IIo SEA-FISH. 
and bream, few weighing less than three-quarters 
Baltic Of a pound, in a river running into the 
fish Baltic, and not a hundred yards above its 
juncture with that exceedingly brackish sea. To 
the Germans, with their coarse tackle and care- 
lessly fixed baits, this was a wonderful feat ; and 
I fear I entered no protest when they explained 
to me that I was a very skilful perch-fisher. Yet 
I knew well that in our own Thames at home 
I should not make such a bag in a weck, and that 
any of the thousand and one bank anglers who 
spend the seventh day in those parts would beat 
me left-handed. I merely quote this, though apart 
from the subject, to show the small merit of 
making a good bag in teeming waters fished only 
in the most unsophisticated fashion. 
On our own coasts, however, matters are very 
different; and although the tyro will sometimes 
catch the fish of the week the first time he wets 
a hook—for luck rules here as in most other pur- 
suits—it is the angler who shapes his actions, not 
so much perhaps by book instruction as by that 
common scnse which grasps the special require- 
ments of certain combinations of wind, weather, 
and tide, who will in the long run make the best 
bag. 
For pier-fishing, rods should always be used by 
Advan. those who are strong enough to manage 
tages of them, though very small boys will doubt- 
the rod Jess have to be content with hand. lines, if 
only on account of their low cost. But with rods, 
improbable as it may at first seem, just double the 
number of anglers can conduct their operations 
from a stage of limited accommodation, for the 
simple reason that the rod enables the angler to 
