I 5 6 



THE SMELT AND SAND-SMELT. 



bay on the coast they frequent. Both Smelts and Atherine 

 bite so gently that frequently you can scarcely perceive it, 

 therefore you must not wait until you feel a bite, but every four 

 or five seconds strike smartly but gently, and raise your rod, 

 for by acting in this manner you will catch two to one to those 

 who wait to feel the fish before they strike. 



Be very particular that your hooks are sharp, or you will 

 lose as many as you catch, and in fitting out your line take 

 care that the gut to which your hooks are tied 

 be not long enough to reach each other, or they 

 will frequently foul ; these pieces of gut should 

 not be more than 5 inches in length each, and if 

 you place them a little more than 10 inches apart 

 they will then keep clear. 



In the illustration of the Pater-Noster (fig. 45) 

 the loops of the hook-links are shown untight- 

 ened, that the method of attaching them may be 

 more evident. The knots made in joining the 

 gut will, if it be short, be found at convenient 

 distances for looping on the hooks, but if long, 

 extra knots must be made, or split shot placed 

 on the line at necessary intervals. Both Smelts 

 and Sand- Smelts may be taken from a boat if 

 there is no convenient place to fish from shore, 

 either with the rod, or with lines fitted out after 

 the same form as Whiting-lines, for instance, like 

 the boat-shaped or Kentish Rig (figs. 3 and 7, 

 pp. 38, 42), the leads from two to four ounces 

 in weight, according to the strength of tide. 

 Although so small they afford good sport, as 

 they take a bait very fast, and it is not at all un- 

 common to basket from fifteen to twenty dozen 

 under favourable circumstances. The real Smelt 

 are said to thrive in fresh water as well, and in 

 the harbours of South America viz., at Buenos 

 Ay res, the Straits of Magellan, &c. are taken as much as 

 twenty inches in length. I am here to be understood as speak- 

 ing of the real Smelt, which on those coasts weighs sometimes 



FIG. 45. 

 Pater-Noster. 



