112 SEA-FISH. 
keep parallel, and a foul be next to an impos- 
sibility. 
It is possible with the rod to use chopstick- 
tackle from the pier; with hand-lines, this form of 
gear should be used only from boats. The reason 
for this should be obvious: the object of the chop- 
stick is to hang just clear of the bottom, and not 
to lie on the ground like the leger. There is, how- 
ever, so much hidden ironwork beneath most of 
our larger piers, that this up-and-down fishing is, 
save for very small fry, exceedingly risky ; so that, 
without the rod to keep the line well clear of the 
piles, some form of throw-out tackle, either leger 
or paternoster, is wanted. Yet for the last fifteen 
summers, at least, I have seen boys and men alike 
throwing out chopstick-tackle, never stopping to 
think that it is not in the least adapted in such a 
position for that degree of sensitiveness which is 
essential if the angler is to fish artistically by touch, 
instead of merely leaving his line to fish for the 
pot, while he walks round the band-stand upstairs. 
I must now enumerate one or two of the chicf 
fish taken from our piers, with some methods par- 
ticularly applicable to the several piers most in 
vogue. 
This excellent fish is a true perch, and, conse- 
quently, of high rank; but so rare is the 
capture of bass of any size that a very few 
pages will suffice on the subject, though many 
amateurs spend most of their time in its generally 
fruitless pursuit. Fly-fishing, a very: artistic and 
very unprofitable method of approaching bass, is 
not, so far as I am aware, practicable from piers, 
the ironwork being in the way of a cast. Nor, 
save at Bognor and Littlehampton, have I ever 
Bass 
