ioo THE WHITING-POUT. 



bottom and then draw it up an arm's stretch or 5 feet (which 

 should be the length of the line below the lead), then give it 

 three or four turns round one of the thowl pins of your boat if 

 using two lines. The Kentish Rig, and other kinds with short 

 snoods, should be raised just clear of the ground. Using one 

 line, rest the hand on the gunwale, raising the lead a few inches 

 occasionally. For harbour fishing, or under ten fathoms, make 

 the snoods of twisted or strong single gut ; but in deeper water, 

 foul bottom, and general outside work, fine cotton, hemp, or 

 flax snooding will be found preferable, as you are constantly 

 hooking large fish, and weeds and rocks, causing great wear and 

 tear of gear. 



Baits. Much the same as for Silver- Whiting, Mussels of 

 rather a smaller size, Lug- Worms, the largest Rag-Worms, a 

 very large description of Flat Worm, sometimes near 18 inches 

 in length and \ an inch wide, which is found by digging under 

 large stones at low tides, and sometimes also of a smaller size 

 in the sand ; this I have only met with in the Channel Islands, 

 but I imagine it may be found in other parts of the kingdom, 

 where the shore is composed of granite rocks and pebbles, with 

 its accompanying sand and yellow clay. (Note. A boat's bailer 

 is always required when searching for this worm to turn out the 

 water, which otherwise floods the pit immediately it is formed.) 

 It is named Varm, see p. 190. 



The other baits are a piece of any fresh fish, such as Herring 

 or Pilchard, the soft part of a Limpet, or, when nothing better 

 can be procured, garden snails, or the hard part of a Limpet, 

 and the tail part of the Hermit Crab or Soldier, alias Crab- walk 

 and Gann. 



This fish being unprovided by nature with any shell for the 

 lower part of his body, supplies the want of it by inhabiting that 

 of a dead Whelk, and changes his abode as often as he finds 

 his quarters too confined for his increasing size ; these may be 

 procured from the fishermen, as numbers of them, as well as 

 Whelks, get into the Crab-pots, and are also taken in dredging 

 and trawling. 



I have found it an excellent plan to put out a drift-line at 

 the stern when Pout-fishing, baiting with a large Mussel or a 



