154 THE CHERVIIST, OR SHRIMP GROUND-BAIT. 



in large shoals ; it is said they may be taken with a fly at such 

 times, but although I have frequently tried I have never been 

 successful, yet I have seen them follow it with great eagerness. 



From some of the large tidal rivers on various parts of the 

 coast a considerable extent of land has been embanked, leaving 

 here and there large ponds of water communicating by drains 

 with the sea ; in such places you will always find Grey Mullet, 

 Freshwater Eels, a few Bass and Flounders, and occasionally 

 Trout, with immense quantities of Shrimps and Green Crabs, 

 on which the fish are supposed to feed ; in these pools fish are 

 easily taken by a casting-net, and the Eels by hook and line, of 

 which the other fish seem very shy. It would be well worth 

 while to introduce Perch, as an experiment, into such ponds. 

 When many Mullet are enclosed in a seine or drag-net, numbers 

 will escape by leaping over the cork-line in rapid succession, as 

 sheep will follow each other over a fence ; a trammel-net, how- 

 ever, is a very effectual means of capture, particularly if backed 

 by a second at a distance of three or four feet. 



The Greeks have an ingenious way of preventing their 

 escape by extending a piece of net from the cork-line on canes 

 on the surface of the water. 



THE CHERVIN, OR SHRIMP GROUND-BAIT. 



The following information, communicated by a former 

 resident in Jersey, is well worth notice, the practice described 

 being most successfully carried out by two or three knowing 

 old stagers in that island : with a very fine horse-hair net, they 

 repair to the flat sands at low water and catch a large quantity 

 of the young Shrimps in the small rills of water, salting them 

 down in a jar until wanted, when they take a pint or so with 

 them, and mixing some water with the Shrimps or Chervin to 

 about the consistence of gruel, throw a little into the water 

 beside the line with a spoon occasionally, which collects and 

 keeps the Mullet about the place, and seems to whet their 

 appetite for the bait a piece of a good-sized Shrimp minus 

 the shell. Off-shore winds and smooth water are preferred for 

 this fishing. 



