FISHING FROM PIERS AND HARBOURS. 135 
being first used as a hand-line. On hooking the 
fish, however, Mr. Kirby found the only plan was 
to get it to the net as quickly as possible. The 
best time for this fishing was at slack tide. Ground- 
bait, if it can be so called, is essential in mullet- 
fishing in still waters, and I borrowed from the 
Italians a very ingenious method of presenting it 
to the mullet of the private shipyard canal in which 
I had special leave to fish. The bait was in this case 
soft Parmesan cheese, and a lump was sent out on the 
water on a cork just before I put my rod together, 
the fragments that crumbled from the cork and 
fell into the water proving wonderfully attractive. 
As I have already said, conger-fishing is essen- 
tially a night sport carried on from boats, 
and some remarks on the subject are offered 
in the next chapter. The smaller congers only 
feed by day, fish rarely exceeding a weight of ten 
pounds, though I once heard of one caught off 
Bournemouth of over sixteen about three in the 
afternoon. Although, however, that is by no means 
heavy for a conger, a fish of even that weight is not 
as a rule hooked until the sun has sunk in the west 
and the lights are creeping out one by one on the 
hillside. Those who desire to catch a small conger 
or two without the trouble of spending half the 
night in an open boat, can gratify their tastes almost 
any day in August from any pier, like those at 
Eastbourne and Hastings, in the neighbourhood of 
rocks, the best bait being a strip of squid, obtain- 
able as a rule from the local trawlers, or half a fresh 
herring. The hook for these day conger need not 
be very large, the size used for bass serving the 
purpose admirably, though in night-fishing for the 
heavy eels a very substantial hook is generally 
Conger 
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