58 A DATS WHITING-FISHING. 



the lead, keep the line and snood apart in descending, without 

 which they would twist round each other and foul constantly, 

 My old man- of- war's man used a sid-strap or, as in freshwater 

 parlance it would be termed, a trace 12 feet in length, to 

 which he bent on a snood with three hooks, after the manner of 

 a bottom or collar used in fly-fishing ; this added another 3 ft., 

 making in the whole a length of 15 ft. below the lead. Such 

 an extraordinary length of trace and snood is quite unneces- 

 sary ; but, as it is the custom in these parts, it is simply absurd 

 to argue the contrary, as many old hands can never be per- 

 suaded that any improvement may be made in the form or 

 arrangement of tackle or gear to which they have been accus- 

 tomed from their early years. Having been used to fish more 

 to the eastward, I had fixed my own gear with shorter snood- 

 ings, namely a 9 ft. sid-strap, with 3 ft. of snood and three 

 hooks, which is certainly long enough in all reason, making 

 12 ft, but in fishing alongshore I never use more than 5 ft. 

 Our bait was Pilchards, which Hannibal prepared by scaling 

 them carefully, to avoid breaking the skin, splitting them in 

 two from head to tail, dissecting out the backbone, and then 

 cutting them up diagonally into pieces nearly three-quarters of 

 an inch wide, so that each side made about seven or eight baits. 

 The hook is baited by passing the point through the fleshy side 

 at the blue end of the bait, and then forcing it through the 

 silvery side. 



The baits are now cast clear of the boat, the lead being 

 thrown into the water away from them ; for if dropped on the 

 snood, as I have seen done by many unthinking persons who 

 have only been accustomed to chopstick lines, a foul is the 

 natural result. All four lines are now out, and are trimmed 

 by sounding the bottom, and then raising the lead about a yard 

 clear of the ground, if there be any tide running ; but if not, 

 just sufficiently to keep the hooks from touching, as they are 

 more visible to the fish than if allowed to fall on the ground, 

 where the bait is likely to be taken off by Crabs or Star-fish. 



Directly we had put out our second lines we tried our first, 

 and feeling fish, we both commenced hauling, and took a pair 

 of Whiting. Having readjusted the bait, we turned to tend our 



