FISHING FROM PIERS AND HARBOURS. 123 
that this was his first essay in the sea; and I was 
on the point of telling him that the result would 
probably be a smash with a small pollack, when 
away went the float, the rod-top bent under water, 
the line sheered wildly to right and left, there was 
a wicked gleam of silver,—and away went line, 
float, everything. That young man had lost his 
all, nor was he comforted by my thanks for his 
having taught me a new way to catch mackerel,— 
for of the identity of the lost one there could be no 
shadow of doubt—hitherto rarely hooked on that 
pier. 
Mackerel, then, were to be had within a few feet 
of the top at the end of the pier. I had caught 
several fine mackerel that very week in my boat ; 
but the prospect of catching them on a light rod 
and from the pier was a pleasant one, for not a 
little of the delightful play of a good rod is lost 
when one is so near the water as in a_ boat. 
The next thing was to set about improving on the 
Birmingham man’s gear, which was evidently not 
equal to the occasion ; and this I did by fitting up 
an old trout-rod with small check bronze winch, 
fine line, pike float, three yards of single gut, } oz. 
pipe-lead, and a 6 Limerick hook. 
It only remained to arrange the lead so that, while 
keeping the bait at a depth of from ten to fifteen 
feet, it would permit of reeling in line until the 
hook was in my hand, and as my rod was not more 
than nine or ten feet, it was obvious that the float 
must not be fixed. The principle of the Notting- 
ham “Slider” float is no new one, and the difficulty 
was got over in this case by binding half a pig’s 
bristle, of the kind used by cobblers, to the line, 
the requisite distance above the bait, in such 
