FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD 

 from the sameness of fishing by day. Only a single hook should be used, 

 though many people prefer two. If, however, each hook were to be seized 

 simultaneously by a big conger, the fisherman would run the risk of 

 being pulled over the side. Ever since, on one occasion in the Black 

 Forest, I hooked two large trout at once on the tail and dropper, losing 

 one, and very nearly both, in the turmoil that followed, I have had my 

 doubts about using more than one fly, and the same criticism applies to 

 angling for big fish, or with light tackle, generally. 



Conger tackle must be of the strongest. Not only, even when fighting in 

 open water, is the conger one of the most powerful fish in our seas, but 

 it has a trick of winding its tail round a rock or clump of weeds with such 

 a grip as to test the strongest hook and line. Straightforward effort to 

 dislodge it is fruitless, and the best plan is to delude the fish into the 

 belief that it has succeeded in breaking the line. This can, as a rule, be 

 accomplished by first pulling the line hard and then suddenly throwing 

 a fathom or two of slack over the side. In a minute or two it will be found 

 that the conger has, of its own accord, relaxed its hold and is swimming 

 away, thinking itself free. This trick has been played times out of number, 

 and rarely fails, though no one seems to know who originated it. It may, 

 like most angling strategy, have had its origin in fresh water, but I never 

 heard of its being employed against any fish other than the conger. Indeed, 

 if it be tried once or twice without result, the fisherman is safe in assuming 

 that his line is round the rock, and that he is out of direct communication 

 with the other end. 



The teeth of the conger are many and sharp, and the material to which 

 the hook is made fast must be either too hard or too soft for the eel to bite 

 through. The suggestion of having it too soft may read like a paradox, 

 but its soundness is beyond dispute, and may easily be put to the proof 

 with an ordinary knife. If the harder material is chosen, then copper wire 

 should be bound round the line for two feet above the hook. This, however, 

 makes the latter lie stiffly, and the better plan is to tie it to very soft flax 

 threads, which offer so little resistance that they jam in the conger's 

 teeth and are not bitten through. The lead is best a couple of fathoms 

 above the hook. It is true that the alternative plan of having the lead at 

 the extreme end of the line, with the hook above it, allows of the hand 

 feeling the bite more readily, but the lead is very apt to get foul of the 

 rocks. With the lead, on the other hand, above the hook, as in the tackle 

 previously described for catching pollack at anchor, it can be allowed 

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