SEA-FISHING IN SIMON'S BAY 197 



While waiting for our boat, we were told a grue- 

 some story of an old fisherman who had neg- 

 lected these precautions, was bitten in the hand 

 by the poisonous teeth of a snook, and " before 

 they could get him home to Kalk Bay he was 

 a corp ! " 



So much for snook in general. Now for the 

 snook that gave me one of my most exciting 

 experiences in forty years of fishing, in sea 

 water and in fresh. This time I had only one 

 companion, an Oxford undergraduate who had 

 come out on a short visit to South Africa, and 

 our boat was a very small one, a little twelve- 

 foot skiff belonging to the flagship of the Cape 

 squadron. The snook were good enough at 

 that time to come close inshore, so we could 

 keep well under the shelter of the breakwater, 

 and there was no need to venture out into the 

 nasty lop in the open bay. Before leaving 

 England I had provided myself with a sea rod 

 with a whole-cane butt and a greenheart top, 

 quite a short rod, as a long one would be un- 

 wieldy to handle in a boat. It was impossible 

 to get ashore to land a fish, as one does with 

 a salmon, and a snook plays like a salmon, 

 only very much more so. He turns mad directly 

 he is hooked and makes wild runs incessantly, 

 every bit of his great length wriggling and 



