4 o 



THE GRAPNEL OR CREEPER SINKER. 



any kind of hand-line ground-fishing, and if two pairs of lines 

 be diligently worked, the result will generally be fully equal and 

 often greater than if more hooks were used, which are often a 

 positive hindrance, from the increased liability to entanglement, 

 and loss of time incurred in clearing away before the gear is 

 again in working order. If from the strength of the tide you are 

 compelled to use two lines only with the * Grapnel or Creeper 

 Sinker,' the number of hooks may be doubled, but six on each 

 I consider quite sufficient, even under these circumstances. At 

 Plymouth three form the complement of hooks on one line ; at 

 Salterton, Sidmouth, and Beer, two only ; yet these fishermen 

 will take as many fish on the average as those at Dartmouth, 

 and have often made catches of from thirty to seventy dozen 

 Whiting in a day's fishing, facts the reader will coincide, I think, 

 with myself in esteeming pretty conclusive. 



The Grapnel or Creeper Sinker (fig. 5) is much used off 

 Dartmouth and Start Bay, on account of 

 the strength of the tidal currents in the 

 offing, at and about spring tides. These 

 creepers have five claws, are about 18 

 inches long, and are provided with a conical 

 piece of lead of two or three pounds' weight, 

 cast on to the shank as close to the eye as 

 possible, in order that the ring end may not 

 rise from the bottom, and the claws thereby 

 break out of the ground. A thimble of the 

 kind used by sailmakers to insert in the 

 bolt-rope of sails is closed on the eye of the 

 grapnel, and a piece of three-eighths galvan- 

 ised wire is slung to the thimble by passing 

 a piece of Cod-line through the ring and 

 round the circumference of the thimble, 

 when both ends of the piece of Cod-line, on 

 each of which an eye has been spliced, are 

 lashed close to the ends of the wire. The 

 snood and hooks, sometimes amounting to 

 more than a dozen, and the line, are bent 

 on as in the ordinary Dartmouth Rig. The weight of the 



f 



FIG. 5. The Grapnel 

 or Creeper Sinker. 



