FISHING AT HOME AND ABROAD 

 SOUTH AFRICA. The sport of sea angling has much developed of late 

 years at Durban, Natal, East London, and elsewhere. At Durban, in the 

 mouth of the Umgeni River, *' Gape salmon " are caught up to ten pounds, 

 baiting with sardine, mullet, or shrimp, as well as kingfish up to sixty 

 pounds, and barracouta. Immense sandsharks — ^the record, so far, was 

 a fish of ten feet four inches, weighing 432 1 lb. — ^have been landed on 

 the beach at LourenQO Marques. These sandsharks, which are not unlike 

 our monkfish, are played on very powerful bamboo rods, with two or 

 three hundred yards of line on the reel, and a steel trace for the hook. 

 Other fish caught from the beaches are skate, " salmon," and " mussel 

 crackers," the last being immense sea bream up to sixty or seventy 

 pounds, and somewhat resembling the Australian snapper or the merjan 

 of Turkish seas. 



In Natal, the ** seventy-four," a heavy fighter, easily recognized by 

 the black spot on each side of its body, is a favourite fish. In all wharf 

 fishing at the Gape, the " toby," a little fish that seizes every bait, is as 

 great a nuisance as are chad on the pollack grounds at home. There is 

 good sport in some of the lagoons, with rod and light tackle, baiting 

 with razorfish or any small fish, and large kabeljauw, up to one 

 hundred pounds, are sometimes caught in these sheltered waters, as 

 well as grey mullet up to ten poimds, the last-named being caught with 

 paste bait. 



EAST AFRICA. At Zanzibar, cavalli up to ten pounds are caught on the 

 rod, with a live sardine for bait. The black fishermen have a curious habit 

 of attracting the fish round the boat by splashing their hands in the water 

 and then throwing in several sardines, one of which is hooked through 

 the lips. On the Somali coast, there are dorab up to twenty pounds, the 

 best bait being a small mullet. These fish are taken either trolling or 

 fishing on the bottom. Port Sudan has wonderful fishing. 



IV. AMERICA 



WEST INDIES AND SPANISH MAIN. There is good sea fishing 

 throughout the islands of the Caribbean and along the coast of Venezuela 

 and Columbia, though the water is at times so clear, and the sun so 

 bright, that it is next to impossible to deceive the fish, which, though 

 little fished for, are extraordinarily suspicious of even fine tackle, as I 

 have repeatedly found. Still, I have caught both snapper and barracouta 

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