FISHING FROM PIERS AND HARBOURS. 113 
seen bass taken from a pier by spinning, though, at 
the two places named, the ebbing tide runs so 
swiftly to the westward that sport may occasionally 
be had by allowing it to carry a spoon or Devon 
minnow for fifty or eighty yards, then reeling slowly 
in, the tide imparting a brilliant spin, and so on 
da capo, until a fish is struck, which is usually 
managed in the course of a fortnight. The best 
plan at Bognor is to coax it up to the sand, 
A : Bognor 
this being, at any rate when I was last 
there, one of the only piers on which, in the 
absence of projecting alcoves or lamps, such a 
course would be possible. At Littlchamp- Littte- 
ton, where the only available position for hampton 
such fishing is at the end of the high, narrow 
west pier, or on the Beacon opposite, the walk to 
shore, though possible in the former place, would 
be a long one indeed; and the only thing is to 
chance it, and haul the bass, when thoroughly tired 
of life, to the longest landing-net handy. Perhaps, 
on the whole, it is as well that catches of this de- 
scription are very few and far between. Further up 
the opposite side of the swift Arun, however, close 
to the railway quay, I have seen some brave bass 
taken, and have even made some fair baskets myself; 
and a fish of good weight is occasionally taken at 
spring floods as far up as Arundel, the bait being a 
live roach. The only bass I saw caught on the 
west pier this year were about 3 ozs. in weight, 
and of these pigmies an angler caught over a 
score one afternoon. But this brings me to the 
subject of fishing for bass with natural baits, the 
most usual, and, save perhaps in certain remoter 
and less fished waters, the most likely to meet 
with success. The methods in vogue are three in 
pe 
