BOAT-FISHING. 155 
more often wins the day than not. Provided you 
are able to keep the fish from the ground, you can 
play him, cat-and-mouse fashion, to your fancy ; 
but, if he once get his head down and tail up, the 
odds are against the fisherman. With a 
bass it is different, and for this reason, if 
not indeed for his more salmon-like appearance, 
the great sea-perch will better please the recruit 
from inland waters. He may be played like any 
sporting fish; run after run he will give if in the 
humour; at other times, be it admitted, he will 
come to the gaff like any porbeagle. In railing 
with a hand-line, the heavy fish should he hauled 
gently over the gunwale, inch by inch, the hands 
kept zzszde the boat, as described in the remarks 
on hand-lining above. It is also customary to 
impart to the line, or lines (the fisherman in the 
stern sheets uses one in either hand), a swinging 
motion, backwards and forwards, by drawing the 
hand towards the body and alternately extending 
it the full length of the arm. Some anglers prac- 
tise a like movement with the rod, alternately 
lowering and raising the tip to prevent the often 
uneven rowing jerking the bait and rousing the 
suspicion of the fish; but I have found that the 
springiness of the rod docs all that is necessary. 
Some men go out railing alone, but the practice is 
not one to be recommended, as the solitary angler 
necessarily pricks about three fish for every one 
caught ; and the effect on the neighbourhood may, 
even in sea-fishing, be demoralising. On a 
stream, it might mean the ruin of the fishing. 
For those, however, who from choice or necessity 
go out railing alone, I would counsel the hand- 
line in preference to the rod, as it is more easily 
