182 SEA-FISH. 
angler is, as I understand it, to make the biggest 
bag he can by fair means, and the rod is certainly 
but ill adapted to the conditions that usually obtain 
in bream-fishing. In conjunction with the hand- 
line, there is no better bottom tackle than the 
Cornish boat-shaped lead with cord loops, figured 
on p. 84. The proper manipulation of this lead 
and line has already been given; it remains to 
add that the hook, of the size figured (p. 55) may 
be a fathom below the lead. Bream may be 
hauled direct into the boat, or guided to a landing- 
net ; being very spinous fish, not unlike perch, they 
should not be handled carelessly. 
The cod, caught in some numbers on Deal and 
other piers, does not come in shore until 
the fall of the year, the earliest fish 
I ever took of any size being off Hastings, or 
rather midway between that port and the newer 
Bexhill, on the last day but one in September. 
That is, however, in the ordinary course, quite three 
weeks too soon, and the third week in October 
right on to the end of the year will be found the 
best time. There is not much to be said in the 
way of special instructions for this cod-fishing, for, 
truth to tell, it is all a matter of the fish passing 
your boat ; and I have more than once seen a new 
recruit catch the finest cod of the week on his first 
outing, scarcely knowing what bait was on his 
hook. This does not, however, detract much from 
the undoubted enjoyment of a day off Deal on 
a fine crisp November morning, when fish of twelve 
or fifteen pounds are taking the sprat or lugworm 
freely. Ona stiff rod, such fish give good, though 
brief, sport, and they may for a few moments tax 
the angler’s cunning to bring them to gaff. The 
Cod 
