SEA FISHING 



and conifer at night, though at Brixham and Dartmouth large wrasse, 

 gaudy but useless, save as baits for the crabpots, frequently take the bait, 

 a live prawn. Some of the best rocks between Brixham and Dartmouth 

 lie out in open water, and I have, on breezy days, found some little manage- 

 ment necessary in stepping out of a small boat alongside. The boat should 

 then lie off, keeping within hail, but out of the way. There are many other 

 rocky points, from Plymouth round the Land's End to North Devon, from 

 which bass may be taken, the usual bait in Cornwall being a pilchard. 



The nearest rock fishing in which I have taken part on the Continent 

 is in Brittany. There is a little to be had, for bass and grey mullet, even 

 at St Malo, but better opportunities may be enjoyed round the west side 

 in the vicinity of Port Manech, the annexe to the famous Hotel Julia at 

 Pont Aven. Here are ideal little coves into which the summer tides bring 

 large mullet, and, with a little ground-bait and much patience, these may 

 be caught from the rocks. Native anglers are few and far between, and 

 few of the tourists, who are for the most part French, give any attention 

 to sea fishing other than going out in boats for mackerel or whiting pout, 

 so that the sea angler should be able to get a cove to himself, keeping it 

 well baited during his stay. Elsewhere in France, the best chances of rock 

 fishing are at Biarritz and along the French Riviera, notably on the rocks 

 just beyond the well-known Restaurant de la Reserve, at Cannes, where 

 I have seen one or two fair-sized bass taken with a machotte, or mud- 

 prawn, for bait. 



At Madeira and the neighbouring island of Porto Santo we used to 

 catch very game black bream, or sargos, from the rocks, baiting with 

 crabs. The crabs at Porto Santo, where I once camped for some days in 

 a tent on the beach, grew so knowing that towards the end of my stay 

 the only way to get them was by shooting each with a small-bore rifle! 

 This reads like an American version of the truth, but it is the truth itself. 

 The bream were attracted by a groundbait of pounded crab (only the legs 

 were used on the hook) and sweet potato, which a Portuguese fisherman 

 used to chew and spit with great accuracy round the line. Like their cousins 

 in Australia, these sargos bite very gingerly, and it is easy to miss them 

 on striking, but when hooked they fight well on the cane rod and tight 

 line with which it is usual to fish for them. Wrasse are also plentiful 

 off those islands, some of large size, and they are as frequent a disappoint- 

 ment when angling for sargos as they are to the bass fisherman at home 

 in Devonshire. The most uncanny rock -fish in all my experience is the 

 QO 297 



