sawfish from canoes, but I am bound to confess that my own notion of 

 an enjoyable holiday does not include the hourly risk of being upset in 

 water alive with man-eating sharks. 



Motor -boats, which have been much in evidence during the past few 

 years, make too much disturbance in sheltered estuary fishing, but are 

 very convenient in saving loss of time between home and the outer grounds, 

 where, in deep water, they do not frighten the fishes. 



Apart from sufficient beam to allow of standing up, the most important 

 feature of any fishing boat is its freeboard, which should allow the angler 

 to hold his rod just the right height above the water, neither too high nor 

 too low. I have caught many good fish from the hurricane deck of a liner 

 anchored in quarantine, but there was always the risk of their falling 

 off in the air, and the great advantage which such height above the surface 

 of the water gives to the fisherman is so serious a handicap to the fish 

 as to spoil the sport it would give under fairer conditions. In a canoe, 

 on the other hand, like the Berthon, the angler sits so low on the water 

 as to have insufficient command over his rod, and in order to bring a big 

 fish within reach of the gaff he is compelled to hold the latter over his 

 shoulder, a risky position if the fish has strength enough to break away 

 at the last moment. One of the smaller Cornish luggers, of the size used 

 pp 289 



