THE ROD IN SALT WATER 403 



lunch ought to be, nor is there any comfort in sitting 

 on a heap of loose hooks. The bait-knife should be 

 kept in one spot when not in use, and so placed that 

 the fisherman, reaching out for it, encounters the handle, 

 not the open blade. All ropes and sails should be piled 

 neatly out of the way when fishing at anchor, as, if the 

 sportsman should trip over a footboard or bit of ballast 

 just as he is playing a good lythe, there is no telling 

 what he might say or do next. The boat should be 

 kept as dry as possible, as it is no pleasure to sit in a 

 puddle, or to fall over slippery boards. The fish, large 

 and small alike, should be kept in a basket if the boat 

 is unprovided with a well for the purpose. Dead fish 

 floating about the bottom of a boat between one's boots 

 are simply disgusting, and enough to make a man sea- 

 sick on the spot. Each fish should be knocked on the 

 head when removed from the hook. I am not one of 

 those who telegraph to the editor of the Times when- 

 ever they suspect an eel in a fishmonger's shop of suffer- 

 ing from a headache, but needless cruelty is always 

 reprehensible. Incidentally, too, this improves the fish 

 for the table, as, if allowed to die slowly, they are apt 

 to injure and bruise themselves. 



Sport at Various Resorts. Local knowledge is of 

 first importance in all fishing. This is illustrated time 

 and again by the small village urchins who catch more 

 trout with a withy and bent pin than the visitor armed 

 with all the latest temptations from the tackle shop. 

 So, too, in the sea ; you may be using the right tackle 



