SEA FISHING 

 situated In fourteen shires, should at any rate suffice to Illustrate the 

 varied tastes of the bass, though allowance must also, no doubt, be made 

 for the fact of the local bait being that which is most easily procured. 

 Nor is the amazing variety of bass fishing restricted to choice of bait. 

 Each spot has its own particular method. Thus, until the summer of 

 1912, it was always customary in the estuary of the Teign to drift with 

 the tide between the yachts and the footbridge, and this method was in 

 striking contrast with that favoured in the neighbouring estuary of the 

 Exe, where boats used to anchor just below the pier at Exmouth. I am 

 sorry to say, however, that this lazier method of anchoring has found its 

 way to Teignmouth, encouraged, needless to say, by the boatmen, who 

 are glad to earn the same pay without the trouble of rowing. This innova- 

 tion is to be deprecated for two reasons. In the first place, the fleet of 

 small boats anchored daily close to the bridge frightens the bass else- 

 where. In the second, one of the boats often drops its anchor right in the 

 fairway through the middle arch, as a result of which those who prefer 

 the older method of drifting up the middle of the river are debarred from 

 doing so. The plan of anchoring in so swift a tideway plays havoc with 

 the fine tackle that it is agreeable to use, twisting up the gut in spite of 

 swivels and, for obvious reasons, throwing a far greater strain on the 

 gear when a heavy fish is hooked than in the case of a boat able to follow 

 the fish in its struggles, and thereby relieve the rod and line of much of 

 their burden. 



The bass, like the grey mullet, is essentially a shore-hunting fish. 

 Few of either kind are taken in the trawl outside the ten-mile limit, and 

 records of their capture on hook and line at such a distance from land are 

 still rarer. It is probable that both spend some portion of the year in deep 

 water, but, if this is the case, they must find their asylum at such depths 

 as to be safe from all methods of capture, and they must journey back- 

 wards and forwards without tarrying on those offshore grounds over 

 which the trawl is always being worked like a vacuum -cleaner over a 

 dusty carpet. The bass cannot be regarded as haunting only rocky ground, 

 like the conger nor is it, like the sole, found only on soft groimd. It seems 

 to wander from one to the other indiscriminately, according to its mood 

 preying on small fry off rocky headlands or on the flowing tide in estuaries, 

 or, on days when the water is too thick for it to see its living victims, 

 routing in the sand and mud for dead food. 



Small bass, weighing up to a pound or two, are easily deceived with 



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