FISHING AT OULTON BROAD 



2 3 



The youth was " butt spearing," and during the twenty 

 minutes he operated near the archway, he took no less than 

 thirteen good-sized fish as well as three small eels. 



BUTT SPEARING 



is a sport that is obtained on saltings and tidal estuaries, and 

 is very good fun whilst it lasts. Breydon Water and Lake 

 Lothian afford good facilities if the visitor 

 will trouble himself to find out the ways 

 and means. 



Butts are flat fish which also go by the 

 name of flounders and dabs. Flounder is 

 possibly the correct name, but in Broad- 

 land they are called butts. Almost all the 

 year round the sport is in vogue, varying, 

 of course, according to the time of tide, the 

 weather, and other circumstances. 



When the tide is ebbing and the flats 

 are bared, the overflow from the back- 

 waters finds access to the main channel 

 through countless runs which everywhere 

 dissect the ooze. It is in these runs the 

 butts are found, and the spearer works his 

 punt up them, covering all the likely banks 

 and well-known haunts in a similar manner 

 to that in which the eel spearer goes to 

 work. A butt spear is, however, dissimilar 

 in shape to, and considerably lighter in make than an eel 

 spear ; the prongs are wider apart, and each is capable of 

 securing a fish, instead of catching them wedged in between 

 two of the prongs, as eels are caught. 



Spearing from a boat is not the only way in which butts 

 are speared. In some places a landspring drain runs into the 

 saltings through sluice gates, which work automatically. 

 They open as the tide on the salting ebbs, and the force and 

 weight of the freshwater (accumulated in the drains beyond) 



HUTT SPEARS 



