1 68 WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



some solitary plaices and flounders — at last a victim — 

 heavy and unresisting. An indistinct glance of a dark 

 object, broad as a tea-tray, brings the assistant spilleteer, 

 gaff in hand, to the quarter. Alas ! the turhot in expec- 

 tation turns out to be a ray ! Often have 1 shot a spillet 

 under favourable circumstances, and in approved ground, 

 and lost time, hooks, and snouds, and my whole reward 

 was a boat-load of skates and dog-fish 



We ran quickly with a leading wind to the fishing- 

 bank, and having shot the spillets — a tedious thing 

 enough — stood for a rocky part of the coast, where the 

 coal-fish are always abundant. This water-sport (viz., 

 coal-fishing) is unknown ** to the many," and yet to 

 him whose hands are not unacquainted with rope and 

 oar, it affords, at times, an admirable amusement. 



The coal-fishing requires a stiff breeze, and if there be 

 a dark sky it is all the better. In its detail, it is perfectly 

 similar to mackerel-fishing, only that the superior size 

 of the coal-fish makes stronger tackle and a heavier lead 

 indispensable. 



An eel of seven or eight inches long is the bait. The 

 head being removed, the hook is introduced as in a 

 minnow, and the skin brought three or four inches up 

 the snoud. This latter is a fine line of two or three 

 fathoms' length, afiixed to the trap-stick and lead, 

 the weight of which latter is regulated by the rate of 

 sailing. 



The coal-fish, in weight, varies from two to fourteen 

 pounds ; it is finely shaped, immensely rapid, uniting 

 the action of the salmon with the voracity of the pike. 

 If he miss his first dash, he will follow the bait to the 

 stern of the boat, and I have often hooked them within 

 a fathom of the rudder. 



