SEA-FISHING IN SIMON'S BAY 195 



trawler has a tale to tell of a certain friend 

 in whose honour he provided a specially solid 

 " plum duff," after riding for hours on a long 

 glassy swell, and was promptly implored to 

 return at once to harbour. As that friend 

 was the writer of these notes, it may be assumed 

 that a calm day was selected to try for Cape 

 salmon by the Lighthouse. We dropped 

 anchor in deep water near a ridge of rocks, 

 fixing our position by cross-bearings known 

 only to the initiated, and in about an hour and 

 a quarter caught a heavier weight of fish than 

 I have ever seen " landed " in the time, about 

 400 Ib. The method sounds simple enough. 

 We used big hooks, with huge chunks of 

 mackerel as bait and no leads to weight our 

 lines, two of which were held by expert Malay 

 fishermen, who at first caught at least three 

 fish to our one. We soon found out the reason. 

 The weight of the great length of line we had 

 to use, and the pull of the tide, made it very 

 difficult to feel when a fish had taken the bait ; 

 you had to strike at what felt like only a touch. 

 Then, again, knowing that we were after twenty- 

 pounders, we treated them with respect and 

 14 played " them, thereby losing much skin from 

 our fingers, wasting much time, and sometimes 

 losing our fish. The long, nervous fingers of 



