BOAT-FISHING., 181 
all vitality by the time the fishing-ground was 
reached, and he got no sport whatever. For fishing 
such a harbour-mouth from shore, Mr. Wilcocks 
recommends a rod and gut leger, or float-tackle, 
baited with soft crab. 
Bream-fishing, when the fish run large and 
numerous, is about the most exciting sport, gea- 
while it lasts, that the British seas can offer. bream 
We have no bream, it is true, to equal the glorious 
red schnappcr of Australian waters, nor is our black 
bream sought on such delicate tackle as in the 
colonies ; but there are scores of reefs on the south 
and south-west coasts, where you may with luck 
catch a hundredweight of the common red _ sea- 
bream in an afternoon’s fishing, few of the fish 
under a pound and a half in weight, and some of 
twice the size. They are not particular, these 
bream ; and once the boat is brought right over 
their particular patch of rocks, usually a couple of 
miles at least from the shore, a strip of fresh 
mackerel or herring, put on the hook without any 
particular regard for covering the point, will catch 
them. Nor, where the fish are biting greedily 
(usually towards sunset), is there any precise mode 
of striking, as they hook themselves. The best 
tackle for them is the hand-line, the time taken 
in hauling a large bream on the rod through 
perhaps twenty fathoms (120 feet) of water, being 
a serious loss. I hope that my verdict for the 
hand-line may not be misconstrued into a plea 
for pot-hunting. Were our bream large enough 
to give really good play, I would unhesitatingly 
advocate the rod, even at the sacrifice of 
two-thirds of the numbers caught ; but in the 
pursuit of shoal fish in deep water, the aim of the 
