FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD 



moderately light tackle, and afford sport enough to satisfy beginners; 

 but the veterans of ten pounds and upwards are best worth the attention 

 of those who have graduated in the easier sport. On some days, for some 

 unexplained reason, they seem to take almost any bait with such fury 

 as to hook themselves firmly, and their capture is then a question only 

 of tackle strong enough to hold them. As a rule, however, they are wary, 

 and in estuaries more particularly, where it is so clear that they know 

 every stone and post, they are very worthy adversaries. I have known 

 large bass in the Teign display such familiarity with every buoy chain, 

 or other obstacle likely to favour their escape, as could only have been 

 acquired by a long stay in the river. It may even have been the result of 

 memory from former visits to the same spot, but this we can only guess, 

 as bass have not been marked and returned alive to betray their move- 

 ments like salmon. On some days in June and July they have a tantalizing 

 habit of remaining outside the bar altogether, even though the river may 

 be alive with the small fry on which they feed. No explanation has been 

 found for this behaviour, and one can only surmise that some minute 

 marine plant or animal on which they feed hatches out on such occasions 

 among the rocks which guard this particular estuary. 



Three distinct methods, modified so as to suit local conditions, are 

 employed in the capture of bass with rod and line. These are: drifting with 

 the live sand-eel; whiffing with live prawn, sand-eel or artificial baits; 

 and ground-fishing with dead bait. To these might be added a fourth, 

 in the shape of fiy- fishing from rocky headlands, in its way, no doubt, 

 the most artistic, if not always the most successful, of them all. The bass 

 is not, however, among the fish caught in this fashion from Filey Brigg, 

 the headquarters of fly-fishing in our seas, for the Yorkshire coast lies 

 north of its ordinary range, and it may safely be said that the spots on our 

 coast at which bass have been caught on the fly (thrown in as freshwater, 

 and not dragged behind a boat) are so few and far between that any account 

 of the sport would be superfluous. Anyone accustomed to throwing a 

 salmon fly would find no difficulty, and all that remains is to locate a 

 shoal of bass within reach of either the rocks or a boat rowed close enough 

 without frightening the fish. 



The other methods must now be described at some length. 



1. Drifting with the living Sand-eel. — Sand-eels are the natural food of a 

 great number of larger fish, including mackerel, bass and pollack, and 

 are therefore a deadly bait when used alive under favourable conditions. 

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