FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD 



Now and again each line should be held very gently between the thumb 

 and forefinger, and raised no more than a couple of inches. This should be 

 enough to ascertain what is going on down below. If there is any sign of 

 a bite, the grip should tighten on the line, and as soon as the conger is 

 felt to be moving off with the bait, a good fathom of line should be suddenly 

 snatched in over the gunwale. If the eel is hooked, it should be hauled 

 away from the rocks with as little ceremony as need be, and kept on the 

 move. It does most of the moving itself, with that curious jerky back- 

 ward action suggestive of a motor launch going astern. The next thing 

 is to get it inside the boat as quickly as possible. If it is only eight or 

 ten pounds, or less, there should be no need to gaff it, but it may just 

 be hauled over the side (there is very little chance of the hook coming 

 away) and dispatched, either by using it as a lash and flogging the 

 boat's thwart with it, or by hitting it on the head with anything handy. 

 The heavy fish, of twenty pounds and over, must needs be gaffed, though 

 their tremendous gyrations are liable to twist the strongest gaff out of its 

 socket. 



From the foregoing it will be realized that conger-fishing is, at best, 

 a somewhat brutal form of sport, with no romance in it beyond that in- 

 separable from a night at sea. Its attraction lies wholly in the opportunity 

 which it affords for a stand-up fight in seas that provide very few fish of 

 such mettle. Elsewhere, with a variety of game sea-fish, equally strong 

 and infinitely more beautiful, conger-fishing would be beneath contempt, 

 since it is not so much angling as a tug-of-war, a pull-devil-pull-baker 

 business, with a bludgeon at the end of it, in which a burglar would stand 

 the best chance of success. For yachting men, moreover, it has the further 

 objection that a conger, on coming aboard, makes a disgusting slimy mess. 

 For this reason, it is always desirable to fish for it from a boat belonging 

 to somebody else. 



So much of the novelty, indeed, belongs to the condition of darkness, 

 preferably, so far as sport is concerned, without a moon, that conger- 

 fishing by day is not likely to engage serious attention where there is better 

 game to be had. There are spots, however, in Cornwall and the Channel 

 Islands where, in deep water, with gloom enough to encourage the conger 

 to forage, large specimens are caught in daylight. Fish up to ten or fifteen 

 pounds are also occasionally to be had close inshore after a spell of rough 

 weather, but the majority of those taken in the day from piers and jetties 

 are small fish, mostly males. Very large conger are sometimes found 

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