VII. THE MACKEREL 



By F. G. AFLALO 



'AGHTING folk who, during summer time, look on sea fishing 

 as merely a relief from the boredom of idleness, always remind 

 one of those hunting mien (and women) who, at the other end of 

 the year, regard foxhunting as a pretext for a gallop. Just as 

 these care nothing for the intricacies of hound work, so those 

 are left cold by improvements in tackle and the discovery of new 

 methods. With these fair-weather fishermen, as with many more to whom 

 an hour's fishing lends interest to a sail that they do not enjoy for its 

 own sake, the mackerel stands for the best fish in the sea. It is the easiest 

 to catch. It can be caught while sailing along, and without the sometimes 

 distressful need of anchoring in a lively sea. It is so plentiful that a blank 

 day is unheard of. When grilled soon after capture, it is exceedingly good 

 to eat. It is, to chronicle yet another of its many virtues, one of the best 

 baits obtainable for all kinds of sea fishing, and only a very few kinds of 

 fish, such as the red and grey mullet, refuse it. 



All these considerations recommend the mackerel, but perhaps the 

 chief cause of its popularity as a summer -holiday fish is that its nature 

 is so guileless as to put the veriest novice and the most hardened 

 veteran on the same footing. The expert may perchance grumble that 

 the spoils are too easily won, but he is in the minority. This really 

 beautiful little fish, in short, takes high rank with those who put the joy 

 of fishing before its science, and some, indeed, never attempt to catch 

 any other kind. 



The mackerel is among the most determined fighters in our seas. If 

 it were only fought on trout tackle, which is nicely adapted to its size 

 and weight, it would give excellent sport. Fished for with the thick lines 

 and heavy leads of the ordinary mackerel boat, it offers merely feeble 

 resistance, quite inadequate to the brute force arrayed against it. The 

 ordinary way of catching mackerel is, in fact, a coarse and clumsy form 

 of the method already described as railing, and for anyone anxious to 

 catch the greatest possible number of mackerel in the least possible time, 

 it leaves nothing to be desired. One boat, with half a dozen lines out, 

 may, on a good day, return with three or four hundred mackerel in a 

 tide. Yet what, after all, is one to do with three or four hundred mackerel ? 



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