WHIFFING. 8 1 



or staysail, when the mainsail is not required. The helmsman 

 must be a good pilot, and not become so absorbed in his sport 

 as to forget which way his craft is heading, or he may speedily 

 come to grief on the rocks. The Crab-pot corks must be dili- 

 gently looked out for or the gear will become unrigged by loss 

 of the hooks and snoods. Amateurs at Plymouth use short 

 rods about a foot long of cane or whalebone stuck into the 

 gunwale, or into little zinc or copper clamps nailed against it ; 

 these first yield to a fish, and then allow the line to slip off the 

 top, thereby avoiding breakage. These little rods are called 

 twiggers, and show a bite immediately. The Crab-pot corks 

 are often run under by the tide, which causes great risk to your 

 tackle, and unfortunately they are most frequently placed off 

 the headlands, and in the very spots required to sail over, 

 therefore it is best to do so only at slack tide, when they are 

 all bearing at the surface, and during the continuance of the 

 stream to follow drift-line fishing. 



The Cornish Whiffing Line consists of a stout Whiting or 

 Conger line without any weight or sinker, the absence of this 

 being supplied by the length and weight of the line itself. A 

 good method of making the snood is with two fathoms of 

 stout gimp or fine copper wire, secured to a brass swivel i 

 inch long. A loop of double hemp half the thickness of the 

 main line, and 6 inches long, is spliced into the swivel, and 

 looped over a knot on the end of the main line. A second 

 small swivel is attached to the further end of the gimp or 

 wire, and to this 3 to 6 feet of very stout single or double 

 Salmon gut. Ten, fifteen, twenty, or more fathoms of line are 

 used according to the depth of water. This kind of line is 

 much used single-handed when sculling the boat along with one 

 oar over the stern, as being without lead, it does not sink so 

 rapidly as to get foul of the rocky bottom, like a leaded line. 

 Pollack, Mackerel, and Bass are taken with it. It answers well 

 also as a stern-line in a tideway at anchor for these fish, trailing 

 back clear of the other lines. A slip of parchment \ inch 

 wide \\ inch long is an additional attraction with Rag-Worm 

 bait, and an imitation indiarubber band in parchment will also 

 catch Pollack. 



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