120 THE FLOUNDER OR FLUKE. 



and arranging the lines as in Dab-fishing. To bait the hooks, 

 take a Crab, and having cracked the shell and pulled it off, cut 

 the body with a sharp knife into three or four baits, and place 

 a piece on each hook, by putting the hook twice through it ; 

 crack the' shell of the large and small legs also, and they will 

 form one or two more baits. Whilst fishing for Flounders, you 

 will also occasionally take large Freshwater Eels and Bass, 

 which are very fond of the Soft Crab. 



If you reside near any harbour having muddy shores, it 

 will be quite worth while to contrive a number of artificial 

 shelters for the bait-crabs, which is to be effected by procuring 

 a quantity of old earthenware pots, old saucepans, or frying 

 pans, to the number of two or three hundred or more, and 

 placing them on the shore between half tide and low water 

 mark ; turn them upside down, leaving a small opening for the 

 Crabs to enter, which they will not fail to do ; you will thus 

 have a supply of bait always at hand. 



Where the water is entirely fresh, or in the upper part of an 

 estuary where the fresh water preponderates, Flounders will 

 take Earth-Worms as freely as Eels ; but where the water is 

 entirely salt, or the salt preponderates in the mixed water, the 

 Soft Crab or Mud-Worm is preferred. 



The quantity of Eels to be taken with the Soft-Crab bait in 

 some estuaries is very great : I have heard of as much as a 

 hundred weight in a single day's fishing in Southampton Water. 

 Strong flax or hemp snooding is chiefly used for Eels in these 

 localities, but horse-hair loosely twisted makes excellent snoods. 



In fishing from shore for Flounders or Eels, use from four 

 to six leger lines of very stout snooding, with a quarter-pound 

 lead or stone at the end, and two hooks, No. 13 (see cut of 

 Hooks, p. 211 ), a foot apart, tied to twisted gut or fine gimp or 

 snooding, 



This tackle is also suitable for Pout-fishing off a pier or 

 rocks, with the addition of a couple of revolving chopsticks, 

 which may be made of whalebone or brass wire. (See ' Eels,' 

 p. 185.) Whilst angling with the rod and the Pater-Noster 

 line from piers and quays, you will often take Flounders if you 

 bait the bottom hook with a boiled Shrimp, which, being care- 



