i8o THE CONGER. 



If you are just clear of the rocks your leads should rest on 

 the ground, but if not you must haul up sufficient to keep the 

 hooks clear. Large quantities of Congers are also taken with 

 bulters or long lines, fitted with two or three hundred hooks. 

 One-third of an inch is a good thickness for the back line of a 

 Conger-trot, and a very stout brass or copper swivel should be 

 spliced into it at every twenty fathoms, which will be found 

 very convenient for taking out kinks. It should be well 

 wetted, stretched, and dried before use. (See ' Trot ' and 

 * Trot-Basket and Hook-Holder,' p. 143.) The snoods should 

 be three feet long and nine feet apart : a swivel on each is 

 a great improvement. 



Whilst fishing for Conger or other large fish you should 

 always be provided with a strong gaff-hook, as large as a 

 butcher's meat-hook, firmly secured to a handle two and a half 

 feet in length, wherewith to lift on board large fish which 

 might else endanger the tackle. At the top of the handle a 

 knob should be left, and the wood be made smooth, that you 

 may be enabled to allow the gaff to turn in your hand, for a 

 large Conger can screw himself round with such violence that, 

 if held rigidly, the dislocation of elbow or shoulder is by no 

 means beyond the range of possibility. 



The Conger, in common with the Freshwater Eel, is 

 nocturnal in its habits, and rarely feeds freely in water of less 

 than twenty fathoms' depth during the day ; at night, however, 

 they roam far and wide, approaching the shore quite closely, 

 especially on the flowing tide in summer and autumn, and may 

 be caught with a throw-out or leger-line (fig. 43, p. 140.) 



A nutritious soup is made from Conger, thickened with 

 oatmeal and flavoured according to taste, but the flesh is not in 

 much repute, except amongst the poorer classes. A ten-inch 

 cut, however, out of the thickest part of a Conger of lolbs. and 

 upwards, filled with veal stuffing, sewn up, and baked with a 

 bit of fat bacon on the top, will be found a really good dish. 



In unhooking Congers, push the disgorger down on to the 

 bend of the hook, take a turn of the snood round the stick, and 

 twist out the hook. 



