FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD 

 The heavier bass are not, as a rule, caught until June, and should be at 

 their best early in July, the sport declining steadily through August, 

 and coming to an end about the middle of September, though abnormal 

 weather conditions may curtail or protract the duration of the season. 

 Local wiseacres vow that some of these large bass lie up in the river 

 throughout the winter, but as none are ever taken on the hook during 

 that period, and as even the early salmon nets, which start fishing the 

 first week in March, never catch any, the suggestion may be received with 

 the same suspicion as that which favoured the migration of swallows to the 

 bottom of ponds. Not every river, even on the South Coast, along which the 

 bass is commoner than on either the east or west of Britain, seems to be 

 regularly frequented by these fish. The Sussex Arun has always been a 

 famous river for bass, which ascend even above Arundel, but I never saw or 

 heard of any daily play of small shoal bass there, as in the Exe and Teign. 

 The bass is a rarity in Scotch waters, almost as scarce perhaps as the 

 pilchard. Indeed, it is by origin a southern fish, and it will not be met with 

 much north of Sheringham, on the east coast, or Pwllheli, on the west. 



The bass has an extraordinarily varied appetite, the result of which is 

 that at nearly every seaside resort at which these fish are regularly taken, 

 there is some local bait in which local sportsmen have implicit faith, 

 and of these a list will presently be given. Speaking generally, it is a 

 predatory fish in estuaries and in clear water, chasing the shoals of brit* 

 and sand-eels, and in such circumstances it readily takes live bait: prawn, 

 spinner, or even fly. Where, however, it seeks its food in dirty harbours, 

 or in muddy water after a spell of stormy weather, the bass turns scavenger 

 — ^prowling along the shore for dead fish and other offal. At such times, 

 the big " cobbler bass," as the fishermen call them, are most likely to 

 take a b^it of herring, bloater, skate's liver, or some similar mouthful, 

 not too fresh, and the bait should lie still on the bottom. Throughout the 

 Mediterranean Sea, where I have at different times caught bass from 

 Tangier to within hail of Constantinople, the water is deeper and clearer 

 than on our coasts, and, as a result, perhaps, of these conditions, bass 

 are chiefly caught with live shrimps or prawns, though at Cannes, in the 

 month of March, I found another crustacean in general use. This was a 

 greyish-green mud-prawn called, in the vernacular of Riviera fishermen, 

 machotte, and the manner of fishing was to tow it at night behind the 

 boat, using a long rod and fine gut tackle. In June, however, when the bass 



'Small fry. 



340 



