TROT BASKET AND HOOK HOLDER. 143 



In a sandy cove between the rocks, you may suspend it 

 from the sides with advantage, as Bass frequent such places on 

 a flowing tide. Very long lines of this kind are used by the 

 fishermen for Cod, Conger, Turbot, Plaice, &c., sometimes with 

 nearly a thousand hooks. Some boats carry twelve miles of 

 these long lines, which are set in deep water at great distances 

 from the shore. 



On a flat sandy shore, a bulter may be set at low water 

 and examined on the succeeding tide ; Sand-Eels or Mackerel 

 are here the best baits, and hooks Nos. 8 and 9. The same 

 line, No. n hooks, will catch Plaice with Lug bait. See fig. 

 63, p. 211. 



The most killing method of taking Bass with which I am 

 acquainted, is to bait a trot with living Sand-Eels as for 

 Pollack, No. 10 hooks, not coiling down the trot, but dropping 

 every hook into the water as soon as baited. 



Trot Basket and Hook Holder. These form a very useful 

 combination for keeping a trot or spiller in good order. The 

 line is dropped into the basket, and the hooks are passed over 

 the holder, which should consist of a piece of tough ash a foot 

 long, sawn down 9 inches, the two arms of which are to be 

 rounded sufficiently to admit the hooks, which having been 

 inserted until the holder is full, they are to be brought together 

 with a clove hitch of the line to keep the hooks in their place. 

 When one holder is full, place it on the line in the basket and 

 fix a second in the wicker work at the side. A basket 15 

 inches wide and 10 deep is a convenient size for a small trot, 

 but a bulter or Conger-trot, if of any considerable length, 

 requires a larger basket. In Scotland and Ireland a basket of a 

 scoop or coal-scuttle form is used, and some grass being laid 

 flat on the fore part, the baited hooks are arranged thereon in 

 regular rows, and the line coiled away behind it. Fasten a 

 fig-drum in the centre of the basket for the baited hooks. 



'The OuthauT Bulter. At low- water time put down an 

 anchor or very heavy stone as far as convenient, or drive in a 

 post if the ground will admit, and make fast a three-inch 

 block, spliced to a piece of strong rope a yard or two in length. 

 Let your line be of the size of ^ of an inch thick, and double 



